Monday, January 24, 2005

You Say Potato, I Say Potosin

Just talked to TFR on the phone, and her doctor has decided to induce on Friday. Just to keep everyone up to date.

Little Cat Feet

As a teenager living in the foothills of the Coast Range, only one type of weather struck me as characteristic of Southern Oregon as rain, and that was fog. We don't get it as much here in Eugene/Springfield, but when we do, I love it. This morning, I awoke to discover we had fog. Not the wispy mist that lifts up off the ground in some places, but a true fog, the kind where you can't see past your own back yard. It was just what I needed after this weekend's trials.

Fog has always reminded me of a security blanket, or a privacy curtain, just like rain, but it fills that role more quietly, more unobtrusively than rain. I used to love to go walking in the fog, listening to the stillness, feeling wrapped up in its cloudy folds, separated from whatever might be happening just beyond visibility, shielded from prying eyes. Fog embodied solitude. Not loneliness, solitude. All of those good memories of fog came back this morning. It was like a gentle shoulder hug from God.

Gotta Love Texas

Brian is attending to the pending arrival of his Mutant Love Child (AKA Baby B) and has asked me to comment from time to time.

You have to love Texas. I know things irks those people who were not fortunate enough to be born here, but I have some proof to offer that this is a place you simply have to love.

First off, I was driving in to work this morning and I passed a local hardware store. On their letter board out front they have the usual specials but also listed was the following:

“Valentines Day Special: Dear Rifles $189”

Where else can you say I love you with a thirty ought six and not get arrested?


The second piece of evidence I offer is this story:

Off-Duty Officer Hits Horse Walking On Freeway
Accident Traps Officer In Car, Instantly Kills Horse

POSTED: 7:29 am CST January 24, 2005
UPDATED: 7:47 am CST January 24, 2005
HOUSTON -- Doctors are trying to save the life of a Houston police officer, who hit a horse while driving on the North Freeway Monday morning, Local 2 reported.

Investigators said the officer, who was on his way home from work at about 3:30 a.m., struck the horse as it was walked in the northbound lanes of the freeway near Little York Road.

The impact crushed the car's roof and trapped the officer inside.

Emergency crews transported the officer to Ben Taub Hospital in critical condition.

As officials cleared the scene, the northbound lanes of the North Freeway between Little York Road and Canino Road were shut down. All lanes had reopened by 5 a.m.

Officials said the horse was killed upon impact. They are not sure where the horse came from or why it was walking on the freeway.”

I’m deeply sorry the officer was hurt, please offer a prayer of support for him and his family. I’m sad the horse died. It is a sad occasion and a tragedy.

This does beg for the following comment

“A horse is a horse, of course, of course,
And no one can talk to a horse of course
That is, of course, unless the horse is the famous Mr. Ed.

Go right to the source and ask the horse
He'll give you the answer that you'll endorse.
He's always on a steady course.
But you can’t talk to the other horse, of course
be cause now he’s known as Mr. Dead.”