So far, so good

Monday morning update: 7.7" total ... and the rain has stopped for now. While that may sound like a fair bit, it fell so slowly and steadily that the ground was able to soak it all up. We even saw a bit of blue sky and the sun setting in the west last night ...

Sadly, the storm continues to pound our neighbors to the east with no end in sight. There will be much work to do.

Sunday morning update: 4.65" of rain yesterday, 1.8" overnight. No wind damage. We'll continue to keep our fingers crossed.

Saturday 
Hurricane Harvey has been kind to our corner of the Hill Country so far: a couple of inches of rain and some natural tree pruning courtesy of 20-30 mph winds ...

Wentzville 2017 - Eclipse

We head outside 

called by the changing light 
to seek a gauzy crescent funneling 
through a pin-pierced hole 

This is not the golden glow of dawn 
nor the rosy tinge of sunset 
not even the green fug betiding storm 

Rather it is a silvery light 
that throws grudging shadows 
but gives no warmth 

The silence is total 
street lights flickering to life 

A lone birdcall cuts through 
swallows darting in a twilit sky 

Quickening darkness 
overtakes long minutes of wondering 

Shadows finger out of western clouds 
as eastern cumuli glow a defiant white 

Cricketsong rises up 
to greet a single star shining in the gloam 

Something beyond twilight falls 
undeniably 
stirring deep-plumbed tears 

Until seconds become fleet 
and breath releases in a sigh 
with the return of the light 

as if 'twere a dream

Photo credit: Melissa Walker

#Charlottesville

If it wasn't personal before, it's personal now.

My first trip to Virginia took place in the fall of my junior year in high school. Visiting two campuses as part of a college-shopping tour, I ultimately chose William and Mary in Williamsburg. But it was a close call and I could have just as easily ended up at UVA in Charlottesville.

The 35 years I spent in Williamsburg, getting my degree, meeting and then marrying Don, forging a library career and raising two daughters, included many trips to Charlottesville. I well remember listening to Bonnie Raitt singing in the UVA arena, visiting Monticello with 3 year old Meg and tiny infant Melissa, eating "grillswith" (griddled Krispy Kreme donuts topped with ice cream) at the corner cafe and bagels from Bodo's. When we drove Meg home with two broken arms after her car accident at Smith Mountain Lake, we stopped in Charlottesville to pick up sandwiches. Wanting to celebrate our 25th wedding anniversary in style, we went to the Boar's Head Inn. We cheered from the sidelines as our local high school football team won the state championship in Charlottesville.

You get the idea.

So this past weekend hit home, or close to it. Raised a radical liberal New Yorker, I went off to college and learned fast that many (not all) Virginians referred to the "War between the States" or "the recent unpleasantness" rather than the Civil War. The Commonwealth celebrated the birth of Jefferson Davis, but there was no observance of Lincoln's birthday. And when a professor waxed eloquent about the virtues of sorghum over maple syrup, I muttered under my breath "but we won the war," and then took a long drag on my cigarette and blew smoke. Tobacco. How ironic.

Virginia changed a lot 0ver the 35 years from 1974 to 2009, when we finally pulled up stakes and headed for Texas (I know, I know). It had moved from red to purple and was leaning blue. There was hope.

And the decision to remove the statue of Robert E. Lee in Charlottesville was yet another step in the correct direction (I won't say "right"). Though it ended in tragedy, I dare to hope it galvanizes other localities to see the insanity of memorializing hatred and slavery.

So today I stitched, taking words written by Marti in New Mexico, in response to the Peace Pin Project that began last February ...

"Hope is standing up not standing aside ...
to connect in a way that helps to make us all one ...

There will be other peace patches for a cloth I'm thinking will be named It's all connected. Eventually, I hope to have enough to make a two-sided peace shawl, stitched together Pojagi-style.

And there will be more posts after Don and I finish up our month-long joyride taking care of Parker (who enters daycare next week) and return from our birthday season visit to Jackson and Jace in St Louis ...

Getting ready to roll ...

Because life goes on and I have much more to say.