After the Storm

Saturday turned out to be a calm day after the craziness of the stormy days and nights before. The air was clear, and the yard again was full of fallen leaves. The neighbor came over and started raking them, but it got wet and they got heavy, and the dark came quickly. The keeper was out most of the day, though, and we were in. She showed us this photo she took on her way downtown in the late afternoon. She said the clouds were prettier than that and she stopped her car at the top of the hill to catch the scene. The neighbor who is the best neighbor anyone could ask for came back on Sunday and ended up raking up and bagging all the leaves. That's why she buys them 1/2 cases of good wine.

The Sky is Falling!

"A strange day this has been, indeed," said Alice as the thunder and lightening and hail and rain and wind whipped and pelted the house. Alice sat on on top of the dining room table while I hid on the chair seat underneath. Alice sat on top of the bed while I hid underneath with the dustballs and furballs and toy mice we have chased into the corner there. It is very painful on the ears and sensitive feline nerves to have to put up with these storms. Thank God the keeper had gotten home, we had all been outside for a wee bit, and she didn't seem too alarmed. She went out and shot some photos. So, I guess it will all turn out okay. I am sure we will still have our dinner and catnip. Outside is covered with a white blanket of hail. The keeper just got photos of the beach...wild waves throwing things all over and silly people standing on the jetty as the waves rushed high over them.

The keeper commented that the thunder and lightning often seem to erupt after big funerals or deaths, and she was thinking about how many times this happened for people she knew--her mother, her father, many friends from the parishes. She has often said, "God weeps with us on these days."

And now, so many gunned down at Fort Hood, and a slain policeman in Seattle whose funeral shut down part of the city today. And all of those in Afghanistan and Iraq and in Sub-Saharan Africa who die for lack of a little medicine or some food. God weeps for our inability to get along, to share, to make peace.

Stormy Day

Today it started to rain. And rain. And rain. Now it is thundering and lightning. The keeper is telling us that she has to turn off the computer. So, we will sleep, and it can too.

Moonclimbing

The moon was full last night. In fact it was so beautiful, the keeper sat outside to watch it climb the dark sky over the tall trees. Then we all watched a wonderful biopic, Miss Potter, about Beatrix Potter, her art, her life as a writer of the Peter Rabbit tales. We all loved it. It was enchanting. Now, the keeper wants to buy a farm in the Lake Country of England, and write animal stories. We would help.

Sunny, Lovely Tuesday

The keeper forgot to post the photos from our beautiful Tuesday. She put other ones out, but we wanted her to show you all the beautiful spider we were not able to reach in the tree. The wind started blowing, and the next time we looked for it, the web was all torn and the spider, gone.The keeper also found some unblemished apples on the tree and made them part of a fruit salad.

The leaves that weren't getting raked up were resplendent on the trees backed up against the blue blue skies that were a little icier than summer skies. But the birds were out and the squirrels still hiding things, and so were we. The garden angel was getting a little chilly and covered up a bit.

The Hunger of Day Laborers

November 3rd. The moon is full, the sun was out and we spent the day outside. The keeper let us play and rest in the sun. She spent a little time out at Costco buying wine to thank the neighbors for the incredibly generous sharing of tools and then for all the times she came home and found her lawn mowed and leaves raked.



While she was getting out of her car at Costco she decided to walk across the driveway to reach out to the guys looking for day jobs in the parking lot. A lot of people call them an eyesore, but she wanted to interact with them as human beings. So often she is so busy she doesn't take time, but she found them so open and grateful to be seen and listened to. As she spoke to them, she found out the different Mexican states they came from, how often they are hired--1 to 2 days each week, what skills they have, and the fact that many attend church in White Center, and that they live out there. A long hall from the Edmonds Home Depot! When she brought them some food, they ate so ravenously she wished she had brought more. She knows that a little food isn't much, but to help someone feel like a human being and not an object of scorn, may help. She says she was inspired by a young woman who is poor herself but who told her this weekend that she and two others make peanut butter sandwiches and coffee and take them to another Home Depot.



When she got home, we got out and then she raked the whole yard and composted the side garden. Tonight she is using hot pads on her back!

Bless all those who want to work, and wait for someone to notice them!

All Souls Day--"Now the Dead Move Through Us Still Glowing"

Today is All Souls Day. The keeper placed the photos of our loved ones who have gone ahead of us, including those of a few pets on the altar in the dining room, and then filled the pockets of the curtain in the bedroom with many more. Every year we have more people cheering us on from the other side of life..this year it is our Aunt Wyn and friends Patty and Daisy and Fred and Rolly and Rolland and Millie and Anna and Zelda and more. Today, the keeper found a lovely poem by May Sarton, All Souls, and in it she writes, " Now, the dead move through all of us still glowing, . . . .what has been plaited cannot be unplaited --/only the strands grow richer with each loss/And memory makes kings and queens of us."

Also today the keeper spent the morning with the dentist, and he told her all about his cat who died 18 mos ago and he is still grieving the cat, he got so involved telling the story and she got so involved listening that he put her crown in strangely. He had to redo it. It's nice to know other pet lovers.

On Halloween we had a terrible drive by shooting of a policeman who was parked in his patrol car. We all think it is horrible and it has really shaken up the police. Then today the keeper went to a meeting at St. Joe's and she ran into a policeman. She asked him how he was doing and he tearfully said that he and others were getting by but that they have been overwhelmed by the outreach and kind words of ordinary Seattle people.