For the Love of Kitties & Snakes...Another Excerpt From Our Pages of Marital Bliss

Alright! Alright! YES, I have been absent.  I've been busy with a dampened (read flooded when it's 2 a.m. and I'm standing there with a wet sock looking puzzled) basement, a family reunion with my crazy-ass family, the Utah Scottish Festival, grant reporting for grants written by insane people, and a brain buzzing chock full of thoughts on the world and humanity (and where do I even start with that??) and a yard that looked like the garden of weeden after two months of mostly rain.

So here I am.  I'm back.

I found that while I retained my sense of humor during these past few months that my writing was plagued with opinions and questions and ponderings on why the world is the way it is, and why people do the things they do.  I still have no answers, and so while I'm still kicking all of that around, I'm trying to be a little more lighthearted with my writing...well...at least for part of the time...no bets, no promises, I am still me after all. ;)

So here is a fairly accurate, though probably slightly embellished, tale of a recent discussion that occured in my home.  My dearly beloved and I have been fussing back and forth for years over having a cat, or in my opinion two cats.  Is that really so much to ask??  I think not.  They eat all the little spiders and critters that you see, or don't...not that there are many, but I am a spider hater and I have a super Spidey sense that is rivaled by no one that I know.  If it's in the room, I can feel it.  And, since I live on the relative edge of a bunch of fields, and we get the occasional mouse in our garage, I figured they could take care of that too.  It's a brilliant plan if I do say so myself. 

Spouse...not so excited about it.  But get this...this is the new thing.  In sitting around talking to some of his man-friends on the Fourth of July in the park, they got talking about yards and snakes.

And so our conversation ensued yesterday:

T: Here kitty, kitty, kitty.  (Because I periodically bring up getting a little polydactyl orange cat...yes...I am that specific.)
J: No Kitty.
T: Aww, come on.  They will eat the little spiders and anything else that the spiders eat.
J: What is a kitty going to do when I release all of the Garter Snakes in the back yard?
T: WHAT??  What snakes?
J: The garter snakes I'm going to **release** into the yard. (View: grown man sitting in his easy chair, flinging his arms forward like "Go little snakes! Be freeeeeee!") They can eat the mice. (This is stated so matter of fact, one would almost think we had already talked about it.)
T: We do not "have" mice.  We've had a couple of mice on separate occasions in the garage during the winter.  We are not **releasing** (now my arms are flinging carelessly forward ) snakes into the yard.
J: Sure we are. (with a smirk)
T: Oh?? "Sure we are." Well if you "sure we are" on **SNAKES** you can bet your sweeeeeeet ass, that we will have an orange kitty in no time flat, my friend. (with my own smirk)

The conversation ended there, pretty much because the doorbell rang and we had guests. 

This continues an unresolved conversation...for the love of snakes and kitties.  I mean seriously--what is this man who has known me for 20 years thinking?  I loathe the spider so he ratches it up with snakes?? Really.

We will see what we will see.  I'm still betting on kitty.

Enjoy the video...it's one of my favorite little weirdo songs I've come across in the past few years...and it fits the conversation. ;)

The Rending of Joplin, Missouri

Today I watched/listened to a video that was taken just prior to and during the tornado that hit Joplin, Missouri yesterday, and I was immensely moved by it.

The video is dark, the lights are out, power is gone and there are people talking in a restaurant.  From the count one woman makes there are 18 souls or so.  They are bustling around trying to get organized with what to do and where to go.  A child cries, a mother shushes and tries to calm.  A woman weeps and apologizes for her fear.

There are brief flashes of lights and someone is pounding on the door to come in and someone rushes to let them in.  Everyone appears to be in the same area.  There is some question as to whether the tornado sirens went off or not and it is confirmed that indeed they did.

Suddenly there is a screaming roar, screeching, breaking, crashing and ripping--people start praying and calling out--some to God and some to calm others.  If possible the sound intensifies and it worsens.

There is crying and screaming but the noise of the destruction and the storm is so great that it overwhelms the sounds of humanity.  It waxes and wanes and you hear "Jesus! Jesus! Jesus!" and "Heavenly Father! Preserve us!" and "Mommy!! Mommy!!" and you do not know how these people are not silenced as they are swept away in their tears and fear into the sky to be relocated into the hereafter.

But they remain and amidst the cacophony and confusion you hear "Excuse me Ma'am" and "I'm so sorry!" and "Pardon Me." and then "It's o.k. It's almost over!" and the weeping and the fear and the panic and "I love you!" "I love everyone!" "Oh Jesus!" and not one drop of rudeness or anger--volumes of palpable fear and volumes of politeness, comfort and compassion.

It was--is--one of the most intense things I have ever heard in my life. Without knowing it at first, tears fell down my face in emotion and compassion and fear for these people who I do not know, but who spin this planet with me, who were standing at death's door, begging the hand to be stayed, in the middle of a 200 mph rage that ripped and tore apart the world around them...and who survived to walk the earth another day.