Teig Saying "Goodbye"

"It's an owl!" said my friend, the driver.

"It's a hawk!" I said, unable to see its head.

While driving to Cabot last night, we encountered a bird in the middle of Danville Hill Road. My friend had only just warned me that he simply could not stand the thought of killing a living creature with his car, that he even swerves for insects.

Stopping immediately, headlights on, I was expecting whatever it was to move off quickly when we pulled up. But it sat there. Finally, it turned its big head as if looking straight into my eyes.

"It's an owl," I agreed.

Neither of us had ever seen one before, at least not in the middle of a dirt road. Up high up in a tree, maybe, but not on the ground.

"It's caught something," I said.

As we pulled the car around the bird, it finally lifted off, relaxing its grip as it did. A single poplar tree leaf fluttered to the dirt.

There began a discussion in the car of what an impressive moment that had been, one that others assign great meaning to — since the time of the Greeks and Romans.

The owl was carrying a message.

Could it be my friend Teig Hogan saying "goodbye"? They'd just gathered down in Virginia for an informal memorial the day before. I'd sent best regards along with a link to some images of him, hoping to participate remotely.

I knew he didn't have long, but I'd missed that last call — phone upstairs when I was downstairs kind of a thing. Of course, I wish I'd called him back.

Goodbye, Teig. We'll play more trivia when I get there.

October 8, 2018

Words Fail

Double rainbow Lyndonville, Vermont

Helping Houston from Where You Are

Hurricane Harvey could continue unleashing the force of Mother Nature across southeastern Texas for several more days, putting hundreds of thousands in emergency shelters and stranding many others.

Here's a few ways you can help from where you are:

1. American Red Cross: call 1-800-RED CROSS or text HARVEY to 90999 to make a $10 donation.
2. CatholicCharitiesUSA: text CCUSADISASTER to 71777 to donate.
3. Hurricane Harvey Response: a combination of Send Relief and Southern Baptist Disaster Relief.

Or you could call down to your Uncle Harry in Texarkana and send him some gas money for his boat.

SEE: "Here's how you can help victims of Hurricane Harvey" CBS NEWS; August 28, 2017.

Rainbow Points the Way

Time to buy a Kindle

The 7" Kindle Fire tablet was selling for $49 when I was trying to pick a tablet/phone combo to help me usher in the 21st century of technology.

No matter which salesman I spoke with--at Best Buy, at Radio Shack, etc.--when I started talking about low-end tablets they always steered me toward the Fire. Better maker, better supported.

Then the price fell to $39.

Staples was one of the places that had it at this super-low, gotta-give-it-a-try price, but I kept delaying the purchase till I could get my head right on it. I'd get home, then take another look in coming days. But, then I stopped for gas on my way home and the rainbow pointed the way.

It wasn't just over Staples Plaza, it was actually pointing to the part of the shopping center where Staples was located--pointing right at its entrance.

That's how I came to purchase a Kindle Fire 7" tablet for $39*--and now my life is completely transformed.

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*note the excellent customer reviews.

Amazing Rainbow

Right at the point of deciding which "L" town in New Hampshire I should head to—Littleton for its Walmart or Lancaster for its gathering of fellows—appears this most amazing rainbow.

Wider at its base than any rainbow I'd seen, it also had a more vivid band of colors (not to mention its companion to the right). People were stopping to snap pictures of it. I was trying to, but my camera wasn't cooperating. It kept popping up, presenting itself to me so picturesquely, I knew I must get her done.

I thought maybe it was over Littleton, then Lancaster—but it wasn't clear. As I continued east along the Vermont side of Rte 2, I could see it hovered over Lancaster—as if it was calling me there.

I followed it, my intention being to discover its actual location. It took me high above Lancaster—a town I'd always liked/loved/felt an affinity for—to a set of building lots in a beautiful setting. All the while I was thinking:

"Am I supposed to live here?"

This happened immediately after discovering that a musician friend (who'd been a big part of my Big Coincidences for so long) might have the first name "Michael"* (around which name so many coincidences** have occurred in my life).

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*besides meaning "who is like God" in Hebrew—and perhaps because it happens to be my first name—sometimes it pops up several times in a setting/incident, begging me to take notice.
**Whereas the C-ville musician around whom by far my most intense concentration of amazing coincidences clusters has "Michael" as a middle name, and his father's name is "Michael", this C-ville musician's father's name is "Michael" while he himself goes by his middle name—leaving the "M." in the first name place as the only clue to being "most like God".

Ice Is . .

"Guns Behind Me"

“We had to have men with guns behind me one night because I was the only source of light downtown, was the lights that were illuminating the broadcast. We were told not to drink our bottled water in front of people because we could get killed for it.”

Brian Williams

'I Could Change My Name to Titanium'

I could change my name to Titanium
It seems a nice enough metal
To bad it rhymes with geranium
With its radially-symmetrical petal.
February 23, 2014

Where Are the Hurricanes?

We should have seen our first hurricane of the season by now, but none has appeared. If we don't get one by the morning of September 15, 2013 this would be the most hurricane-free first half of a season since satellites began tracking them in 1967:*

• Accumulated Cyclone Energy (ACE) through September 5, 2013 has reached only 25 percent of the 1981-2010 average.**
• During the satellite era, only five seasons had comparably low ACE numbers.
• The energy expended by tropical cyclones fell off during those years either because the ocean temperatures in the main region where the storms first develop was colder than normal, or
• Because the seasons fell into El Niño years.***

El Niño is nowhere to be found this year and sea-surface temperatures in the main development region for Atlantic tropical cyclones have been running above normal.

SOURCE: The Christian Science Monitor

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*Dennis Feltgen, National Hurricane Center.
**National Hurricane Center.
***Jeff Masters, Weather Underground.

'A Scary Feature'

There's been a scary feature
. . In Lake Memphremagog
A really scary creature
. . That keeps us all agog.
July 22, 2010