“We’re eyeball to eyeball, and I think the other fellow just blinked.”
The morning is a delight. The humidity is gone, and the breeze, if you’re sitting in the shade, is a bit chilly. I lingered on the deck a long while this morning, and it was a spawn of Satan who had my full attention. He was building a nest. I watched him chew off small oak branches and jump from limb to limb. All the while he was trying to keep the oak branch steady in his mouth until he reached a topmost cluster of two pine branches where he disappeared. I got my telephoto lens and was able to watch him hustle about arranging the leaves. He did this several times and I never tired of watching him. I actually looked up squirrels to find out it is the male who constructs and the female who feeds. Come to find out squirrels are polygamists, and males will take care of several females.
Tonight will be in the low 60’s. It’s movie night because of the rain yesterday. I’m thinking a sweatshirt and my chiminea lit to ward off the chill. Nothing sweetens the air like the smell of pinon wood burning.
Despite duck and cover, I was never afraid as a little kid. The idea of a devastating bomb didn’t make a big impression. It was even fun to have those drills. We used to look at each other from under our desks and try to smile and wave without getting caught. It was the Cuban missile crisis which scared me. By then I was old enough to understand. I remember watching President Kennedy on a flickering black and white TV screen as he explained the quarantine, the naval blockade, and the ultimatums he was giving Russia. We all held our breaths for those thirteen days knowing that a nuclear war was a possibility. Nobody practiced duck and cover. We knew better.
When I went to Russia in the 1970’s, one of the places we visited was the graveyard where Nikita Khrushchev was buried. It was part of the tour, and in those days you couldn’t travel in Russia unless you were on a tour. In that graveyard, each of the tombstones had a picture of the deceased attached. Nikita’s picture was black and white, and he was wearing a suit. He had a huge grin.
Explore posts in the same categories: Musings Both comments and pings are currently closed.
keepthecoffeecoming.blog 
July 26, 2010 at 11:57 am
Nice day over here, but I don´t care the least today. My computer got a nervous breakdown and gave up totally. It finally works again after hours of phone calls and reformatting the hard disk.
Have a great day now!
Tomorrow there will be photo´s from Lidköping.
July 26, 2010 at 10:20 pm
Christer,
Beautiful day here and a cool night. We finally did our movie, and it was another fun night.
I’m looking forward to the photos. I’ve added a few and more to come tomorrow.
July 26, 2010 at 4:19 pm
I remember the duck and cover drill. It made no sense to me then, either. One of the instructions was to cover our eyes and not look at the light. I just knew I would be like Lot’s Wife and look just to see what was happening. I also remember the Cuban missile crisis. I was in junior high school. Old enough to be aware of it but too young to think it had anything to do with my life. 🙂
July 26, 2010 at 10:21 pm
Caryn,
I felt the fear from all the adults who thought it a prelude to war. We were glued to the TV, and I read the paper every day. It was scary.
July 26, 2010 at 7:02 pm
My only memory of good old Nikita was him banging his shoe on the table as a protest in the U.N. I thought he was batshit crazy. But the bay of pigs was another thing altogether. That one started everyone shaking in their shoes. Mine too!
July 26, 2010 at 10:22 pm
Z&Me,
I remember the banging of the shoe and how he was denied permission to go to Disneyland. Weird the memories we keep.