Eric  Ramsey

Last evening I watched a Cooper's hawk being chased by a pair of hummingbirds. Yep, a big raptor with a twenty inch wingspan was being bullied by two bird-imps that could both sit comfortably in a teacup. It was an interesting sight. I laughed out loud.

Cooper's hawks are known for preying on other birds - pigeons, doves, quail etc., being skilled enough to take them in mid-air. Hummingbirds are well known for their irascibility, lack of patience and general truculent nature. The altercation was probably…

Not the divine kind of miracle, of course. A miracle of awareness. Doctors have told us what we need to do to control COVID. They have science to back them up. Facts. Cold hard facts. We ALL know what we need to do to control COVID, don't we? Why can't we do it? 

We're as entitled a populace as has ever been. We don't want to be inconvenienced. We want to do what we want to do when we want to do it. Spoiled - that's a less delicate adjective - that's what we are.

Unless - or until - we become willing to…

Well, at least 51% of the country has repudiated the current regime. The work to be done is massive in scope, however, and we can only hope that the new administration can weave a way through the morass of partisanship that has defined the last decades. 

Let's wish 'em luck.

Hope is almost always better than abject despair. And it's ALWAYS good to see folks dancing in the streets in celebration, even if 48% of us wanted the current (and seemingly perpetual) nightmare to continue for another four years.

…

Ah, yes, where is the Good Doctor when we really need him. Checked out and watching the fiasco from wherever he may be, I imagine - 320z G and T in one hand and a Smith and Wesson in the other. He's yelling at anyone who will listen. 

 Or perhaps he's saved himself the trouble and has reincarnated as an endangered Mountain Gorilla.

Regardless, we're on our own here, now, and we're the only ones who can stop the shit rain we've been enduring for the past four years. Thompson once said "When the going gets…

Senses are wonderful things, aren't they? Why, without them we'd never know the taste of an autumn apple straight from the tree. Or the scent of a beloved's perfume. We wouldn't see a glorious sunrise, or hear a softly whispered "I love you".

Hers a new tune - a Demo of course, for you, about the effect of music on me and, I hope, you.

I Want To Feel The Music 

I want to hear the lightning 
I want to see the thunder 
But most of all I really want to feel 
The music 

I want to smell the morning 
I want to…

We all got 'em, whether we see them or even choose to acknowledge their existence. Mine come and go with caprice, stealthy arrival unbidden and undesired and inexorable.

Here's a song about them. It's new. It's a Demo. I'm sure it'll stir things up.

Stay well and safe and wear your masks. Please.

Ghosts 

Blue Moon coming up like blood, baby 
Dragging its light through the mud, baby 
Blue Moon coming up like blood, some ain’t doin’ like they should 

Mars riding high in the sky, baby 
Baleful bloodshot…

"Actions speak louder than words."

This old saw was drummed into my being at a very young age. It was modeled for me on the regular, by my parents and other caregiving adults in my life. As a result, I've always given more credence to what a person does compared to what a person says. In this era of unparalleled, unceasing rhetoric, shouldn't the sheer volume of boorish behavior provide the basis and the standard for judgement? What say you?

Scream all you want, but what you DO will say more about who you…

Reflecting, as I sometimes do, on my childhood and some of the main players in my own personal saga, I got to thinking about my Grampy. He was one of those guys that could design, build and fix most anything. I remember him fondly. And so this happened: 

Young

I wish I could talk with you 
Of all the things that you used do 
And you could tell me the stories 
I would pay more attention now 
I wish you weren’t so far away
In a place I’ll probably never get to 
You promised we would meet again someday 
But now I’m…

Well, September, to begin with.It's hard to believe that we (our country, generally, our household specifically) has been shut down by COVID for 6 months. Half a year.  We've been lucky. Diligent in our protocols, but still lucky; No one in our immediate family has gotten sick. So far. One niece and one nephew caught the virus early on, but had relatively minor symptoms and effected a full recovery. 

BUT - it's not over. The politicization of this issue will ensure a never ending rerun of finger-pointing…

There have been any number of paeans for Ruth Bader Ginsburg these last few days. I'm not so arrogant as to suppose I might sing her praises in a way that hasn't already been sung; word of her passing came as no real surprise, but a lot of us kept thinking "She's gonna be ok, she's gonna be around forever."

Well, no, she's not. And the world is just a little bit more dreary, the landscape of our country even more unsettled and scary. The current regime has made a mockery of the tenets of our democracy…