Good Morning Laurel

Wow, it has been quite awhile since I last posted on this far corner of the internets. There has been a lot going on and I really didn't have anything useful to say.  So I've been laying low and saving my rapidly diminishing brain cycles for other pursuits like counting campaign signs on Route 1.

Back at Easter time, a couple of doctors said that I needed to have a little heart plumbing done.  My advice to everyone is to try to avoid this kind of plumbing job.  It's messy, shockingly expensive and  personally disruptive for much longer than you might originally be led to believe. In these regards, I guess heart plumbing is like any other plumbing project.  You are happy to have had it done until you learn that now you must be even more careful about the bad stuff you can't throw down your new pipes.

I have a new diet and exercise regime.  Well actually, she-who-must-be-obeyed, put fresh batteries in her taser to motivate my daily exercise sessions.  She also uses that same taser to enforce her award-winning diet plan, "if it tastes good, spit it out."  I've become the "biggest loser" on so many levels ...

And since we've now entered the mass hypnosis period that we call our local political campaign season, I thought I would freshen the blog with a little redesign and jump back into the blogging fray.  We have so many interesting local issues to consider. 

Good Morning!

* The Laurel Lake sunrise picture above was taken on 27 June 2010 from Oxford Drive.  I took it quickly before Joanne could turn on her taser.

Sunday Morning in Laurel - Winter or Spring?

Cody and I woke early today. We made a trip for Cody's "hurry-up" and it felt surprisingly warm outside.  The air was still and the temperture just a smidge above freezing.  It smelled damp.

The street light committee on our block seemed unsure if it was really morning.  Two streetlights had already turned off but a third holdout remained on, waiting for more evidence of morning.  Perhaps the holdout was simply hoping to collect a bit of overtime for BG&E before spring's longer days arrive and reduce profits.

This is a fitting dilemma for Cody and me to ponder at the end of February.  Is it spring or winter?  Night or day?  Will we have a few more weeks of cold and snow?  Or will Joanne's spring flower bulbs soon announce springtime?  We can't be sure.

Time for us to go back inside for coffee and wait for more evidence.

Sunday Morning in Oldtown

It's so quiet you can hear the house age. Floors creak like my fifty-two year old knees. A faucet drips with the slow rhythm of a Sunday morning hymn, tic...tic...tic...

No NPR warning me of crisis nor folly. Even my Blackberry is quiet, its battery exhausted from a week of what passes for work these days.

I step outside for the Post. Laurel Ave sleeps. Route 1 is still, bracing itself for the crush of the after church crowd in a few hours.

I love to be the first one up on Sunday morning. I wallow in the quiet. Alone with my coffee, dog and paper. No need to rush for the Marc train. No need to steal myself for the countless noisy duties of the day. I seem to even breathe and think better in the quiet. A thought comes to mind and I have the quiet to savor it thoroughly.

I hear the shower. Someone has turned on Morning Edition. I've got to get ready for Mass at Saint Mary's. I plug in my Blackberry.

Sunday morning in Oldtown has recharged me.