The knitted hat pattern I am working requires a set of five double-pointed knitting needles for the bind-off, which (of course) I don't have. I searched online for where I could buy a set and found them at the JoAnn Craft Store in Lynnwood. Yesterday, I drove over there to buy a set.

I found the display, the size I needed, and walked them up to the line for checkout counter. I had a coupon for 20% off, and a gift card that Mom gave me for Christmas back in 2009. I think it was originally...

We were speculating over our split pea soup whether your flocks were gathering in plans of a migration south,

Or were you arriving from a more northern climate in hopes of wintering here?

We were so happy that you'd found the cotoneaster berries,

And the rains were keeping Bigun indoors to watch benignly.

Then, we heard that forceful THUD on the sunroom's eastern window; the same window that took one of your brothers (sister?) last spring....

Sunday morning.

DH is reading the NYT on his laptop, while Bigun ravages his super-duty Kong to get the three treats wedged inside. I'm on my last -- maybe next to last cup of coffee. It's still dark outside and the only sounds are Bigun's crunching, my tapping, and the low whirring noise from my laptop.

Sigh. Would that all life would be as comfortable and at peace as I am at this moment. This heavenly NOW. Thank you, God.

Yesterday, I started to...

Outside our sunroom windows, behind the drawn blinds, comes the rising lilt of U2's "Only to be with You" from the painters' radio. I sit here at this magic box, listening, remembering.

All my life I've felt that a kinship with others was possible, just beyond my present reach. If only I kept reaching, kept trying. Time after time, my reach is just too short. Or, perhaps the other just wasn't trying. I don't know.

Is this the secret of life, that God really...

Last Friday DH went up into the mountains south of Thorpe, WA to participate in DH's ham radio Field Day. We'd scoped out the area a couple of weeks before, and he found a few places that would work for him. They were due back Sunday evening.

Sunday morning I received a call from a repeater station master informing me that DH was on his radio with a message for me that Ritz was missing. He'd been looking for her since early morning. We arranged a place to meet him, and I headed out...