Seriousl written at 2:30 a.m.

It’s 2 a.m. and I can’t sleep. So, what better thing to do than to read the news on my IPhone and blog? I usually read a variety of news sites when I want to get an overview of what’s up; Bloomberg, Drudge Report, Fluent News, Financial Times, The Hill and finally, when I want to read liberal fiction I open the Daily Beast. I have stopped reading the Onion, just because it ceased to be funny.


I started to blog online, but it appears that at 2 a.m. our internet service shuts down. Well, not really. How would I know this? I never actually get up at this hour. For all I know, it’s working fine at all house of the night. But, tonight it’s down. I need to get up and reset it, but am not that ambitious right now.

I am thinking I will not fight being awake, but instead make this a productive time. After being at Lasha’s for the week, I didn’t have time for my meditations or prayer time. I have forgotten how time consuming babies and young children are. Not only that, I treasure the time with her kids… with all my grandkids… and they get my undivided attention most of the time. So, my “me time” was limited and I missed it.

Anyway, I read the news from my IPhone and the top stories summarized last week’s news and include record drops in the stock market and consumer confidence last week. Government Motors is taking steps to seek an IPO and Obama splashed in the gulf oil spill region. If that wasn’t depressing enough, our beloved President, while celebrating Ramadan in the White House, (Oh, god… wait…I think I’m going to be sick…) expressed his support for building a Mosque at ground zero. Damn depressing all of that.

There are other things keeping me awake as well. I ate too much ice cream and hot fudge before bed, it was hot in the house and I had to reset the air conditioner and of course, I don’t know how to do that, so I pushed a bunch of buttons until the fan came on and it seemed to start cooling down. So, I am wondering when the bomb will explode. I have to pee. I am thirsty.

And huge trees have fallen all around my house and I am literally surrounded by roots and branches and leaves that are rubbing against the windows of the porch. I actually can’t get in or out of my driveway for the fallen trees are over the fence and blocking the driveway. I had to drive on the grass to get to the house. So, I am feeling a bit like I feel in the middle of a winter snow storm. All tucked in.

When I came home from Missouri, I knew I would see tree damage, but I didn’t expect to see a warzone. It is making me sad and overwhelmed and I am wondering how one begins to clean this up. It will no doubt require large machinery and a chain saw. I am not able to get my arms around many of the trunks of the trees that have fallen. They are huge, very old and mature. The winds that took them down were powerful and on a mission to destroy. Apparently we aren’t alone; many in the area have similar damage. But, our landscape is now changed. The place looks different, as if it’s sparser, well, because it is. Many trees are down, not just one or two… probably 30, huge trees are pulled up at the roots and toppled over. The wood looks different; this photo shows how sparce it no wis. The woods behind the house is filled with leaves and branches from the fallen tree tops. The walking paths are gone. The setting sun is able to send light into the living room. It used to be the house was shaded by these tall trees and between the trees, the house and the barn, no sun made it through. Now those very trees are gone and the sun as it sets sends light into the house via my office window. I don’t mind, it brightens up the living room in the evening, but after 15 years of no light allowed in, it seems out of place. Most of the fallen trees are basswood or oak. They are old and mature, but with the leaves full and wet, the weight was too much. The basswood’s roots don’t go very deep, so they fall easily while fully leaved out. The oak have deeper roots, but the powerful storm proved too much for them.

The living room is also brighter. The thick woods behind our house is gone. There are a few stragglers left, a few stubborn trees or maybe lucky ones.

And as I was looking about the house for other things that could be wrong, I spotted a dead mouse lying on the floor in the family room downstairs. Now, mice are not unusual in the house. We live in the country; our house has a few additions and therefore a few holes where they can access warmth in the winter. But, why and how does a nice plump mouse fall dead right in the middle of the family room floor. It’s as if it just gave up the ghost while walking across to the fridge to get a beer. Or, maybe it just got off the treadmill in the other room and was going to the bathroom and it dropped dead of a heart attack. Who knows? Oddly enough, I believe this is the second one that I had to pick up in that spot in the last few months.

So, these are a few reasons why I am awake at almost 3 a.m. Sunday. I am not quite ready to turn in yet. I was unsuccessful at getting the internet going to finish blogging… and instead I will go listen to my book on my IPod. I bought Isabelle Allende’s audio book: Island beneath the sea. It’s pretty good so far.

Or… maybe someone is up for a game of Parcheesi?