Top of The Morning to You!

Just like it's been most of my life, so it is today, feeling a little out of sorts, like maybe I got up on the wrong side of the earth. And if that's overkill and beyond belief, at least think of what it must feel like, that I got up in the wrong hemisphere. Woke up, that's for sure, with a thud, with a cry. I cried out, "Damn! An iceberg just pulled the elastic on my shorts (the back side) and let them snap." It was like an earthquake, the snap snapping at me so hard that I tottered on the brink of an ice floe. And nearly went Man Overboard!

Something like that happened when I was a kid. I was checking rabbit traps and managed to fall through the ice and got myself sopping wet. And since that took place at a creek about a quarter mile from home, I had to run in the cold to try to get home. Didn't mean to put my own terrible memories on display, but I'm the only guy with my terrible memories to recall them. I huffed and I puffed and nearly died in a ditch. But pressed on, thinking, "Better get going before I freeze to death," and since I'm here today recalling it, apparently it worked. From that time on, I stayed away from the cold as much as possible, and left the rabbits to their own devices. If they're not smart enough to get caught closer to home, I'm not even going to bother with them. Leave 'em, let them live out their own stupid lives ... and I'll live out mine. We left on good terms.

Have I ever wished I could go to the arctic regions? There's two poles, of course. The North and the South. I don't want to brag, but I have a sense of direction. I could step out from my house -- right this second without preparation -- and tell you which way's which. The Sun comes up over that way and so forth. And I think maybe we're getting a few close calls with it. Either that or it's just showing off for the the others and will soon be gone. It's a thing, though, of real power. Being 93 million miles away and yet close enough to give you a sunburn!

You've heard of course, there's a whole thing going on now with radical weather. The south is mad at the north, the north with the east, the south with the west, and I'd be remiss to omit the west doing whatever it does. California's that way somewhere, which is a place I've been to two or three times. Probably never again, since I'm stationed here where I live, keeping track of the directions just locally and not doing so from particular places. There's also this to consider, I'm fairly old now, not a spring chicken or tom turkey with a lot to prove. Everything I needed to prove, with so many connections dead and off to heaven, is already proven.

With that, let me wish you a hale and hardy "Top 'o the Mornin' to Ye!" You see an igloo, respect it, someone might be cold and on his way home. You see a seal or otter or even a reindeer, stand back and give them room, every creature is one we want to survive! And rabbits. Environmentally yours! Pick up litter, dispose of it in sanctioned places, respect the environment, etc., etc., always words to live by.