It never entirely stopped raining last night. The mist and clouds moved slowly through the meadows and the sky. Late at night I heard an animal dying in the woods. This doesn't happen too often, but it continued for a long time last night. It went on for so long that I went to the door to look. I wouldn't have seen anything because of the distance and the dark; but I could not just lie there and listen.
As I looked out, the moon had lit up the thick mist in the southern sky. Lightning flashed off in the far southwest of the sky. And then I heard gun shots. Whatever was dying had died. I felt overwhelming sadness, but gratitude, too.
We got up very late this morning (7 AM). It is still humid, but much cooler. In fact, the temperatures have gone down since I got up. It began to rain. The cats went out, and all have returned. It is a cat sleep-over day today.
k k k k k k
Five deer came down my drive this morning. One adult and four young little ones. I doubt that one mother had quadruplets, so now I am wondering how they bond together in herds for the winter. I startled them, so just as they were going to cross the road, they turned left and returned to the wild apple orchard. I'm glad they will be here for the winter. I have apple trees all over in the woods for them. The apples seem especially abundant this year.
After the deer left, Barton Village Electric came. There is a right-of-way on my property for them (or for somebody). The man went up the ROW a bit (how, I don't know, since it is all underground springs and very seepy). Then he drove off. Less than 30 minutes later, a big electrical utility truck with a cherry picker came. They put a man in the bucket and raised him higher than the phone pole. He used binoculars to look up the mountain. I heard mention of getting a helicopter to check on something. Then they drove off.
I need to close the windows and pick up the house. I am looking forward to returning to work tomorrow.
thunder, storms, lightning, deer, death
_/\_/\_
We had a dragonfly in the classroom yesterday morning. At recess time, two students came in and released it unharmed. That gave me a chance to photograph it on the ugly ceiling. As soon as I have time, I am going to learn hot to put the dragonfly on a new background in GIMP.
