Clear Dark

A breeze decides to rise, filling the moonless hours, and is invisible except where the pines it moves cause the stars to flicker. The pines themselves are barely to be seen but by this slight movement, being no more than deeper darkness than the surrounding night. But all the space between them is filled by their sighs as the motile air caresses them. That space is roofed with the constellations of late winter, and I see the little dipper, upended, as though it had spilled the last drop of the season's rain. I hope not, surely, though tonight, washed by this soft air, it is difficult to even imagine rain. The clarity, though dark, is brilliant, each tiny light perfectly displayed, as on black velvet a jeweler might display an array of diamonds. Somewhere to the north I hear the high-pitched, descendant glissando of some bird, repeated again and again. It is as sharp and clear as the stars.

( Sunday Verse )

Clocks Go Crazy

Time went out of whack today, and everything happened at an unaccustomed hour, or didn't happen at all.

Also, Sluggo may be replaced within a week. We shall see.

As Sluggo is definitely going to be replaced eventually, I'm looking around for open source software to stuff onto his replacement. (If we have a few cool nights, I'm thinking of making the Slug download it and burn it to CD.) I'll keep AdAware and Spybot Search and Destroy, of course, but I haven't decided on which fire wall or anti virus program to get for the new computer yet. There are probably other things that would be useful, as well, though not essential. I'll have plenty of hard drive space to play around with, and more up-time to do it in. Oh, definitely Firefox, and maybe Mozilla Mail. Suggestions accepted.

Time being disrupted reminds me that everybody's time will be disrupted soon. Daylight Saving Time is almost here. I'll be happy to have the mornings re-darkened for a while.

It was pleasant today, but warmer. Slug needs to nap already.