Wednesday Observances

Each morning, the wife and I have a cup of coffee in the sunroom and read the Bible.  We finished Job and now have started back again in Genesis.  As Tricia read, I looked down at the rug.  There was a rock on the rug about the size of a pecan.  The first thing I thought of was "Where did that come from?"  I thought that maybe I had somehow carried that in on my boots.  I reached down and picked it up while we tried to figure out this mystery.

The next morning, seated at the same place, I looked down and saw a shard of glass on the rug in roughly the same area.  I picked it up and looked to the windows on the east side of the little room where the sun filters in.  And then we both saw it.  There was a large hole in both panes in the lower part of the glass!  Then it all fit together.  That rock was thrown by a lawnmower, shattering the window.  We called a glass company later that morning, and they came and measured the glass.  $450 dollars later and our window is repaired.  $450.  That was an expensive grass cutting day.

Later than night I was out walking as I normally do.  I look up at the stars and wonder how it must have been to study constellations and use the stars as navigational tools out on the open waters.  Something strange caught my eye that I've seen several times.  At first I thought it was a UFO.  Now I know that what I am seeing is SpaceX's Starlink satellites going into orbit.  They are 340 miles up and slowly march across the sky.

My phone didn't capture what it really looks like.  It is not a solid line, but in a "train" each one following closely behind the next.  In a semi-related observance from the "heavens," check this out:

This was on the lawn mower.  It is a Luna Moth or and American Moon moth.  Its wingspan is over 4 inches long!  It has "eyes" on its wings to discourage predators.  What I read on them states that they can emit a clicking noise OR can regurgitate its intestinal contents on you.  That's just lovely, isn't it?

There's all sorts of mysteries and "other-worldly" things all around us, if we dare to notice.  Have a wonderful evening!

Strangers In The Night

The evenings, in summertime, are a time of respite from the sweltering heat, from the penetrating rays of the sun, from the busyness of the workday, and from the noise of commerce.  As it gets around 10 o'clock at night, most people are home.  There is stillness and quiet.  All is at peace, or so it seems.  I like to go out and walk and look at the stars, listen to podcasts (Right now THIS ONE) and think.  

I was walking and looked up into the northwestern sky, admiring the masterpiece of the stars in an infinite universe and my eye caught this (apologize for the low quality photography):

A few months ago I wouldn't have known what that was.  Now I know, it is - A Starlink Satellite Train.  SpaceX's Starlink is a satellite train that will provide broadband internet access for people across the globe.  That's something else.  Out in rural America, you can look up and see something manmade way up in space.  It sort of reminds me of the movie, "October Sky" about October 4th, 1957 when the Russians launched Sputnik 1 and many Americans looked in the sky to see the 23 inch sphere pass over the earth.  Whether it is Sputnik 1 or Starlink, there's something a little unsettling about something created by human hands in the heavens.  Fortunately, the Starlink train only lasted for a few minutes and then the stars twinkled once more without competition.

Oh, the sights that you can see at night if you look.  I remember the wise men in the Bible following a star in the sky that led them to the Christ Child.  On Thursday night at around 9 PM we were coming back from the Bayou Beekeeping Meeting and as we turned into our driveway, a flurry of wings became visible in my windshield.  Whatever it was, it flew directly up into the branches of the live oak tree that shades our driveway.  I had a feeling I knew what it was.  We were just talking about "wise" men putting satellites in space and the Wise Men following the Star to the Christ Child and now we see the "wise" old owl.  I opened the door and got out my phone and put it on flash.  The owl was returning my attention with a penetrating stare of his own.  Tricia was concerned that he would swoop down and come into the vehicle with us.  He turned his head on a swivel like they do as if to say, "Nope, I'm going to stay right up here."

I remember spending the first night in our home here in 2001.  We didn't have furniture in the house yet, and we all slept on the floor.  I remember hearing an owl hooting right outside our window.  It might have been in the same tree that we spotted this one in 23 years later.  The owl is welcome on our property.  Hopefully, he'll take care of some of the rats out by the barn.  Hopefully, he'll leave our chickens alone.  That reminds me.  I'm going to go close up the hen house.  I don't want "things that go bump in the night" to be our wise old friend bumping into one of our laying hens.

Look up, be watchful, for your redemption draweth nigh...

Seek him that maketh the seven stars and Orion, and turneth the shadow of death into the morning, and maketh the day dark with night: that calleth for the waters of the sea, and poureth them out upon the face of the earth: The Lord is his name:  Amos 5:8 KJV