tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7295091149527770826.post4357793971494803403..comments2008-05-28T19:37:19.026-05:00S L Cunninghamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16367088408333662635noreply@blogger.comBlogger8125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7295091149527770826.post-39615314374090220072008-05-28T19:37:00.000-05:002008-05-28T19:37:00.000-05:00Doris,<BR/><BR/>Thanks for the welcome back. I didn't realize you were on hiatus from your blog for awhile, but it seems I took a bigger absence. Nevertheless, we're both back and blogging as well as ever. Humans have survived many calamities throughout the years, and I'm sure we'll survive the recent disasters we've witnessed so far. But for some reason, with everything that's transpired during this decade, I have a sense of foreboding. It almost feels--excuse the cliche'-- as if the other shoe is about to drop. Like my cat, calm and order one minute; chaos the next. <BR/><BR/>ScotS L Cunninghamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16367088408333662635noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7295091149527770826.post-8448283456504015852008-05-28T01:58:00.000-05:002008-05-28T01:58:00.000-05:00Hi Scot and a belated welcome back to blogging :-)<BR/><BR/>I was very depressed and very scared when the US marched into Afghanistan back on the eve of the 1980s. If blogging had been around then I'd have blogged about it but it wasn't and it made it to my occasional diary. And then, as part of my growing up I found a new peace (of sorts) that says no matter what devastation and death is going on, that some people have survived. Looking through history, humans have survived this and that so no matter what terrifying metereological and geological disasters are happening humans will pull through.<BR/><BR/>However, I don't think that means I think I will survive, nor do I think, does that diminish the incredible suffering people are going through. I do not know how anyone survives the trauma of losing absolutely everyone and everything from one's life. But people do survive. Somehow.<BR/><BR/>Meanwhile, you poor cat jumping out of its skin. Sounds like something out of a cartoon! Lucky you were around to see what had happened and to comfort him.Dorishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14073379610501763461noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7295091149527770826.post-74794225510136075312008-05-27T18:32:00.000-05:002008-05-27T18:32:00.000-05:00rdl,<BR/>I think a lot of us have become disenchanted with our political leaders over the years. All we can hope for, I suppose, is that the next President will provide the leadership we will need in the coming years. <BR/>Thanks for coming by.<BR/><BR/>Patry,<BR/>So good to have you come by for a visit. I sense we are truly living in extraordinary times. Pardon the cliche', but it almost feels like the other shoe is about to drop. Thus it helps to have the kind of distractions that puts our mind at ease and on something else. As you say, "Better to listen to the birds."<BR/><BR/>Roberta,<BR/>New visitor. Welcome. Appreciate you taking the time to read and comment. I visited with you the other day, and enjoy how you wrestle with the topics you choose to write on. I know I'll continue to come by your way.<BR/><BR/>ScotS L Cunninghamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16367088408333662635noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7295091149527770826.post-87020256599912139902008-05-27T08:58:00.000-05:002008-05-27T08:58:00.000-05:00Loved the story. <BR/>I also so appreciated the special light amusement you bestowed on all our despairing souls amid the chaos of death and distruction with your discussion of the grackle bird. <BR/>No grackles here, but many monster ravens that no doubt are first or second cousins to the grackle. In our woods, they hang out on the topmost branches of sturdy trees and chuckle while they confuse hikers with the exact duplication of the sound of a dripping faucet in a sink - a bubbly kind of ploop, ploop sound.Roberta Shttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01032348890093502999noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7295091149527770826.post-16500356920322180492008-05-26T23:11:00.000-05:002008-05-26T23:11:00.000-05:00I'm with you, Scot--an avowed "glass half-full" type. <BR/>(My friends like to call me Pollyanna.) But it's hard not to worry in these times. I, too, have been avoiding the TV. Better to listen to the birds...Patry Francishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10961915797919017179noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7295091149527770826.post-83248595760960285912008-05-26T21:38:00.000-05:002008-05-26T21:38:00.000-05:00yes things do seem very doom & gloom, much more so than than the 60's/70's.tho i do remember thinking then that i couldn't possibly save the world with Nixon at the helm. i'd given up the news for quite awhile since Bush has been there; but i now find myself addicted to MSNBC but i don't know if my heart can take much more of this election.rdlhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04062856086277201874noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7295091149527770826.post-51141440443969717492008-05-26T02:33:00.000-05:002008-05-26T02:33:00.000-05:00Hi, Deborah,<BR/><BR/>Not sure. Mocking birds tend to be more exact in the sounds they mimic, whereas grackles make a wide range of sounds but without necessarily mimicking any thing in particular. I lived in Florida once, and I used to be mystified with what sounded like a cat mewing from up a tree. Turns out it was a mockingbird. <BR/><BR/>ScotS L Cunninghamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16367088408333662635noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7295091149527770826.post-12327679011893803462008-05-25T22:29:00.000-05:002008-05-25T22:29:00.000-05:00I rarely watch the news anymore for the same reason. What can we do but wait and hope?<BR/><BR/>Loved the story about the grackle and your cat's reaction to it. I used to hear bird noises like that when I lived in another part of town, years ago. Only, I mistook them for a mocking bird. Is that the same thing?Deborahhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15931654600977410407noreply@blogger.com