I write this the night before the general election Tuesday.
I’m not suggesting any great prophecy about what will happen down the road from all of this.
Its plain we’ll continue down the path of disharmony.
Neither side will give – a far cry from a time when I was growing up and the distance between Democrats and Republicans was slight and not immense.
There’s always been some degree of vitriol, but nothing like this.
No, I get up at 4 a.m. Mondays and Tuesdays to write stories, edit others and lay out pages.
And early Tuesday morning was to be the lunar eclipse.
I’ll take some time out from writing about local government and go out and look at the heavens.
I’ve always been fascinated, but like many folks, I like to look and imagine what lies out there.
I just don’t know what planets or constellations I’m looking at.
Funny, when I was younger, things like astronomy and birds were interesting, but not to the extent that I would do any serious research to learn more about them.
Now that I’m older, I find myself trying to immerse myself in subjects like those.
I’ve kept my main hobby, if you will, of archaeology.
I still like reading about the latest discoveries of the ancient past.
I have spent lots of vacation time visiting ancient pueblan sites like Mesa Verde and Chaco Canyon.
And speaking of birds, in my walks around and near my place, I encountered literally hundreds of geese on the banks of a large pond Sunday morning.
When my dog and I approached the huge flock, they moved and then flew off in groups slowly peeling off.
They rose and wheeled around the perimeter of the lake and landed on the other side of the pond.
With such a large-scale aerial movement, they sort of looked like starlings, but bigger of course.
We really didn’t disrupt them, just a momentary displacement.
I guess they were part of a migration, the birders among us would know.
All I know I was sad when they weren’t around Monday morning.
So, shifting gears, I met a young man with the HIF plant that’s planned near STP.
He was at commissioners court to give an update on the timeline.
I have a story on his report on Page 1, but I visited with him after the meeting.
When I told him about the Sentinel and its place as a community newspaper that focuses on local news, he said he was glad we were making that possible.
There’s a place in society today for what we do, he noted.
It was nice to get confirmation from another generation.
Something positive to build on while I contemplate eclipses and large flocks of geese.