Ah, winter, the quietude thereof...Arnie came home carrying a dead black squirrel in his mouth that looked freshly killed, and he buried it with great diligence in the snow near the wood-splitting area.  I think that out of every 10 gray squirrels born, that about 1 or 2 are the variation, black.  Last night, when the dogs went out to play in the bright moonlight, Arnie laid down and ate his chilled squirrel with the air of a lord at his dining, while Pepper laid near the door, crying softly because she didn't have any.  So I told her to come in and I would give her a special treat, and she did.  Then Arnie knocked on the door, and coming in, he talked extensively about how he needed a special treat, too. 

It is raining gently today, but the roads have been freshly sanded and are in good traveling condition because of it.  I went to town and returned my stack of library books.  I didn't get new ones, because I need to finish about 4 of my own that I've started.  One is "The Tibetan Book of Living and Dying" that I read a page or two at a time, in order to absorb the teachings of it.  And on my computer, I am struggling to learn all about Google Earth.  If I can manage to learn just one thing a day, that is about all my poor old brain can take.  Today, I learned to "fly" to my home town, and also how to change my desktop resolution. 

There was a show on last night about the sun and how it can, and does, affect the earth.  It kind of scared me that a sunburst, which could happen at any time, could knock out all the electricity on earth.  Major disaster, and has me thinking as I use my many, many appliances that I love, have come to rely on, and just wouldn't enjoy life without, about the even more far-reaching consequences of such an occurrence.  I remember reading a long time ago, about a Sioux medicine man's predicting that all the electricity would fail some day.  I hope that some people somewhere are making progress on the "grid."  And would be able to prevent such a major blow to our way of life.  On the other hand, the way things are going for the polar bear and other creatures endangered by global warming, has me thinking more and more about the poem I wrote many years ago...

My name is written on a bird, That flies across the sky.  The day that bird falls to the ground,  Will be the day I die. 

We are all in this together, linked by our mutual humanity, and linked to all the animals, lands, and plant life that nurtures us all.  I can only hope that people begin to see that corporate entities are not a natural part of the ecosystem, and will reverse the current trend of exploitation for capital gains at the cost of our living earth.