Mulling things on my morning ramble
with Storm, the family’s mixed Lab.
I often think of the morning rambles, especially the extended ones I tend to go on more often as fall and winter settle in, as similar to the dotted lines in Family Circus.
Walk along with me from Family Circus to the compression of time.
A rabbit bolted from a nearby backyard before we were even out of town. An odd morning with time change, pre-dawn already shedding light before 6 a.m.
The dotted line paths of the characters, especially of the one son, in the Family Circus comics used to be one of my favorites. Of course, that was back in the time when I actually had time to read all the sections of the Sunday newspaper, even the comics pages.
Now, I go through the Sun-Times sports (best in the business) and hope that I get through all the news sections by Monday morning. Reading the features section is a luxury for laid-back weekends or holidays.
In the middle of raising a family, such extended time on my hands is a rarity.
A muskrat swam on the back side of the island on the south old clay pit. Trapping season opens Monday. I wonder if the old trapper in town will be out again.
The bell at the Catholic Church tolled at 6 a.m. this morning. I only tangentially thought of For Whom The Bell Tolls, thank you very much. What I most noticed is just how light it was at 6 a.m.
We took the extended ramble this morning, too much laying around on Saturday not to stretch it out to two miles, and I couldn’t believe how light it was even with the overcast. Yet another dawn coming in red.
The sounds of Canada geese drifted off a lake to the west. Otherwise, no wildlife this morning. Not even one squirrel.
What I liked about the son’s dotted line journeys in Family Circus is trying to figure out where all he has been and what he had done. That family is a family from another time. Yet there are overlaps with our times, even with our compressed time. My sons all take paths like that.
Back home, even with the sun up, grayness hung on, another morning with overcast.
Winter nears.
