In second grade, I won a blue ribbon for a poem I wrote titled, “The sky, the sky.”

I don’t know where the poem is now, but I remember it being a big deal because it was a regional competition. Or something like that. Honestly, I wrote the poem in about a minute, and with my left hand—my right hand was in a splint to protect the pinkie that I had recently sliced on a pudding can.

So there you have it: knowledge is power.

I lost sight of you last night.

I could not find you this morning.

Dark falls.

Darkness falls.

I spent a bit of time outside yesterday tending to our yard, so Kim went out today to care for the next door neighbor’s, where the health of the neglected plants is in rapid decline. Fortunately, there are still a few signs of life, so rather than removing the distressed plants, Kim simply trimmed most of them back.

To her surprise, she encountered many wasps in the process, and one got the best of her (see the last picture below). We didn’t have any chewing tobacco, but I did moisten a cigar for the bite—it’s a remedy I learned as a child, but it didn’t seem to help Kim much.

The remaining plant beds look a bit barren, but at least they’re clean, and no dead extremities are falling into the walking path.

Clear skies fill lungs with fresh air

Maybe we should move?