The shooting wars have been only the tip of the evil iceberg.

Let us all pray that the Empire’s effectiveness in wielding both kinds of wars will end as the professor suggests.

***

On Monday the blessing of the vacation time wrapped up. I paid a Silver bill, and then I pointed her car back to this marginal Basecamp on the shores of the Painted Desert.

Tuesday was harder. We had to rescue one kitty back from PetSmart (yes you read that right), say goodbye to another one, and then engage in a rewarding but emotionally challenging exchange with half of what’s left of my familial inner circle. To be clear, I am so very grateful that I had that chance.

On Wednesday we took care of a pre-existing kitty and then said our own goodbyes. I plunged headfirst into the bedclothes and slept in raw chunks, waking now and then to begin the unpacking and care for the now-amplified feline population.

Very early this Thursday I began to take care of my self, by which I mean mostly my head and the superfine instrument inside it. Then I crashed once more, almost properly this time, and had one more 5+ hour sleep from six to noon, edging back toward what they called back in John Jay’s time a Normalcy.

Now you are caught up on the HowAmI question. I am somewhat bloody, but still unbowed.

I am by my own lights and probably yours ‘negative’ and pessimistic, but that does not always paralyze me with traumatic depression.

Let life begin anew in the rubber dust of an interstate town, and God grant me the vitality to live well and leonine here once more, until such time as I may find myself longing for More Than This, and proceeding confidently in the direction of my modest dreams …

Or however that platitude is supposed to go.