First, I’ll play a little catch-up — in my previous post, I neglected to mention that Saturday evening I got a phone call from a childhood friend and high-school classmate. The reason?
He wanted to remind me that it was the anniversary of us double-dating to our senior prom — the 50th anniversary. How cool is that?
We talked for over a half-hour, the way old friends do. Just a great conversation, one of the best surprises I’ve had in a very long time.
My plumber-neighbor did indeed come up Sunday morning to troubleshoot the no-gas issue with my kitchen stove. Working outside much of the time in rain and high wind, he had the answer before noon.
It looks like I got a bad part, possibly two. The core of the “acme nut” (the plastic collar that threads onto the tank) refuses to pass gas. The regulator is suspect as well.
I’ll swap them at Miller Hardware tomorrow morning and finish the job.
The rest of the day was dark, soggy, cool, and a little stormy, and I responded by being lazy. It was my first complete rainy day in the cabin — the sound on the metal roof was hypnotic. I napped a lot.
I needed the rest.
“The difference between the almost right word and the right word is really a large matter — ’tis the difference between the lightning-bug and the lightning.”
Mark Twain, 1888
To bring this post to a close, a word about words.
I was out with the dogs in the wee hours Sunday morning, and the absence of sound was striking. The first word I thought of to describe it was “silence.”
But that wasn’t quite right — silence is an absolute, and it’s rare. And “quiet” didn’t capture what I was experiencing, either. Then, the right word popped into my head.
“Stillness.”
And that’s what The Mountain is much of the time — still. The peace I feel is grounded in stillness.
That’s all.
Take care of yourselves, Patriots. Stay calm. Stay sharp. Stay free.
#WiseUp #LibertyOrDeath #Ungovernable