Tea at 6 AM. A zipping sound. The cats. With a paper ball. Or so I thought.
Tea at 7:50 am. Zapping joined by a tell-tale burning smell. I followed my nose to the socket where the phone plugs. Warm to the touch, hot even. I pulled out, flipped the breakers.
Forty-five minutes late, the electrician replaced this with a new one.
"It could have been happening all night," I said.
"It could," he said.
"Is this the kind of thing that burns a house down?"
"No," he said. "It'd burn itself out and trip the breaker."
An electric start to the day.
2.
A walk around the lake. A dragonfly nymph emerged from the water; a spider attacked it almost immediately. The dragonfly fought to climb the grass stem anyway, a hopeless struggle to reach its final stage of life. A hand's width to the right, a Lancet Clubtail warmed on a leaf; an arm's length to the left, a young Fragile Forktail did the same. I watched all three in morning light, flooding the scene, Act I and III with no II.
3.
Underneath the metal edge of the bridge, a dragonfly held and spun in the wind."What are you looking at?" one of the walkers asked.
"Here, look where I'm pointing," I said, and walked the few feet further on. "See the dragonfly?"
The other walker said, "Wow," but the first looked straight down toward the water instead of underneath.
"Move your hand gently," I said, "so you don't touch the dragonfly. Then look under."
"Oh! Now I see it! Cool!"
They smiled and thanked me before walking on.
4.
Before locking the shop, I thought I'd take a couple more shots. And finally, something clicked. A macro that works.
5.
As I used to tell students about writing, "First make a mess. Then see what you can do with it." That's what I did all day today: 300+ messes I made (and one near-miss mess electricity made) and a couple of shots worth saving.
