Woods.

My mom, Miss Anne, just found her little cat buddy Woods dead when they got home. Unexpected, but in all honesty, when is any death really expected? We hang on to all life tenaciously.

He was a great companion to her and her husband, Bobby. Had his own place in bed, was a good cowboy movie watching companion for Bobby, was a good pal to his friend Chippy—a stuffed chipmunk? squirrel? something...—who came to live with him from FAO Schwartz in New York. He was only about six years old, not old for a cat.

Because of my allergies, I’ve never been much of a “cat person”—to say the least—but for a cat, Woods was pretty good people. R.I.P., buddy.

Bridge to nowhere.

No, not the Sarah Palin one. The bridge which for decades allowed motorists to seamlessly travel from Indiana to Illinois and vice versa. Defunct bridges make nice metal sculptures.

A world in white gets underway.

It snowed in New Harmony while I was in Alabama having rain for Christmas. A veil of tears for the virgin birth. The snow at Christmas, of which spake Emerson, Lake & Palmer, forsooth, fell here. Mmmm...commas. Always enjoy a hike when snow is pretty freshly fallen, but offered no alternative, I trod out into the starting-to-melt, stale snowfall yesterday to see what I could see.

Well Mr. Johnson, a “roofless” church don’t keep the snow out, let me tell you.

Particularly enjoyed tromping around by the river and under the currently-defunct Wabash River bridge between Indiana and Illinois. The last time I spent much time down there much of the surrounding area was underwater during “the great flood of ’11.” Can’t believe that’s been over a year and a half ago.