Screen overload

Storm Clouds, by Eric Sloane

After watching the TV news yesterday morning, I just didn't feel like staring at another screen, so the laptop stayed off for a change. Writer's block set in and even more coffee didn't help. My head felt like stuffed cotton all day.

So off I went to the gym, where I tried not to look at the bank of TV's above the treadmills showing the same images again in Oklahoma.  The endless pictures of destruction and awful loss of life-- but, it was the thought of 100 horses vanishing into thin air that brought home the astonishing power of this tornado.  Debris from the poor wrecked Orr Horse Farm was found 80 miles away, and the beautiful, powerful animals simply gone, carried off like feathers in the wind.

Now that's a storm. On this quiet, wet morning in Seattle, the teacups and knickknacks are still on the shelf, the car is at the curb, the horses are eating breakfast out at the barn.  But it was another rude reminder of our fragile little existence on Planet Earth.

We're looking forward to spending the holiday weekend on the other side of the mountains, where (hopefully) the sun will be shining.

Sunday Tea Time, by Stephen Darbishire