There was a Shooting Last Week

And the whole county is up in arms, trying to find the perpetrator. An innocent, harmless young mother was shot and killed, for no reason that anyone can see, leaving her poor young baby to fend for itself. It is in the paper and on the radio, and rewards are being offered, and folks are asking their kids to keep an eye out, and more folks are riding the roads in the evening, looking to catch this totally inexplicable killer and to keep him from killing again.

Oh, did I mention the murder victim was an antelope? Yes, shooting an animal out of season - especially a mother in the spring - is a serious crime here. It is not tolerated - not by adults, not by teens, not by anyone. The perp will do jail time. Several people have been heard to say what they would like to do to him before they have him formally arrested. Life and the taking of it is serious. You might not think so, when you see the hunters come out this fall - but that's different. I can't even imagine what they would do to a person who killed another person here - these people all have guns and a healthy respect for what they can do. I wonder if s/he would even make it to trial. That said, it DID used to be a wild town and a wild county, but that was a long time ago, and folks are more or less calmer now. Peerhaps its because there are so few of them, and they depend on each other more here than in other places.

Well, we are getting close to the end of the unpacking; some stuff is being repacked in different boxes - like surprise! - Christmas stuff found in with the board games. How did THAT get THERE? So now we have empty boxes that, as we unpack the last 20 or so, are getting things tossed into them. Winter coats and woollies getting mothballed into tubs and storage closets. Finally we got the front room with the bay window emptied down to just the things we wanted in there. Next step - put up the vignette for the bay window. Well, of course, it will change for Halloween - lightup ghosts, pumpkins, and ceramic moons - and for Christmas - the Winter Village with the train running through it. But for the summer... Aw, well, you know I HAD to do it...









After all, Mike has found himself a chess partner in this town already; might as well make it fun. I made that set for him seven years ago, and he has never used it. So now the Nawth and the Souf sit armed and ready for battle atop Fort Sumter in our bay window. And the picture of Scarlett at Melanie's party behind it just adds that special note, don't you think? How grateful I am to Glenn McConnell, an old friend and history buff, who helped me get the 'knights' right for the Nawth. Who else but General Custer? Grant and Lee were easy for the opposing bishops, of course, but I was stuck on the Nawth... just didn't think about Custer.

Just a little bit TIC today... all day long... Grin.