Jest Give Me Some Of That Old Time Magic 2

When We Met By The Old Yew Tree Last Week...

meritahut C. Scavella Burrell had started her ghost story. Now Part 2 of Brownman is up on Strange Horizons. Be sure to read Part 1, or you'll never figure out what's going on.

Lovely story. I wasn't sure where the story was going and there were lots of surprises in the second half. I was amused by the long list of remedies at the drugstore -- I've heard of most of them.

Anyway, congrats Carol on a fine story, even if the cruel editors at S.H. made us wait a whole week in anticipation.

Dr. Phil

Country Living

One Of Those Mornings

Sometimes everyone is just plain in the bloody way. Conspiring to make me late. Slow moving trucks on 68th Avenue, the Post Office lot filled with cars for a morning dog obedience class in the one storefront, two police cruisers behind another truck in the median with what looked like the front right fender torn off, a little white-haired old lady peering over the steering wheel from the left lane of the Lake Michigan Drive boulevard through Allendale at 25mph in a 50mph zone.

But, even though I saw it pull out ahead of me, I always try to relax and enjoy the countryside when on "the back way" to M-11/Wilson some sort of farm implement got in the road. Set my flashers, so those coming up behind me on the curvy road won't be too surprised.

I mean, driving those things on the road isn't easy and a farmer's gotta do whatta farmer's gotta do, so I refuse to get mad at them, even if I get annoyed at the trucks, small yappie dogs, cement trucks, broken trucks, little old ladies... Hey, it's my bad attitude, I can be hypocritical about its usage same as anyone else, right? (grin)

The Payoff

If the farm disc machine hadn't slowed me down, I'd have been by too soon to the see the wild turkey run across the road in front of both of us -- head down and cruising across the pavement and never slowing down in the grasses until it eventually disappeared in the trees. This is about the third time I've seen a single wild turkey somewhere in that curvy section of road. You normally see multiple turkeys around here.

Nice.

Dr. Phil