(From the Cowboy State Daily out in the Square State out West. The Antlers Ranch woodland with trophy fishing streams and rugged hills, courtesy Latham Jenkins of Live Water Properties. Ann invitation of sorts, not an advisory)..

We succumbed to sleep around the time the warning- the ballyhoo’ed NOTAM of yesterday- clicked into effect. It apparently produced nothing of note, and the evening hours passed with only soft gray rest and light rain on The Patio.

So, early activity in preparation for another chapter in the medical mini-tragi-comedy- rules part of the morning preps. This week featured the close out with two sets of specialists. Yesterday extremities and today vision. Success will indicate a lurch forward into something else, filled with a tinge of optimism accompanied by the realization there are other things now ready for examination.

We preferred the glimpse from the Square State to keep things in perspective. We read it to remind us that there is a certain timeless beauty that surrounds us at least out in the square Cowboy State. That image is from this morning, and word that the Antlers, a sprawling 16,000 acre ranch with access to 40,000 more untrammeled green and rugged gray is available for the first time since 1885.

We asked around, but the crowd around the picnic table at Big Pink is a little short on the $85 million necessary to secure it.

Perhaps Mr. Gates or Mr. Xi will be interested.

Anyway, before the medical stuff lurches forward, we checked to see of the Continuing Crisis had lurches as well. No military action reported over a night that featured good sleep. Current state of affairs? Apparently in transition.

We had conducted storm preps for supplies based on word about what the Iranians were going to do to the Israelis about the systematic personal murder of the leaders of two of Tehran’s proxy groups, Hamas in Gaza and Hezbollah in Lebanon. Word was that action was to occur before Monday.

Later words laid atop those- unknown if accurate or part of deliberate messaging- was that the Ukrainians, under continued direct violent assault by Russia, had a plan to kill Moscow’s leader in a public but personal display of violence. This is a strand in the violence. The rhetoric is about weapons of mass destruction about the A-bomb, and the reality is a series of personal murders conducted against what seems to be an organization chart of opposing interests. A strange tango of large and small items wrapped in the same dance.

Instead of large violence last night there was word of no warning. Which is to say, the messaging was that Russia took the threat against Mr. Putin seriously. It was planned by the people whose nation they invaded, thinking it was actually their nation.

The Russians warned us on the Hot Line of the gravity of the situation. Apparently, they also warned the newly-installed Iranian President to beseech the more resolute Supreme Leader not to make a dramatic statement- or action about Israel.

So, this morning is talk about warning and not an action of some new horror. Seems like a good day to come, and maybe a ray of hope under gray skies from the passing of the remans of Hurrican Debbie, a storm from the south.

Now a trip to the vision surgeon for a benediction. We’ll see how that goes, right?

Copyright 2024 Vic Socotra

www.vicsocotra.com