An interesting day in the country. Looming close is an adventure that caused a vivid dream in the early hours as dawn was gathering its strength to flood the fields with light green light. Frank and Phil arrived without fanfare yesterday to administer the First Cut to the pastures and hack at the ornamental bushes along the gravel drive. With that, and the first invoice coming in a few weeks time, the Spring will have officially arrived in both fiscal and physical reality.

There is a bunch of other stuff going on, as the weekly Weather Report indicates. The most poignant, for me, anyway, is the announcement that the 2,000 U.S. troops remaining in Afghanistan will be withdrawn on the 11th of September. We were there in the Indian Ocean when the Russians began their adventure in the mountains. I remember cheering the Mujahideen in their battle against the Red Army. The image of their troops pulling out stayed with me, even as we began our own twenty year experience in the land that seems immune from conquest from a variety of empires.

The other thing is that first poke of the vaccine, scheduled in a couple hours. I hd a disturbing dream that the program was administered by the US Army I knew overseas, and I was late. Not a place you want to be with the Army. Ask the Afghans.

We will see how that goes, won’t we?

Copyright 2021 Vic Socotra
www.vicsocotra.com