Today Is...

Today is many things... It is Sunday, the seventh day of the week in the United States, and the first day of the week in most other countries. Today, during the televising of 60 minutes of American football, advertisers will pay $4 million to have a 30-second long commercial played. In other words, today is Super Bowl Sunday. And, 54 years ago today, it was "The Day the Music Died" with the loss of Buddy Holly, Richie Valens, and the Big Bopper in a plane crash in Iowa (and I am still thankful that Waylon Jennings was not on that plane as originally planned).
  It is once again a beautiful day outside - my kits have been playing inside and out for the past two hours. They've finally decided it's nap time again, so I can close the patio door. I did have a surprise last night; I was lazy, and dropped my jeans on the bathroom floor instead of placing them in the clothes hamper. I wandered back in a few minutes later, and just about freaked out when my jeans ran away from me... Lovey always used to get inside a pants leg and do this, so I laughed and said something, using Lovey's name. She burbled at me from the second shelf in the linen closet, so I had to giggle and talk to Nedi, who had finally poked a paw out of the leg...
  Let's see... bits and pieces of news: The past two nights have produced two more fires by the arsonist in Accomack County, Virginia. Friday night, an empty airplane hangar outside of Onley was burned, and last night, an abandoned barn near Parksley went up in flames. That's 45 arson fires since 12 November. .... Three hundred and sixty nine thoroughbreds have been entered into the early Triple Crown pool. All have paid their $600 early entrant fee. Only twenty, or fewer, will actually qualify to run, and will have kept paying entry fees by the first Saturday in May. Only one horse from a years crop is eligible to be a Triple Crown winner, out of the thousands born each year. .... Chris Kyle, a retired Navy SEAL and renowned sniper, was shot and killed at a rifle range in Texas yesterday afternoon. When I first read the news, all I could think of was, how, in the Old West, any man who was known to be good with a gun always had to be on the look-out for someone wanting to be known as the killer of so-and-so (fill in Jesse James, John Wesley Hardin, Billy the Kid, whoever). I wonder what this killer's motive was. .... And, I've been avoiding writing about the surreal hostage situation in Alabama. Why - what reason can be given - for kidnapping a 5-year-old boy with Asperger's Syndrome and hyperactivity, and holding him hostage in an underground bunker? The man who did this killed the school bus driver, in order to abduct his hostage. The child is, apparently, of no relation to the abductor. The abductor, according to his neighbors, doesn't like children. What is it that drives a man to such an extreme? What about the little boy? He must be frightened; and I don't believe that he can grasp why this is happening to him. I know that I just can't comprehend it....
   Addendum:  While Punxsutawney Phil did not see his shadow in Pennsylvania yesterday, Flatiron Freddy (here in Boulder) did see his shadow - which means six more weeks of Winter in Colorado.