!Barred owls
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agk's diary
15 June 2024 @ 06:37 UTC
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written on GPD Win 1
after biking home from party at bugz' house
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Evy let me sleep yesterday. I was so tired. She was
incredible, rapidly pulling together a panel with
our friends, one freshly back from working in a
hospital in Gaza, the other freshly back from doing
humanitarian relief with ethnically cleaned Gazans
in Cairo. It was last night, nightmare material.
Eva said Palestinian doctors and nurses worked 3
24-hour shifts a week, but since 7 international
staff were killed by Israeli drone at night,
internationals self-imposed a dusk to dawn curfew.
It was hard to sleep. No earplugs blocked out the
sound of Israeli drones that flew so close to where
she tried to sleep she felt their rotor downdraft.
This morning I was up at 4:30 scything while the
dew was on the grass. I borrowed a short-handled
American scythe from my AA sponsor, who's used it
for over 40 years. I keep it sharp with a kitchen
knife sharpener. It's arms and shoulder work
("playing golf") unlike an Austrian scythe, which
is supposed to be rotating, hip and trunk work
("doing tai chi"). It lays the cut grass in neat
windrows, and feels like a bicycle for my arms.
Tonight I rode my 1970s Schwinn Varsity road bike
on trails through the woods to bugz' house for the
party. It handled just fine on rough and gravel
ground. I came upon 2 barred rock owls standing on
the ground, beaks touching. As I approached enroute
to bugz', they swiveled their heads, looked at me,
and took off. All big wings and majesty, they think
slowly, but long.
