'Mea culpa'...is the best we can come up with...
Maybe it was just inevitable...
Bob and I were sitting on the porch swing Monday evening in the still and sultry air of a May evening in Southern Illinois.
Off to the west, the last light of the day was fading away...along the horizon was a line of grayish blue clouds...perhaps offering a hint of a stormy Tuesday and Wednesday which were possible this week...
I thought I heard an owl calling off the distance. Closer, a mockingbird was putting on its final performance of the day...imitating all sorts of its feathered cousins...maybe even making up some notes...how could I know?
That’s when I saw it. And then another. And another. Moments later, I heard high-pitched buzzing close to my right ear.
Drat. The first winged, six-legged, blood-sucking insects of the season had made their pretty much unwelcomed appearance. As in mosquitoes. At least they waited until May 6.
I guess that must mean that the gazillion cicadas which are about to make their 2024 appearance are about to take the stage. Can’t wait...
Meanwhile...
Sometimes, a wise choice would have been to just say enough is enough...we’ll try again next week...
Last week, your writer wandered his way through what I’m assuming was some sort of respiratory affliction. Apparently, the ailment has been “going around.” Misery loves company, I suppose.
While experiencing whatever it was that I was experiencing, I got to wondering if people still get good, old-fashioned head colds these days. With all of the other stuff that’s been going around for the last few years, I don’t even know if a head cold is still a “thing.”
Even though my brain waves were not operating on all of their cylinders, I managed to put together a story which appeared in our Monday publication about an upcoming event, which I am pretty sure some folks in these parts would have liked to have experienced.
Trouble is, the “upcoming” event which I wrote about had come and gone. It was history.
I also noticed that I even managed to put the wrong date on one of the pages I created in last week’s paper. At least I had the right month. I think.
In the words of some dead ancient Roman guy: “Mea culpa.” I wonder if the first person who uttered those words spoke them after something ended up in the newspaper that should not have been there...