Christopher Donahue

my wife, cat and I

having Thanksgiving dinner

just us happy three

copyright 2020 Christopher Donahue

autumn leaves swirl down

Thanksgiving T.V. dinners

covid continues

copyright 2020  Christopher Donahue

          Space was the theme of this year’s Friends of the West Roxbury Library Poetry Contest.  Here is my contribution that won honorable mention in the adult section.

Felix

the other day

my cat passed away

bundled in his old bed

held snugly in my arms

on the back porch

in the sunshine

the vet administered the shot

and in his new stillness

the space between us

revealed now as

impossible

and

real

copyright 2020 Christopher Donahue

Yesterday, some friends and I hiked up Mt. Monadnock in southern New Hampshire. It was a gorgeous Fall day and the mountain was a wonderful vantage from which to enjoy the foliage.

As we chatted on the socially-distanced hike up, we were astonished that the last time we climbed Monadnock was five years ago. At that time, we founded the Dirty Mountain Bastard (DMB) hiking club. And while we had all hiked somewhere and sometime in the intervening years, we were astonished to realize it had been half-a-decade since the DMBs had all assembled for the first time on that mountainside. The Dirty Mountain Bastards are Robert Christian, Denis Fleming, Dax Bayerd-Murray, and myself.

Much has changed in the world in those five-years. And, it is with a grateful heart that I can appreciate all the Dirty Mountain Bastards are still around and healthy enough to go for a hike!

Onward DMBs!!!

copyright 2020 Christopher Donahue

And off he went into the night…

That was my eighty-nine year old Dad, riding off in an ambulance on the way to the emergency room. It was late on a warm Friday night. We called an ambulance because of discomfort he felt from a routine procedure he underwent earlier in the day. And, because he is eighty-nine years old, we did not want to take chances. The EMTs arrived in a big, box-like van from the fire department. They loaded my father inside. My Dad and I gave each other a wave and an “I love you” and off he went.

But what was really incredible is we couldn’t follow him because of Covid protocols. No visitors in the emergency room. My sister and I were left standing in front of my childhood home wondering if that was the last time we would see him alive. In normal times, we would be frantically getting all our stuff together to go and camp out at the emergency room with him. As word would go out, other family members would stop in at the emergency room and give their support.

But not in the age of Covid.

Now, I’m not arguing with the wisdom of those protocols. Everything worked out fine and my Dad is home happy and healthy. But, it was shocking to be confronted with yet another Covid reality we had not anticipated.

Standing there on a warm night, in quiet sleepy suburbia, with my father taken away, I felt like I was in a Ray Bradbury sci-fi short story. Like the kind I used to read growing up in my childhood home.

The Covid-19 pandemic can not be over soon enough.

Copyright Christopher Donahue 2020

In bad times, it is important to try to focus on what is good and true and beautiful.

Early today, I went out to exercise and enjoy the last of these summer mornings. I Stretching out, I noticed bumblebees on some nearby flowers. There was one bumble per flower. They weren’t moving. I thought they were dead. A poignant reminder summer was coming to an end, Fall and Winter soon to follow.

But then I realized they were sleeping. There was one bumble per flower. The must have been doing their thing when the sun went down and temperature dropped, they just froze in place.

I leaned over and gently breathed on them and they started coming to life.

How cool was that?

Copyright 2020 Christopher Donahue

When bad things happen in nice weather.

That sums up the largely forgettable  Covid-summer of 2020.  I always hate to see summer end, but this year everything feels different. It is very strange to see August draw to a close while feeling like summer never really arrived. Because of pandemic concerns, we missed our usual summer out-of-state-getaways. No summertime trips to the Green Mountains of Vermont for instance. We did make several day trips to Nantasket beach which were great.

On a brighter note, there were some happy occurrences. One of those was slipping out of the house at 2:30 AM to see some shooting stars. It was mid-August, I couldn’t sleep and the Perseid meteor shower was at its peak.  And, fortuitously, the skies were clear.

I went out  early morning and lay on the grass and looked at the stars. Barefott, in shorts and a t-shirt  I also had a pint of vanilla ice cream to help me bide my time until I saw a meteor.  My rule is always  not to go in until I see a shooting star. It was a lovely evening.  The air was still and warm.   All i needed was patience.

After twenty minute or so I saw one shooting star.  That was it.  The Perseid was not that active this year.  Mission accomplished, it was time to go inside to bed.   And the vanilla ice cream was finished too.

Perfect.

copyright 2020 Christopher Donahue

It is hard to beat laying on the lawn on a warm summer night looking for shooting stars.   And that’s what i was doing last night, a little bit after midnight.   I was continuing a long family tradition of watching the Perseid meteor showers.

The air was warm and still. Crickets were chirping nearby. And the stars were out. I lay back in shorts and a t shirt, barefoot and felt like a kid on summer vacation looking at the stars.

Unfortunately, I didn’t see any shooting stars after twenty minutes and went to bed.   This wasn’t all that surprising considering the peak of the meteor shower was still days away. And the clouds creeping in and light pollution in suburban Boston didn’t help.

But it was still a wonderful summertime experience to savor in the moment. I will keep my vigil up the next few days to see if I can view et a good burst of meteor activity.  The weather report says there might be rain so who know if I will see any.

I will have to keep trying. Good thing I have the week off!

It takes patience to see the Perseids!

copyright 2020 Christopher Donahue

July 2020 has been remarkable for many reasons: the continuation of working from home due to Covid, a bear visiting my elderly Dad’s back yard, and comet Neowise appearing in the summer night sky.

But tragically, July 2020 is most notable for a freak injury to my beloved cat Felix. Three days ago Felix injured his back wrassling with his brother Quiet Rustle.  Felix has not been able to use his hind legs since then.

My wife and I are heartbroken. Felix is alert this morning. And he is magnificently beautiful as ever. But,  the back legs are still not responding to treatment. There’s not much more I can express now. Gratefully, we are working at home so we can be with him.

I know he’s just a cat but he has brought so much joy to us these past ten years.

I just wish I could hold and have Felix forever.

Copyright 2020 Christopher Donahue

I first met Bad Bear years ago. Back then, my wife’s family had an old farmhouse up in Vermont. The house was situated on an old dirt road in the heart of a National Forest. We didn’t realize it at the time, but that particular forest was right in the middle of Bar Bear’s stomping grounds. We began to suspect the wily black bear was around when apple pies that were cooling on the window sill started disappearing. Then other things like the last beer of a six pack or the last piece of pizza would disappear in the night. No one would accept responsibility and my wife suspected me! Eventually, after much discord, we finally realized the culprit could only be that ursine rascal Bad Bear!

Life moves on and situations change. I lost track of Bad Bear after the old farm house was sold. Years went by and then one day I got a call from my elderly dad who lives in western Massachusetts. He told me someone, or something, was tearing down his bird feeders at night.

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Honestly, when I heard the feeders were being ripped down I didn’t initially suspect Bad Bear. But as I drove out to my Dad’s house and I began to wonder. My Dad’s house was only thirty miles form southern Vermont. That’s not a far distance for a black bear to travel. I set up a motion-sensor trail cam aimed at the bird feeders then return out east.  After a week of the camera taken motion activated pictures I went to check the results. Sure enough, there was a black bear tearing down the bird feeder.  Unfortunately, we didn’t get a picture of the bear’s face to know for sure if it was Bad Bear.

We will just have to wait to see if beer and pizza start disappearing!

Copyright 2020 Christopher Donahue