Five, four, three, two, one . . .

We are in a holding pattern. One storm has passed us on the west and another system is trying to take aim from the east.

I remember during a flight to Washington DC, we were in a descending holding pattern which took us repeatedly over the Pentagon. Because of its regular shape, it was hard to tell when we revolved around the building. As it appeared and disappeared, through gaps in the cloud cover, it seemed to be growing in size, all by itself. Our approaching nearer seemed to have nothing to do with its changing size. It was like sitting in a parked vehicle and watching a moving train or bus nearby. The car sometimes can feel as if it is moving backward instead of the other vehicle going forward.

Our lives are stationary like that, at present. Traffic is light, shoppers in the grocery store almost non-existent, no one in our neighborhood is mowing or edging. Home Depot is busy but not extraordinarily so.

We are watching the images of the storms and hoping that as they approach they will shrink away, all by themselves . . .