Steve`s Country
For a smile as wide as a country sunrise
How Does It Happen?
Good morning everyone out there providing you are reading this in the morning. Otherwise I can’t say good morning if you are not reading this in the morning, and I really hope that you are reading this otherwise…hmm, there goes my opening sentence. Sigh. Lost track of what I wasn’t saying before I had a chance to not say it, so, therefore, I won’t bother trying to remember what it was I was going to say, since it likely wasn’t important anyway. Sigh.
Anyway, this post is from the past, mainly, except a bit about the weather which really wasn’t much different. It’s fall. Or autumn, if you prefer. There is definitely a coolness in the air even though the days are, well, sometimes still sort of warm and sometimes sunny. Though more often than not it is cloudy, cool and rainy. It’s fall. There is definitely a noticeable coolness in the air. Things are suddenly different than summer. Of course there is the obvious. The changing colors of the leaves. Birds are heading south, going to warmer places for the winter. Other birds are coming in to replace them.
Years ago, while I was still feeding birds and other critters the blue jays would be busy now. And noisy. And looking for food. Always looking for food. But they can be good to have around. If any danger enters the area, such as a hawk, they let everyone know. Loud and clear. And everyone takes heed. Heading to the nearest place of safety. Which for Sylvester, one of my chipmunks, meant cuddling in as close to me as he could, hiding in close to my right arm and behind my left hand. Shaking a bit. But he knew he was safe. And yet, just nine days previous he wouldn’t even come close to me.
Now it’s like we have been friends all summer. Summer. Sigh. It is so short. And gone. It is fall. And rather on the cool side again today. It was only 54F today, that’s 12C. The hot days of summer are definitely gone. Muffin used like it much better. She was an odd type. She loved to lay in the sun, soaking up that heat. But she doesn’t like heat. Amazing. Back then there was another new chipmunk in the group. His name was Checker. Mainly because I was thinking of checkers at the time. The game of checkers. Anyway, for a couple of weeks Checker was around but wouldn’t come near me. Much like Sylvester.
But one Friday he finally came and took a peanut from me. Now, just the following Tuesday he was crawling all over me just like the rest of them. That certainly didn’t take long. Amazing what you can do with peanuts. Everyone loves peanuts. I went through a lot of peanuts. But what can I do? From small to large, everyone eats peanuts. How am I supposed to say no? Sigh. There was a couple of black bears around that summer. One was about 400 pounds. And yes, they will eat peanuts too! And most anything else. Which is why I really would prefer they didn’t come around.
Muffin agreed. She did not like bears. One was on my deck one night. Not where I live now, where I used to live. I live 6 stories high now, I doubt a bear could climb up here. Speaking of peanuts. One Rusty was on my lap getting some peanuts from me when one of the rock doves decided to let loose and poop on my arm with a great big wet one! It splattered. Naturally. Made me groan rather loudly and move my arm rather quickly. That, of course, scared poor Rusty. And he took off as quick as he could. And peed all over my leg. For such a little critter he sure had a big bladder.
That made me groan a bit more. I was sitting on the steps at the time. So I put my hand down to give myself a little push to get up. Another groan. My hand landed in more fresh bird poop. Sigh. How do things like this always happen to me? How? Things never happen to anyone else. Or at least they don’t admit it. Sigh. Like the other night (not here, at my previous place) heading off to the bathroom. In the dark. And I walk through a spider web.
Another night I went to drink some water, I always keep a glass of water handy, and there was a spider web over the top of the glass! That was not at all nice. It’s enough to make a person jump up and down, pull their hair (which is getting harder to do), bang their head against the wall, fall on the floor (what do you expect after banging your head on the wall?), and, and…AAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! It’s okay. I’m calm. I’m fine. Sigh.
Fortunately I have not seen any spiders in this apartment in the 3 years I have been living here. I did see one in the laundry room once, but that is on the main floor, far from my apartment. Anyway, fall can be nice. Those beautiful colors. Crisp mornings with frost on the ground. It’s what comes after it that takes all the fun from fall. The first winter forecast issued says we will have a long, cold, and snowy winter. In other words, normal. Sigh. Oh well. I hope you all enjoy your week, and God bless!
Steve. ©2026 Steve McLeod.
The Investigators, Inc. Part 2, The Mysterious Mr. Flynn. Chapter 7.
Mr. Flynn was furious to find out that Aari knew her real name of Donna and she wanted to know why. So, she had Roy, her main computer man and bookkeeper, to check on one of her men named Oliver. Sure enough, he had an extra deposit of $10,000 in his bank account on the same day that Aari and his men arrived in the city. “Get Oliver in here, and I mean NOW!” shouted Donna. Walter called a couple of men to bring Oliver to see Donna right away and they did so, very quickly indeed.
“Where did you get this extra money Oliver?” asked Donna. “Uh, I, um, don’t quite remember,” he answered, stumbling over his words. “How much information did you give to that Aari Jensen in order to be paid so much money?” she asked again. “Oh, hey wait, I didn’t sell out Donna, I wouldn’t do that!” he said nervously. “No, I don’t know that Oliver,” she replied, “what I do know is that the same day Jensen shows up, you suddenly have an extra $10,000 in your bank account that you can’t explain. I reward those who are loyal to me, but I despise traitors Oliver. Take him for a drive Walter.”
Walter then took Oliver out in their yacht and came back some time later without him. He and the other men with him returned to the house. But, while he was gone two of their patrolling drones were shot down. Then the alarm was set off again upstairs, this time in a second floor bedroom. Again it was a broken window which the intruder left open. “Close all access to the second floor and find that person!” yelled Donna, “I want him this time and I don’t want any excuses!” But, she will have to accept what she calls excuses since her men were unable to find any intruders.
However, they did find two broken vases in two different rooms which proved someone had been inside. But, since the broken vases were in rooms far apart from each other, how could the person move around that quickly from the time the alarm was sounded. That was the time the intruder entered the house, so this was not making sense to the men who were searching. Just as they were about to quit, one of the men heard something and turned to look down the hall. He spotted someone looking out the door of a room at the far end of the hall.
“There’s someone!” he exclaimed and all the men ran back to that room, even though they had checked it already. They came into the room with their guns out, but dropped them right away yelling about them being too hot to hold. Then they saw a young woman standing in front of them and the fight was on! The men lost the fight however, but they did try hard. There are security cameras in all the rooms, so Donna, Walter and Roy were watching the action.
“It actually looks like they are fighting with others,” said Walter. “Yep,” added Roy, “I wonder if they practice this or does it come naturally to them?” “They are very good actors,” admitted Donna, “but I don’t need actors, I need security people to watch over me and my little house. Finally all the men were lying on the floor, knocked unconscious. The camera was unable to pick up Sky so it just looked like the men were pretending to fight someone. “Go get those miserable men,” said Donna, “I want to hear their equally miserable account of this fight. It just might give me something to laugh about.”
While this was going on Sky decided to take a look in the basement and she couldn’t believe the size of that safe! “No wonder she doesn’t need to use a bank to keep her money,” Sky thought to herself. However, she could see no way to open that safe which means she needs Mac to open this one. But for now she went back to the hotel to report what she found to Kat. Kat had been hoping Donna might decide to flee from her house, or come out to fight. The team can’t really do much to her as long as she remains in her house.
We also need some evidence that she has committed murders, or ordered murders done by her men. So far we don’t have any evidence against her at all. If this keeps up we might have to leave her alone. She is very smart keeping herself distant from any crimes. Then Donna told Walter to take these men out and lose them somewhere, she can get others to work for her quite easily. Since it was already night Walter decided to take these men to some secluded spot in a wooded area he knew about.
However, Sky had returned and she went along with these men and communicated with Kat where they were going. Kat was trying to figure out the best way to handle this. Just as the men were finishing up covering the shallow graves, the police drove up. Quite a few police officers. Seems they were tipped off by someone and it wasn’t us. That means Donna contacted the police herself. I guess she doesn’t trust Walter anymore either. But, will he be ready to turn on her now? We will soon find out…
To Be Continued. ©2026 Steve McLeod.
