I think I must be getting jumpy.

The boys are on their way home. I think their first flight left about two hours ago. I caught the tail end of a news piece on the radio as as it was wrapping up.

"... jetliner veered off the runway and burst into flames late Tuesday"

My heart was in my throat until I could get to the computer and check the news websites and find out *where* the airplane has exploded.

Sudan.

I am deeply sad for the families of the dead and injured...but it's not my family, and I am a small enough person to be deeply grateful.

(This year has been rough, as many of you know. Minerva's death was the most recent, and the closest, but there have been far too many deaths in my world since Yule. And while I wouldn't ordinarily count a cat in the death toll, a short while after I buried Minerva, I found out that one of the first people to die shared my birthday. She was the third who did. Another shared Rod's birthday. The timing sort of felt like the Universe telling me not to be so sure it's over. It had been four months... I was hoping.)