Good Stuff

~~This morning when we walked, the small park (which has no trees or other landscaping and is primarily a place where the uncivilized allow their dogs to crap (there’s one well-dressed businessman who used to come every day at noon and let his little dog out to crap in the park while he sat in his SUV and waited. Never cleaned up a thing) (the people in the neighborhood, on the other hand, carry plastic bags and pick up after their dogs)) was full of dragonflies. They were gorgeous, their wings flashing gold in the sunlight as they flew just above grass level. We went around the block twice to admire them. We were trying to figure out if they were eating or mating or laying eggs—they’d fly the width of the park and then, when they reached the edge, turn and fly back. Hundreds of them. Even the mockingbirds and grackles seemed bemused.

~~Candy the Squirrel is getting ready for winter, burying the pecans we give her instead of eating them. This is cute but very silly, as 1) it doesn’t get that cold in the winter and so 2) she’s here all winter long and 3) we feed her pecans all winter long so that 4) she forgets where she put the pecans, and 5) they sprout and come up and 6) The EGE tries to save them and transplant them, which is nigh until impossible, what with that long, fragile taproot. So I go out and give her pecans and tell her just to eat them, and she buries them, thinking surely this year we’re going to abandon her and she will need them. The EGE grouses at her about messing up his lawn. She, chubby and determined, ignores him. All this drives the cats nuts as they watch from the window. She sits outside, up on her hind legs, her front paws folded over her belly, and stares at them. A mighty insult. They’ve been in the window all morning, watching her, unbelieving. How can she be so bold? Right now she’s taking a break, stretched out along a limb in the cedar tree.

~~the turtles show up in the morning so The EGE can feed them the dried-up, leftover cat food from the night before. He’s trying to train them to come to the sound of the spoon scraping the plastic bowl. They’re getting better—they almost always show up if he turns on the hose and lets the water run.

~~our neighbors way down the block have a stand of blue mist that’s been filled every day with queen butterflies. You can stand beside it and have them swirl all around you. I keep meaning to go down and take a video before they leave. Maybe I should go do that now--

What’s good in your world today?