Short week, sorta
Nov. 22nd, 2007 09:56 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
altivoHappy Thanksgiving to all the USians. Don't eat too much. Do remember the rest of the world.
Proof of how busy things have been for the last week or so: I just found last week's uncashed paycheck in the book bag I carry to and from work. I think someone handed it to me on Tuesday (payday was Friday, but I was at MFF) and I absent-mindedly stuffed it in there and forgot it. Fortunately I don't ever cut things so close that a delay in getting it deposited matters, but it would sure be a problem if I completely forgot to do that.
Post-con high is beginning to wind down, mostly due to exhaustion. As usual, I cooked turkey, stuffing, and gravy last night after I got home, and carved the turkey all up neatly and put it into a covered tray to transport to Gary's mom's house today. Got to bed at about 2 am, which is WAY past my bedtime, only to get up at 7 am so we could take care of the critters and I could bake pies. I have to say, the romance and thrill of the holiday season has long ago left me. More and more, it becomes a round of chores you have to do in order to keep others happy.
I'd much rather do nice things for people spontaneously, and when it's unexpected, than feel obligated to do it because the calendar says it's a particular date, based on a tradition that is not of such great significance to me.
So. We still have lots of the little red breasted nuthatches hanging about. Nuthatches are among the silliest birds I've ever watched. For some reason, they are hard wired by instinct to collect much more food than they could ever eat, and hide it in the cracks and crevices of tree bark. Normally a squirrel comes along, or some larger bird, and it eats whatever they've collected, but they're so busy collecting more they never even notice.
Last week I observed one of these little red breasted guys carrying shelled peanuts away from the feeder one by one, and taking them to the barn. He would land on the door to Archie's stall and do something with them. I figured he must be wedging them into the wood somehow, and when I went to put the horses in, I found that he was stacking them in a neat row on the cross-brace outside the door. I left them alone, but the wind is surely going to clean his stash out before long.
This morning Gary told me he watched a white breasted nuthatch yesterday stuffing sunflower seeds into the crack between one of the barn doors and the wall. The bird was flying back and forth from the feeder to the barn, bringing one seed on each trip. Inside the barn, there were mice lined up to take the sunflower seeds as soon as they appeared in the crevice. I tell you, it's a conspiracy and they do really know what they're doing. The birds and the mice are going to gang up on us and take over soon.
First snow last night. The ground was too warm, so most of it melted, but there's a little crunchy crust of snow on the grass blades and fallen leaves where it wasn't in contact with the earth.
Gotta go, more to do. Have a safe holiday everyone.
Proof of how busy things have been for the last week or so: I just found last week's uncashed paycheck in the book bag I carry to and from work. I think someone handed it to me on Tuesday (payday was Friday, but I was at MFF) and I absent-mindedly stuffed it in there and forgot it. Fortunately I don't ever cut things so close that a delay in getting it deposited matters, but it would sure be a problem if I completely forgot to do that.
Post-con high is beginning to wind down, mostly due to exhaustion. As usual, I cooked turkey, stuffing, and gravy last night after I got home, and carved the turkey all up neatly and put it into a covered tray to transport to Gary's mom's house today. Got to bed at about 2 am, which is WAY past my bedtime, only to get up at 7 am so we could take care of the critters and I could bake pies. I have to say, the romance and thrill of the holiday season has long ago left me. More and more, it becomes a round of chores you have to do in order to keep others happy.
I'd much rather do nice things for people spontaneously, and when it's unexpected, than feel obligated to do it because the calendar says it's a particular date, based on a tradition that is not of such great significance to me.
So. We still have lots of the little red breasted nuthatches hanging about. Nuthatches are among the silliest birds I've ever watched. For some reason, they are hard wired by instinct to collect much more food than they could ever eat, and hide it in the cracks and crevices of tree bark. Normally a squirrel comes along, or some larger bird, and it eats whatever they've collected, but they're so busy collecting more they never even notice.
Last week I observed one of these little red breasted guys carrying shelled peanuts away from the feeder one by one, and taking them to the barn. He would land on the door to Archie's stall and do something with them. I figured he must be wedging them into the wood somehow, and when I went to put the horses in, I found that he was stacking them in a neat row on the cross-brace outside the door. I left them alone, but the wind is surely going to clean his stash out before long.
This morning Gary told me he watched a white breasted nuthatch yesterday stuffing sunflower seeds into the crack between one of the barn doors and the wall. The bird was flying back and forth from the feeder to the barn, bringing one seed on each trip. Inside the barn, there were mice lined up to take the sunflower seeds as soon as they appeared in the crevice. I tell you, it's a conspiracy and they do really know what they're doing. The birds and the mice are going to gang up on us and take over soon.
First snow last night. The ground was too warm, so most of it melted, but there's a little crunchy crust of snow on the grass blades and fallen leaves where it wasn't in contact with the earth.
Gotta go, more to do. Have a safe holiday everyone.
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no subject
Date: 2007-11-22 05:02 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-11-22 05:04 pm (UTC)Gives you a +10 charisma for that comment.
no subject
Date: 2007-11-22 11:45 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-11-22 05:02 pm (UTC)I do remember once doing that myself. @.@
We found the check being used, of all things, as
a bookmark in one of Will Durants huge tomes.
Fortunetly it was within a year of being cut,
so we suddenly had more cash.
Indeed we shall have a safe holiday, not traveling
like so many. I think its 39 million this year,
pretty much like the entire population of Canada
moving. For us its a short drive and then home.
You have a good Thanksgiving, tug Gary's tail,
but only if he doesn't fart.
XD
no subject
Date: 2007-11-22 11:47 pm (UTC)Our travel is about 120 miles, but it does make Gerri's day for her. She'd have had no other visitors otherwise.
no subject
Date: 2007-11-22 05:33 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-11-22 11:57 pm (UTC)In my lifetime, the emphasis of the holiday has shifted radically away from the religious to the secular, in which huge numbers of people overeat and overdose on televised football games. In very recent years, it has been hailed as the kick-off of the Christmas shopping season, with stores opening at midnight to start their Friday sales before the competition. This year, with the economic climate looking pretty grim, they are even opening on Thursday, before the once-sacred family dinners are ended. People are bashing each other over the head with umbrellas and shopping baskets trying to get the best bargains on consumer crap and trendy television-launched toys this very minute.
no subject
Date: 2007-11-22 05:58 pm (UTC)The other thing about this time of year...you can hardly catch your breath between the deluge of Thanksgiving and the insanity that is Christmas, and then after Christmas...BOOM....nothing...nada...zilch...for months. No wonder January, February, and March seem like they're 11 months long! Somebody really loses points for the holiday schedule.
Nuthatches have always been fun to watch...although I didn't realize they stored food like that. They always struck me as a very silly-looking bird :)
Have a good holiday :)
no subject
Date: 2007-11-23 12:00 am (UTC)Yeah, it's become too commercial. See comment to
no subject
Date: 2007-11-22 11:17 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-11-23 12:01 am (UTC)...still sleepy.
Date: 2007-11-25 05:16 pm (UTC)1. My workplace had a pot luck hing, which mainly conissted of soda & fried chicken
2. my mother decided to return to tradition & make a tukey, complete with potatoes, pickled beets & cranberries.
3. I went to visit my ex and his roomates & ha fish & chips for the day after T day :P
So the mice & birds are working together? Egads, what's next?
Re: ...still sleepy.
Date: 2007-11-26 01:14 am (UTC)I love pickled beets. I even know how to make them myself, though I haven't done it for several years. Time to try it again. We add caraway seeds to the vinegar and sugar. It makes a whole different nuance to the result.
Re: ...still sleepy.
Date: 2007-11-26 09:31 pm (UTC)Re: caraway seeds
Date: 2007-11-26 09:49 pm (UTC)Re: caraway seeds
Date: 2007-11-26 09:51 pm (UTC)Re: caraway seeds
Date: 2007-11-26 09:52 pm (UTC)Re: caraway seeds
Date: 2007-11-26 09:54 pm (UTC)Re: caraway seeds
Date: 2007-11-26 09:57 pm (UTC)Re: caraway seeds
Date: 2007-11-26 10:15 pm (UTC)Re: caraway seeds
Date: 2007-11-26 10:19 pm (UTC)Re: caraway seeds
Date: 2007-11-26 10:22 pm (UTC)Re: caraway seeds
Date: 2007-11-26 10:46 pm (UTC)