Started my day out in the swing on the porch this morning. Ate my bagel and cantaloupe watching the birds on the feeders. Dreary, depressing, cloudy day. Went for a walk with Penelope and watched a few squirrels running their circle laps around a big oak tree trunk. Ever watched squirrels run like this? They were fussing at each other. Looks like a game of squirrel tag. Actually turned my day around watching their antics. Put a smile on my face. Needed to find a smile today. Penelope was enthralled, too. She was too busy watching them to bark. Wondering research says this is a territorial behavior. Guess we’ll see a fight if they catch each other. The way the acorns fell this year, seems there should be enough to go around. Read they can remember the location of 9000 acorns but only need to eat two a day. Several places in my yard are so covered with acorns you can’t see the grass.

Had this crow doing a single caw forever this morning. Usually you hear a two-caw song from a crow. At first I thought it was a new bird visitor then I finally saw the crow in the top of an oak tree down the street. There is a murder of crows that carry on most mornings across the street. Tickles me that a group of crows is a murder. When they all get to cawing they sound like they’re committing a bird murder.

Did not see the resident vultures this morning, guess they were roosting somewhere. Several years ago Chief found a large egg in the barn near our garden. He brought the egg home to ask me what it was. Thought it might be a vulture egg because I had seen some vultures perched on the barn roof. Made him take it right back. Don’t know if it hatched or not. It was creepy to come home from work and have two or three vultures perched on the guest house roof. Thought they might be mad about Chief touching the egg. They scared me.

Got a letter from Boss Lady today. Knew it was about time to hear from her. She’s a faithful pen pal. She’s mastered the two-sided printing now. But I can’t figure how the back page came out upside down. My printer sucks the sheet back in the printer when it prints on the back of the paper. Now if we can figure out how to print an envelope we’ll be printer trained! I love getting letters in the mail. Already read her letter three times. Wished we lived closer so we could tea party with hoop cheese and crackers and pimento cheese sandwiches.

Used to love rainy, cloudy days like today. I’d lie on the bed in the library and read and Chief would sit in his rocking chair by the fireplace perusing his seed catalogs or reading a book. Sometimes we’d take a nap. Haven’t read a novel since he died. Just can’t concentrate. It’s like grief stole my love of reading. Used to read a novel almost every day. I’ve tried but just can’t get interested. Had the same response when Rosalyn died. Been doing lots of reading, though, on the internet. Love researching topics. Learned some interesting facts about squirrels and vultures and crows and acorns and television sets today. I think it would be really interesting to do research for a living. Maybe I need to read some of Chief’s encyclopedias. Do my research the old fashion way.

Did a little tv binge watching this afternoon on Netflix. Not much to watch on tv anymore. I was trying to remember when my family got our first color tv. Can’t remember but I remember my grandmother Big Ma had one before we did. The tvs were in those big wooden cabinets. My baby brother functioned as our remote control. When I moved to Alexander City I had a tiny black and white tv. Got struck by lightning soon after I moved and I never replaced it. Chief and I never had a tv till Thomas was four years old. One of our couple friends gave us a tv for Christmas with the reason being, “Thomas needs to be watching Sesame Street.” We had a tall tv antenna but don’t think we got anything but public tv. I can still hear the tv voice saying at night, “It’s ten PM. Do you know where your children are?” And the tv always played the Star-Spangled Banner before it went off for the night. When the national anthem was over the static sound came on. And in the mornings it would have a clock timer on the screen counting down the minutes till it came back on. Lots of mornings Thomas would sit in Chief’s big chair and watch the tv countdown. Remember the big backs that stuck out on the tvs and how heavy they were. We were still using those tvs till we moved to Roanoke. Now the tvs are Slim Jim’s, with hundreds of channels, continuous cartoons, and 24 hours of service.

Today’s world seems to be on a “full steam ahead” mode. Seems our pace gets faster each year. Everything is bigger and better and faster. I don’t know if anyone knows how to slow down and relax. Some retired folks say they’re busier now than when they worked. One of my friends told me, “I try to keep at least one day a week my PJ day which means I don’t get dressed all day.” What a great idea! Sometimes it’s okay to do nothing