Jaci Dawn

Today was gorgeous. I think it got up to 63°F, but I could be wrong. I put my flip-flops on. Remember when we called those “Thongs”? Yeah, not any more.

The bees were out all over the place, especially the small carpenter bees. People freak out about insects: bees, wasps, and arachnids (which are not actually insects) are at the top of the freak-out list. A friend posted a photo of paper wasps on her timeline on Facebook along with a hint on how to trap ‘yellowjackets’. Nice try, but the meat on a stick over a bucket of water doesn’t really work for paperwasps (they don’t eat meat, just other insects) or for yellowjackets this time of year (they’re not aggressive until the late summer when they are stockpiling for the winter).

The birds were busy in the yard: song sparrow, junco, scrub jay, robin, and northern flicker. The turkey vultures are home from their southern migration. Anna’s hummingbirds are everywhere, which brings me to the point of the birds conversation: poor little male Anna’s hummingbird made a mating dive overhead today that resulted in a disappointing “whirr” of wings. It should sound more like a loud “CHEEP!” as he pulls up and the air flows through his feathers. Don and I gave him a thumbs down, as did any esirable mating age female within hearing. Poor bachelor Anna’s hummingbird.

One of the crows has been hauling long sticks up into the tops of the neighboring Douglas fir trees. We think he is wooing a potential mate. No idea if his gifts are being accepted or not.

Twice today, I watched a fairy flit over the Hawthorne in the back yard. Most people refer to them as mayflies, but since you can never get a real good view of them without swatting and killing one, I think they are really fairies. Swat and kill one and they turn into insects to hide their true identities.

Lean back and watch, you know they are fairies.

New neighbors moved into the rental due north of us. We watched several U-Haul loads come and go yesterday. Today, there was no movement but there was a small trampoline in the backyard so either they have a small child or the woman is pregnant ant that’s her exercise stimulus. Bounce-bounce-bounce. BTDT. It didn’t work.

I conceived an idea yesterday but had to sit on it overnight. Today, I acted on it. I wrapped a pretty ribbon around a roll of toilet paper and hand wrote a note welcoming the new neighbor to the N’hood and introducing ourselves. Part of me thinks they might be very offended (“What? Our new neighbors think we can’t afford toilet paper?” or “what? We just moved in next to a TP hoarder?”

I really hope they get the irony of the gift: “There’s no Welcome Wagon anymore but we really value your presence in our community so much so that we will sacrifice a roll of toilet paper to welcome you”.

I was going to dry my laundry on the outdoor line, but I had a white rag disintegrate in the wash of (mostly) black items. Yeah, I had to rely on the dryer to filter that shit out. In my defense, it was supposed to just be a load of towels and I didn’t know the white rag was going to disintegrate. Yay for dryers.

I did hang our bed sheets out.

How are you surviving as of today?