 On
the way home from washing dishes and litter boxes I saw a
bald eagle perched on branch over the Merrimack. That was
the bird highlight of the day by far. I did go to the
refuge after my shift but the road was only partly open
and there were darn few birds around. No horned larks,
very few tree sparrows. Nothing flying. The only birds I
saw were hopping around on the ground at Hellcat. I think
that one white throated sparrow may actually think it's a
tree sparrow as it is always with them. Anyway, it was
cold and windy and I didn't stay long. I took the tour
de Merrimack route home minus the Chain Bridge, which
waits patiently for a barge bearing a crane to come to
its rescue. The bald eagle was near the bridge at Rocks
Village.
In cat news, Reebok, the huge white
blue-eyed male is back. Supposedly he bit someone. Cats
bite y'know. What's the big deal? Anyway, he's back and
working hard at becoming the dominant male. Apparently he
thinks the way to do this is to intimidate Beethoven by
hovering over him and sniffing his most intimate parts
until Beethoven hisses at him. Weird.
A new orange tabby kitten, Eddy,
just came in. His eyes are exactly the same color as his
fur. He's a study in amber. And he talks all the time
too. He meows until you come over and pet him. He meows
when you stop petting him. He meows when he makes eye
contact with you. He craves human companionship. He plays
with two or three toys at the same time. Cute doesn't
even begin to cover it. I bet he will be adopted before
this time next week.
Due to the lack of birds, I got
home really early so finally had time to put up the
curtain rod I bought a couple of weeks ago, using my new
drill, which I had to produce a picture id to buy
yesterday. The old drill had two problems when I tried to
do this project last week. One, the chuck key is missing.
That's surmountable. However, the second problem is the
chuck is rusted stuck. How did the drill get rusty
sitting in the tool box? Anyway, like I said, I bought a
new one at the hardware store. My driver's license was
sufficient id. Are drills classed as weapons now? So I
measured and drilled and mounted the mounting hardware
and lo and behold the rod itself is bent. It bows in the
middle. I can't straighten it. I put the curtains - well,
actually the door cloth I brought back from Tibet - up
anyway to finally block the draft from the bedroom
window. I had been kind of skeptical that this would
actually make the bedroom any warmer, but it did. Just in
time for below zero temps tonight.
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Today's Bird
Sightings
Plum Island
American tree sparrow 3
white throated sparrow 1
northern mockingbird 1
hooded merganser 2
red breasted merganser 1
Rocks Village,
Haverhill
bald eagle 1
common merganser 3
Today's Reading
The Measure of All Things by Ken Alder, Winter
World by Bernd Heinrich
This Year's Reading
2003
Book List
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