The Squirrels Return?

Remember the scene in the 80's movie Poltergeist near the end where the little girl has been rescued and the family is getting ready to move and everyone thinks everything is okay, and then the light appears again under the closet door?  As the door slides open and the evil of the netherworld slithers out in the form of a demon clown and red-blood vessel tentacles, the little girl sitting on her bed, moans softly, "No more"?

That's what I feel  like with the squirrels.  We took the little buggers out and I'm hearing scrabbling noises again.  I think they're still on the outside though.  I'm pretty sure the thudding noises I heard earlier today were on our lower exterior roof, above the guest bath.  The furry rodents are trying to find a way in, I'm sure of it.  I'll blow up the house before I'll let them have it.  I used to like squirels until they invaded our home.  Now I jump out of my skin if I see one within three feet of the house.

"SQUIRRELS GO HOME." That's the sign I'm going to post on our roof.

If only the little buggers could read.

Peacock On The Loose

We live in an odd town.  The first week we moved here we noticed a man walking a pig on a leash and the pig easily weighed in at 200 lbs.  That was his pet pig and he walked it every day and when the pig died some years back, the whole town went into mourning and 3 local papers covered it.

Now we have peacocks.  The picture below was taken by our neighbor across the street.  The bird was behind their house and was a good 6-feet in length from head to tail feathers.  Remember Spike the great hunter cat from my earlier post?  Well, this bird was in Spike's back yard.  According to Spike's owners, Pat & Donny, Spike watched the bird from about a 3-feet distance but declined to get any closer.  He must have thought that was the mother of all birds.

Pat and Donny took the photo you see here and e-mailed it around the block.  My favorite reply is from a neighbor who e-mailed back, "If you catch it, I have a great recipe for peacock stew."

Pat's brother who was in town visiting followed the bird up the street, where it took a left at a house with a small pond outfront and then flew about 10 feet in the air to perch in a tree.  I would have liked to see a bird that size flying.  I always thought peacocks gave little hop-jumps more than took flight.  Looks like I was wrong.

What's next?  Elephants in the garden?

 

50 Pictures On A Sunday Morning...(that'll wake you up!)

I've been using one photo for the past several years as my "author headshot" and this morning decided it was time to make some changes.  I got up, showered, put on makeup and carefully styled my hair, then asked Blair to take some close-ups of me with the digital camera.  Needless to say, the morning came close to ending in tears...

My face is not symmetrical.  A small thing in life to complain about, surely, but a flaw nonetheless.  I read an article in some semi-scientific magazine once (I was waiting at my doctor's office) and in it they discussed a study that found that we like to look at people with symmetrical features.  I remember they used Denzel Washington as an example.  If you look at him straight on and draw a line down the center of his face, the right side mirrors the left.

Anyway, my left eye squinches shut when I smile and it gives me a lopsided look.  So I spent the morning trying to turn only the right side of my face toward the camera.  Poor Blair tried hard to keep me in good spirits as I looked at the proofs (I miss the good old days when we could wait a week to see how bad we looked on film) and muttered, "No, not that one.  No, not that one either," and then stalked into the bathroom to add on yet one more coat of lipstick.

We did get some okay shots.  These two are probably my favorite:

I'm going to have to bite the bullet someday soon and pay a professional photographer.  Blair is aching for a new digital camera and tried to convince me I'd look pretty if a new camera was taking the photo.  I wanted to believe him. =)

We also had to get some shots with the cats for the Afterword in the book.  Riiight.  Not a chance.  Here's the best photo we were able to get of Lucy. Notice how I've thrown myself on top of her to prevent her from leaving.

I'll share more pics later, including perhaps some "blooper" shots where the cats were leaping out of our arms as the flash went off.  Tricky little devils, they are.

Putting Off Work That Needs to Get Done

I'm teaching a new class at a community college on Saturday, July 16th called Get Published! The Ins & Outs of Magazine Submissionsand I'm not ready.  Oh sure, I know enough to talk my way through the three hour class, but I want the experience to be more.

I've had "work on course outline for magazine writing class" on my "To Do NOW" whiteboard for the past 2 months, and yet I've probably spent no more than 2 hours total on it.  It's not that I'm worried about getting it done--I always get everything done--but I want to produce quality work and if I throw it together last minute, it will be less than what I know I'm capable of.

There are 2 reasons I see for why I'm avoiding working on this.

1. First reason is that since I am a list-maker, nothing gives me greater joy in life than crossing items off my to-do list.  So I end up spending my time on small projects instead of tackling the big ones.

2. The real reason is I'm not sure what to expect.  I haven't taught the material yet so I can only guess how long it will take to cover each section.

I've taught my Scared Speechless course so many times I can adjust it to 30 minutes or 2 hours at whim.  I know how long it takes to cover the material in each section, I pretty much know by now what questions will be asked, and I feel confident steering the discussion.

This is all new and it's intimidating.  And probably the 3rd reason I'm not devoting time to it is I work best on deadline.  I don't like working on deadline, but I really do some of my best work. If I start too early on a project I'll spend 3 days mulling over a paragraph because I know I have the time to do so.  If the article is due tomorrow, I plow forward and get the s--- done.

Speaking of which, the "small" task on my to-do list was to blog about something.  The big one remains to work on the course.  Blair is out of the house at the property for the next 2-3 hours, the cats are comatose, it's Sunday so there's nothing good on TV--I have no excuse.  It's time to create a course.