Merganser Monday

 

First of all, congratulations to the Hoosiers on their perfect season and college football championship.

Today was so, so cold out. We had a relaxed morning; I meant to do some more plant care and cleaning, but instead I wrote to Mariah and screwed around on social media. Eventually Travalon and I did venture out to Sauk to see eagles; we saw a few eagles flying around, but mostly what we saw were mergansers. These are mostly common mergansers, and the white ones with black heads and red bills are males, while the gray ones with reddish-brown heads and perky crests are females.

In the following picture, it looks like a male goldeneye is pursuing a female merganser.

I don't know what these little birds on the phone line are, but they are cute.

Wait, what? There are still mallards around too? 

This looks like it could be a male red-breasted merganser, but it's hard to tell. It could be a female common merganser.

This guy is like, "I am outta here!"

And he's gone!

We stopped by Pheasant Branch to see if we could find the eagles' nest, but you must have to get out of the car to see it, and we were too cold. We did see three very cute deer up close, in someone's yard, and Travalon said if the deer were in his yard, he'd invite them in for some corn when it's so cold out.

Then we came home and I had an edible we had gotten in Galena, so a while ago but it didn't expire until this coming April. I remember taking a whole one and being way too stoned, and then I saw that it said to cut it in half. Why is this my problem? Why not just make two small ones instead of one big one? But I did their work for them for no pay, and... it seemed just as potent. Time slowed down, but music was amazing. I could hear each part of the music distinctly, and the lyrics seemed to stand out more. While in this state, I wrote another story in my story prompt journal, using the prompt, "The best thing that ever happened":

"The best thing that ever happened was that God became man and then died for our sins. That story has already been written by four other guys, maybe you've heard of them? Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. That's a lot of perspectives, but do you know whose is missing? A woman's! And I was right there to see it all - no, not Mary Magdalene - me, Johanna. At least one of them mentioned me being right there under the cross. Yeah, I saw it all, and could I tell you stories! Hmm, no advance and 20% of net sales? Let me think about it. I'm not in any hurry, people have already waited two thousand years to hear my side of things, they can wait a few more months. Just think, I can answer all your questions about Jesus, like how tall he was, what color his eyes were, whether he had a favorite song - you know, the things men never seem to remember. Is is best friend of thirty years married? He thinks so, and he's pretty sure her name is Pam, or is that the girlfriend he got after the divorce, or was that his friend John he was thinking of...? They have no idea."

OK, so pretty sexist at the end there, and really just a stream of conscience blather, not a story, although you get the idea she's pitching it to a literary agent. Then I got sucked into watching the football game. Travalon really wanted Indiana to win, but he also wanted Miami to make it a game, and they did - they were just about to win by one point when the ball was intercepted. Which reminds me, Wolverhampton got their first and (so far) only win on my birthday. If I were the huge fan instead of Travalon, I'd say that was a birthday present for me. But I'm still a bit stoned even all these hours later, so maybe I'll wrap up this post before it becomes as stream-of-concience as my "story."

Famous Hat