Random Ramblings

My MacBook Pro, Boethius, is eight years old, and he is getting grumpy. Now he takes ten minutes to boot up in the morning, and last night when I told him to close iTunes, he still hadn't done it twenty minutes later. I told him again and went to do the dishes so he had time to think about what a bad computer he was being, and then he did shut it down. But today he didn't want to shut down Remote Desktop (which is how I get into my work computer) for anything, and I can't get a more up-to-date computer because I've spent all my money on antique rosaries. I was trying to sign out of work because I had my first-ever remote doctor's appointment, to talk about how my eye sometimes gets weird. The physician's assistant didn't think it would lead to anything serious like anaphylactic reaction, but she was horrified to hear that Travalon and I go to Mass with a bunch of people who don't wear masks, when I asked her if receiving on the tongue is just as safe as receiving on the hand. So now I have a doctor's excuse not to go to Mass, and anyway there is no obligation right now.

Today was a strange day: I woke up early from a bad dream, but work was fine, and Travalon and I took a short boat ride to enjoy the beautiful day. In the evening we were supposed to go see fireworks, but they are actually tomorrow, and we have other plans then. So I tried to get a hold of Tiffy to tell her I could talk after all, but she never responded to my call or my texts. Then I thought, I'll just do Night Prayer and that will cheer me up, but the Dairyman's Daughter was leading tonight, and she was having technical troubles. Her laptop wouldn't charge even when it was plugged in! So she was doing it from her phone, but then she couldn't share her screen or switch it over for someone else to share. Rich took over, so Night Prayer did happen a little late, but he can't lead tomorrow, and she can't unless her computer starts behaving, and I will be busy with Tiffy, so that's that - no Night Prayer. This may be a first since we started doing it.

One crazy thing that happened today was when I looked out the window and saw a surprisingly large animal in the tree. I see little birds and squirrels all the time, but this freaked me out for a second, until I realized it was nothing more than your standard trash panda.

How weird that I have never seen a raccoon around here before. I have certainly heard them. We seem to have everything here, we just haven't seen it all yet. After all, we had been here six years before we saw our first neighborhood turkey. This morning two of the crane families were yelling at each other, but it didn't seem to be anything unfriendly, because then they were all hanging out. I have been told by people who speak both Mandarin and Cantonese that you always sound angry when you're speaking in Cantonese, even when you're definitely not, so maybe Crane is like the Cantonese of bird languages. We also have coyotes, and apparently they sound like they speak Famous Hat language, because one night they were howling like crazy, and Travalon kept saying, "What's that, honey?" but I hadn't said anything.

Famous Hat