Angry Bird

Acorn woodpeckers always look so crazed to me that it is actually difficult to tell if they are angry, ecstatic, wary or just having a really good bathe. Whatever he may have been feeling, I had to laugh when I saw how enthusiastically this one was positively wallowing  in our 'fountain' and how disheveled and, well, crazed he looked.
 
As the rat wars proceed, I find less and less to laugh about. The cost of getting them out of the attic and the crawl space under the house and closing up every quarter sized  or larger hole is horrendous, but so is the idea of doing it ourselves. I'm definitely using the royal 'we' here because I won't touch any of it with a barge pole, but I'm not keen on OilMan on the roof checking the 'roof Jacks" (whatever those are) when even RatMan wouldn't do it. We have been warned to be sure that all the recommended repairs are absolutely necessary, but isn't that why we called RatMan in the first place? It's making me crazy…a state I am familiar with from previous infestations in our Berkeley house. I tend to become a bit unhinged.

I broke my media silence last night to watch Chelsea Clinton introduce her mother and Hillary's acceptance speech. I was really impressed by Chelsea who, unlike her mother, has become a very poised young woman and a good speaker. Hillary always sounds a bit stentorian to me, but it was a historic moment, and she rose to it by pointedly saying that a man who says the country is a mess "…and I alone can fix it."  is dangerous, and that there are certainly things that need to be fixed, but that in a democracy "we will fix them together". Most moving of all, however, was the Pakistani immigrant whose son, a soldier, died in Iraq. He wondered if Hillary's opponent had 'ever read the constitution' and taking a very worn copy out said, "I'll loan you mine".

What fills me with despair is the fact that there are enough people in this country who seem to accept unquestioningly the dark, divisive, fearful, and demonstrably untrue  views of her opponent  to make the race even close….It does indeed make me question what kind of world we're living in.

As a nod to flower Friday, I'm including a picture in the extras of some little bunches of nasturtiums for sale at Chino Farms Produce. where we often go with my brother. It is a remarkable place with a story of its own, which you can read about here if you like.