Sheltering in Place

I think I've told the story of this birdhouse before, but I can't find the entry, so bear with me. Once upon a time, years ago in San Francisco, we were walking from the DeYoung Museum to one of our favorite restaurants, Burma Star. This has the sense of a fairy tale already--it was a time when we went freely to the city, and the museums were open, and, oh, do you remember restaurants?  And on this walk we passed a beautifully painted Victorian with an interesting garden. There on the steps was this  remarkable artifact, a birdhouse in the shape of a cat's face with a wide open mouth. Could it have been meant as a joke? I don't know, but I was charmed by it and stopped to take a few pictures. A guy came out of the house and said, "You like it? here, you can have it," and suddenly I was holding a wooden birdhouse in the shape of a cat's head and the man had vanished. I carried it to the restaurant. I carried it back to the museum. I carried it to the car. And it rests in our garden, missing an ear like a favorite teddy bear, and looking startled at the state of the world.

But there is a point to all this. Today, after many empty years, I saw a tiny pointy little bird making a nest in the cat's mouth. The bird is in Extras, and does anyone know what it is?  Not only is the poor little bird flying into a cat's mouth several times a day, but the box itself is only a couple feet off the ground and in a pretty busy area on the patio. And I don't know whether or not to intervene. Move the box? scare the bird? let nature take its course? Has anyone ever had this problem?

Today was a very busy day, technologically speaking. 

Early in the morning I got an email from a former student employee from my university days. She had seen my offer of lemons on Nextdoor and recognized my name! It’s been a good thirty years. We had a strange reunion with her in the driveway and me behind the screen door, laughing and reminiscing and promising to get together when this passes.  

At 930 the ukulele club met, via Facebook Live, and the hosts led us through about an hour and a half of favorite songs. I came in late and didn't bother to get out my uke, but I sang along and it was big fun. Next Saturday I will be tuned and ready. I haven't played in a couple years and I forgot how much I like it. After that our knitting group met, via Zoom. There were six of us sharing what we were making, and catching up on our stories. The interface was a little shaky, with stops and starts and lagging voices, but it worked. I can't imagine how people conduct classes and important meetings in this format, since it seems so rough; maybe it was the connection. It sure seems like everyone's using it for just about everything these days. A friend had happy hour with her entire family last night. Apparently there are rules evolving for these gatherings, such as 1) Dress Up. I think a lot of folks are having Jammy Problems when they have to stay home.

And this evening we watched Lucia De Lammermoor, streamed free by the Metropolitan Opera. That, my friends, is a lot of technology, and I haven’t even included blip!

Hey, I just looked out the window and two neighbors have their Christmas lights back on! It was only yesterday that I read somewhere on blip that this was a trend to brighten up the world, and here it is right on my own block! I'm not sure I'm ready to go into the attic and drag everything out, but I do have a fondness for little twinkling lights, so we'll see.

Day Six