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September 23, 1998 |
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at the water containment structure | |||||
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Copyright © 1998, Janet I. Egan |
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Well, actually it is kinda still summer because I ate lunch outside on the deck at Angelina's with Roberta and Nora after our shift at the cat shelter. I was darn glad I changed from my shorts and soaking wet bleachy t-shirt before lunch and I was even gladder when we went to the refuge 'cause it was colder and windier there. Gee, this is becoming a weekly ritual: wash the litterboxes, eat subs with Roberta and Nora, walk with Roberta and Nora at the refuge.We took the marsh loop trail today instead of the dune loop so I didn't get to give my barrier beach vegetation zones speech today. I did however get to practice identifying dragonflies. I bought the National Audubon Society Field Guide to New England, which has trees, shrubs, insects, mollusks, mammals, wildflowers, and other cool stuff in addition to birds. Sort of a miniature encyclopedia of the nature of New England. We stopped and looked up each new kind of dragonfly we saw. I never really looked that closely at dragonflies before, even though they're cool looking and Lizzy did a report on them for school last year. I had no idea how many species there are! We saw:
Hey, a girl could do worse than spend an afternoon with co-workers walking in the marsh identifying dragonflies. I took Nancy's advice on how to deal with the fact that Roberta giggles whenever I say "dike" referring to the thing that holds the water in the impoundment. I now call it the "water containment structure". We were looking at a flock of Canada geese that had just landed and Roberta asked "What's that thing they just landed on?" to which I replied "the water containment structure". Nora picked right up on it and had a good laugh. Hmm, somebody must have hypnotized Roberta and planted strange hypnotic suggestions in her mind: giggle whenever you here the word "dike", scratch whenever you hear the word "ringworm". Now we've gotta find out what other triggers she has. Maybe we can get her to sneeze whenever somebody says "ragweed". We spotted a whitetailed deer on the way back to where we left Roberta's car. Still no snakes though. New Topic: As I predicted, the blue cat got adopted already. I knew she wouldn't be there long. Matthew was all over me, headbutting my ear and clinging to my shoulder making it awfully hard to wash anything in the sink. Then he got himself in big trouble by terrorizing poor shy Braveheart who just wanted to go back in her cage. When I opened the door for her, Matthew leaped in and started chowing down on her food. He snarled and hissed at Braveheart and every time I lifted him out of her cage, he leapt back in. Finally, I just grabbed him and put him in his own cage. I hate to put cats in if they don't want to be and don't have to be, but Matthew had begun to make trouble and needed to be away from other cats. I noticed someone had written on his chart that he'd do best in a single cat household. That would be an understatement. He does not want to share. He reminds me a little of Wilbur - who is not into sharing me with other cats or any other being except possibly Nancy but only if he gets to be between us. In fact, Matthew is orange tabby and talkative like Wilbur (although he doesn't have mutant tail) so maybe possessiveness is another part of orange cat personality syndrome. And now it has gotten so cold that I must arise and close the windows lest we have frost inside the house. | |||||
I was driving home this afternoon thinking of
all these great topics to write about tonight but somehow
they all got away from me. I can't remember a single one.
I'm bone tired for some reason. I was yawning when I stopped
in at Starbucks around 3:00 and every barista felt a need to
comment on it. Funny thing was, I was still yawning after
the coffee and right now I feel like I'll fall asleep at the
keyboard. Can't be the weather 'cause it's downright cold
today especially after yesterday's hot, humid, gray murk.
Today was unmistakably a fall day. Gee, Toto I don't think
we're in summer anymore. There might even be frost tonight
but I'm skeptical of the forecast.