Squirrels and birds
My father has a strong dislike for squirrels. He has a drone, and he enjoys employing it to frighten the fuzzy critters to remove themselves from our lawn or fence. They really like the new fence. It's not as much fun as the old one since it has no curves but goes straight across, but it's removed from the dogs behind us so there's no chance of being caught by one of them, only barked at, and I'm sure they're appreciative of that. The straight-across style of the fence also helps to make for a speedier escape from the drone, which dad will pull out when he spots an unwilling victim.
He was telling me about having gotten the drone out recently, like in the past day or so, when a nature program came on Channel 11 yesterday: It was on squirrels. To my surprise, my father decided to watch it. Oh, perhaps this will give my father some empathy toward the little things, who are fuzzy and cute and would be squishable if not for the whole possibility of rabies and such. Later in the day, dad was all, I learned things from the show! Did you know that chipmunks are in the squirrel family? And prairie dogs? Well, yeah, kinda, since they all have similar faces and claws.
This was around dinnertime, and I was at the sink doing dishes, and he came and stood by the counter for a minute. We both looked out the window and spotted this squirrel, laid out on top of the fence, its tail sort of curling around the top of a post. It was pretty amusing. Someone's comfortable. Alas for him, dad wanted to make him uncomfortable and went to get the drone. ...Dad, did you learn nothing from the TV show? Apparently not. The squirrel did move and was up from his former position by the time dad got the drone going, but he still deployed it and the squirrel dispersed, hurrying toward the south. Poor thing. He was just chillin'.
Meanwhile, mom was out at Elburn Days with her friend, the recent widow. She was gone for hours and I was already upstairs for the night when she returned. She'd brought home this small concrete statue of sorts of a bird nest, complete with two birds and three eggs inside of it. She talked dad into putting it in our birdbath, and the bird inside of that to go on the ground or something--never mind that the bird in the bath is part of the whole set, and matches color-wise, and this is concrete gray and doesn't go. But whatever; not my house. Currently it's sitting on the kitchen table, so we'll see how quickly it ends up in mom's preferred location. This is the second bird-related item she's bought in a week, after the hummingbird sculpture she got in Lake Geneva. I still think of it as Buzz, but I think mom gave it the name Guava. It resides on the cabinet by the front door, keeping one of our Papa plants company. I see Buzz every time I go downstairs.
Funnier still, when we called grandma, she related a story about how she had these two little bowls, made to hold rings or something, and they were nice but she didn't need them, and she thought to take them with her to her dentist appointment last week and ended up gifting them to the receptionist. Kinda weird, but that's grandma. Mom had to ask her to repeat herself when describing the bowls, as they had birds on them. Part of me was picturing mom going, but *I* have a bird collection! Oh, Lord, that's just what we need. We'd better cut her off here. The dolls might get jealous.
He was telling me about having gotten the drone out recently, like in the past day or so, when a nature program came on Channel 11 yesterday: It was on squirrels. To my surprise, my father decided to watch it. Oh, perhaps this will give my father some empathy toward the little things, who are fuzzy and cute and would be squishable if not for the whole possibility of rabies and such. Later in the day, dad was all, I learned things from the show! Did you know that chipmunks are in the squirrel family? And prairie dogs? Well, yeah, kinda, since they all have similar faces and claws.
This was around dinnertime, and I was at the sink doing dishes, and he came and stood by the counter for a minute. We both looked out the window and spotted this squirrel, laid out on top of the fence, its tail sort of curling around the top of a post. It was pretty amusing. Someone's comfortable. Alas for him, dad wanted to make him uncomfortable and went to get the drone. ...Dad, did you learn nothing from the TV show? Apparently not. The squirrel did move and was up from his former position by the time dad got the drone going, but he still deployed it and the squirrel dispersed, hurrying toward the south. Poor thing. He was just chillin'.
Meanwhile, mom was out at Elburn Days with her friend, the recent widow. She was gone for hours and I was already upstairs for the night when she returned. She'd brought home this small concrete statue of sorts of a bird nest, complete with two birds and three eggs inside of it. She talked dad into putting it in our birdbath, and the bird inside of that to go on the ground or something--never mind that the bird in the bath is part of the whole set, and matches color-wise, and this is concrete gray and doesn't go. But whatever; not my house. Currently it's sitting on the kitchen table, so we'll see how quickly it ends up in mom's preferred location. This is the second bird-related item she's bought in a week, after the hummingbird sculpture she got in Lake Geneva. I still think of it as Buzz, but I think mom gave it the name Guava. It resides on the cabinet by the front door, keeping one of our Papa plants company. I see Buzz every time I go downstairs.
Funnier still, when we called grandma, she related a story about how she had these two little bowls, made to hold rings or something, and they were nice but she didn't need them, and she thought to take them with her to her dentist appointment last week and ended up gifting them to the receptionist. Kinda weird, but that's grandma. Mom had to ask her to repeat herself when describing the bowls, as they had birds on them. Part of me was picturing mom going, but *I* have a bird collection! Oh, Lord, that's just what we need. We'd better cut her off here. The dolls might get jealous.