Nodding In: from birds to brief political notes, no organization

[pameladean]

When I look out of the west-facing windows in my office, I see, through a frame of arbor vitae trees, a Norway maple, bits of sidewalk and street, bits of the lawns across the street. The leaves of the maple are now lying all over our lawn or blowing down the sidewalk and drifting up against people's front steps like snow. Across the street are a brown house and a white house with blue trim. Both of these are inhabited by fanatically neat people, who were out yesterday, just before the rain, raking and raking. Their green, green lawns have that impossibly tidy, just-combed, freshly-tucked-into-bed look provided by fanatical raking. As I was contemplating them, a huge cloud of dark leaves fell onto the entire expanse of sunlit lawn. A moment's examination proved them to be not leaves but rather a large flock of starlings. When something startled them they blew up into the trees again, momentarily releaving the bare branches, and then fell again to the earth.

I think it will be winter soon.

Descending to earth myself, I write journal entries in my head, but they never make it into typing. I am reading you all, truly, though my comments are sporadic. The book has quit cooperating, but I know how to get its goat: I'm typing in the handwritten stuff, of which there is quite a lot. So far I don't think it's garbage. Much more important, my shoulder does not object at all to the typing, and I am not getting that faintly scary pins-and-needles feeling that typing produced for the entire summer and much of the fall.

Last week got eaten by cat and refrigerator difficulties (not related). We hauled both Ari (limping badly on his left front paw) and Jordan (suffering minor symptoms that looked like the recurrence of her major scary ear infection of last month) into the vet's on Monday. Ari proved a mystery, but since he's improving, I am only a little worried. Jordan has to have another course of antibiotics, of which she does not approve. The refrigerator, a comparatively new one, turned out to have had its evaporator improperly installed, which led to everything's being filled up with ice, as if it were trying to make winter all on its own. It has now been reduced to a sense of its own importance.

David seems to like his new job. Eric is coming to visit Thanksgiving week. I've started reading new fiction again. Raphael and I watched Dogma last night, and it did make a most peculiar counterpoint to the Pullman's His Dark Materials.

Notes to self: Lindsay Graham is a big fat liar, and I hardly dare hope that the corrupt and evil Bush administration is actually going to implode, but it might.

P.

Comments

[kightp.livejournal.com]

Oh, we both get to be with our distant sweeties for Thanksgiving! How good for all of us!

[pameladean]

Oh hooray for you, especially with the recently cancelled visit.

Amusingly enough, E may not be with me actually for the holiday itself, because Quakers are a little skeptical of such things. But all around it, yes indeed.

P.

[kightp.livejournal.com]

For me, the holiday part is merely an excuse to do lots of cooking with my sweetie (we have fun in the kitchen together, even when it's his tiny kitchen!)

[minnehaha.livejournal.com]

Oh, yes, starlings! We just had 'em all over the front of the house, on the gutters, the roof, the shutters, and on wing, browsing. The vines on the house have berries that the starlings found most edible. We stood behind the storm door and watched them. Then they all must fly to the red maple, now amazingly yellow, and then away in great streams to the south.

And then we had the fun of seeing the White Squirrel in our oak tree.

And just this minute, they've cleared the berries off the vines in the back! B. stood on the deck to admire them, but I stayed inside.

K. [the black bird droppings on our porch are now explained]

[minnehaha.livejournal.com]

PS: let's go out for coffee and dessert or some such with you and Eric and us when he's here.

K.

[pameladean]

I love the white squirrels. We have none in the yard, but several in the neighborhood.

I know starlings are aliens and pests, but I love them. I love their stars. And I love your description, too.

P.

[pameladean]

And yes, coffee or whatever, by all means. I sent you email.

P.

[angeyja.livejournal.com]

Our leaves are all down now too, and I have to take more pictures. I really like what the branches are doing against the sky.

The word is out in the greater tri city area that I am a soft touch and here be food, and I have huge flocks. Noisy ones. I wish I knew what they were going on about. Oh and the cardinal pair is back, and one of the little birds is nesting on the back porch too. Definitely winter coming; but today is bright and just cool enough to be perfect, and to make it impossible to stay inside.

(Rosie is getting a lot of exercise running around the yard and loudly voicing her disapproval. Cole has a bone and cares not about birds, burglars or anything really, because Hey food!)

[pameladean]

Our leaves are not quite down, but they will be in a few days.

My chickadees have come back, which is pleasant.

I like the idea of flocks of birds as an exercise device for dogs.

P.

[angeyja.livejournal.com]

*smile* Rosie enjoys it too I believe.

And you had me thinking on The Walk, which I could say is for Cole's exercise but I know darn well is for me. I love the way the leaves crunch and swish around my clunky boots, a shore wave of deeping gold, and brown. Ther is less going on now, and you notice.

The ferns are still green, just now seen against the leaves. They are amazing. There was a tidy V of honking geese and a very loose and long strung out one of crows. Yes, cawing. I wonder about them too.

And looking out over the valley by the falls, the pines are striking and even more so the blaring yellow green of the willows.

[sartorias.livejournal.com]

Mmm lovely word pictures, thanks.

[pameladean]

My pleasure. I always like yours too.

P.

[mrissa.livejournal.com]

I like Alanis Morisette's God standing on Her head. The rest of the movie had its ups and downs, but God doing bad handstands was a very favorite thing.

[pameladean]

That was one of our favorite parts too. And there were certainly bits we didn't care for at all. I did crack up at most of the conversations between the rebel angels, and I really liked the moment when one realizes that that's who they are, not just some guys. I also liked how talky the movie was. I'm not really a movie person, and I'm not sure that, in movie terms, this is a very good one, but it suits me. Except where it doesn't.

P.

[rysmiel.livejournal.com]

I would have been a lot happier with absent the attempt at Most Literal deus ex machina Of All Time in the last few minutes, but other than that I am very fond of Dogma. Have you seen any other Kevin Smith films ?

Problems from typing

[dsgood.livejournal.com]

You've probably seen the Chinese exercise balls which you roll around in your hand. They work; but two golf balls are cheaper.

Squeezing and otherwise playing with pet toys is also helpful. It's probably better to get your own, rather than taking them away from the pets.

Re: Problems from typing

[pameladean]

One can always use a temporarily out-of-favor toy.

I don't have problems with my hands as a rule. I hurt my shoulder heaving groceries around last summer, and it objected to typing after that. But it seems to have healed up at last.

P.

[(Anonymous)]

nodding_in

[pameladean]

Oh, what a grand idea! I have so far resisted joining many LJ communities, but I will certainly, well, you know.

P.

[raphaela.livejournal.com]

I love reading about your flora and fauna. I miss living in a place where something bloomed other than mesquite brush, armadillos and oppossums.

Dogma

[mudandflame.livejournal.com]

I meant to mention that I wondered if that very odd business about the cartoon character counting as an idol was inspired by C. M. Kornbluth's "The Advent on Channel 12," in which a cartoon panda is elevated to godhood by his corporate masters.

Picky, picky, plant name

[(Anonymous)]

It should be "arborvitae," not "arbor vitae" if Merriam-Webster Online can be considered to be an authority.