Click on any image for full desk top size: "Test Your Sanity"

I might have had to go with my housemate today so I cleared out my schedule, hence I find myself with an empty day. I'm not good at empty days. I like to be moving forward. Good Ol' Dog and I did go for a long walk to the dog park (that area of the world where dogs and puppies are actually allowed to be free, or at least seem to be free). we had it to ourselves which suited us just fine. I gathered up every tennis ball I could find (about 10) and set up a 6 inch water dish and marked off 150 feet on either side of it. I threw the tennis balls at it 200 times. I wanted to do a thousand but Good Ol' Dog was looking pretty peeked. She thought it was her bounded duty to retrieve every single ball. After a while she stopped bringing them back so I had to keep scouring the bushes. When we decided to leave I found that she had taken all of the balls to this little cool hollow and pretty much filled it in. Anyway, I was tumbling and leaping around, doing a baseball kata sort of thing and I managed to come within 12 inches of the dish 189 times. Seven of those misses were terrible and would have been extra base errors. I think a half dozen of the throws I counted (2 hit the dish) would really have been too low. The first baseman would really have had to dig them out. I justified my poor performance by telling myself that I was only throwing tennis balls which were too light, too small, too green, too muddy . . . I worked assiduously at not admitting that I needed more practice. Walking back from the dog park Good Ol' Dog and I came across the Great Blue Heron! It let us walk to within 3 feet of it! It was remarkable. As is appropriate for such a majestic animal it paid no attention to us, it did it's convincing best to spread it's wings casually and to fly to a different part of the pond as if it were something it had been contemplating for quite some time. What I particularly like is when the heron lands it extends it's legs and seems to tip toe across the water. The pond covers about 2 and one half acres. As we walked along it we met the duck families. The waddled away at a good speed. The babies are still gray feathered but are looking much more duckish. Then we came across the geese. I don't like geese very much. Somehow they look majestic in flight and like giant pigeons (with attendant mess) on the ground. And they hiss at us every time they see us. They are very mean, you see? Then at home I took this incredibly dull quiz, where I sort of though tthe answers were amusing. As usual I have no clue as to what animal I would want to be can lead to all these conclusions.

The Keys to Your Heart

You are attracted to those who are unbridled, untrammeled, and free.

In love, you feel the most alive when things are straight-forward, and you're told that you're loved.

You'd like to your lover to think you are loyal and faithful... that you'll never change.

You would be forced to break up with someone who was ruthless, cold-blooded, and sarcastic.

Your ideal relationship is comforting. You crave a relationship where you always feel warmth and love.

Your risk of cheating is zero. You care about society and morality. You would never break a commitment.

You think of marriage pessimistically. You don't think happy marriages exist anymore.

In this moment, you think of love as something you thirst for. You'll do anything for love, but you won't fall for it easily.

Finally at home we just saw a woodpecker! With a very bright red head. He was mashing on a tree. I like it best when the woodpeckers mash on the metal flashing and rain gutters. It makes a great sound. The have a steady beat and you can dance to it. But I can dance to jackhammers too. I like noise. The rest of my time I'll spend idly worrying over my housemate returning from her big opp job pop safely. The cats being cats cannot cooperate, so my persoanl safety seems assured for a while. One of them did seem to indicate that it would look on it favorable if I could, please, throw myself down the stairs. . . It did not take it graciously when I refused. With the Heron and Woodpecker I actually hoped to run into Pink Girl. I didn't. So much for kismet.