Day 3912

I've been wondering why our local gaggle of geese always hangs out on the East side of the lake now. They used to be all over the place. Today I found my answer. There's a guy who's been feeding them. The two Muscovy ducks were waiting for him as he unloaded a large 40 pound bag of Duck Feed Pellets from the back of his truck. The geese saw him too and were rapidly walking single file down a hill to greet him. Maybe this is why we saw the chicken in this section of the park as well. These birds are eating well.

While we were walking this morning we encountered a very large moth that appeared to be injured. It looked normal, but it clearly couldn't fly. We moved the moth off the road where we had found it to a nearby patch of grass. Maybe the moth will recover, but I kind of doubt it. One thing you notice when you are observing nature is that it can be very cruel. Not all the animals make it. Some get killed by pesticides. Some are eaten by other animals. Some are just in the wrong place at the wrong time. Butterflies and moths don't live a long time anyway. Their average lifespan is about a month.

We knew it was going to rain today, but we timed our morning walk well and didn't get wet. The heavy rains didn't arrive until later in the afternoon. Needless to say, I didn't take an afternoon walk. There really isn't much to do on a rainy day. I usually just fret about the roof leaking. So far everything seems fine. Both pumps are working correctly and there are no signs of a leak. There is no point in even thinking about removing the water from the roof. It's supposed to continue raining until tomorrow afternoon.

Texas is definitely a big state. I'm still wondering whether we are going to be dealing with any more 100 degree days here in Dallas, while it got down to 35 degrees at McDonald Observatory last night. I think today's rain is going to cool things down considerably, but we're still a long ways from 35 degrees. Occasionally when I am fantasizing about other places to live, it's always hard to think of a better place than Dallas. They are already having blizzards in Wyoming. The entire West Coast seems to be on fire. And it's going to take a long time for the people in Southern Louisiana to recover from Hurricane Laura. We have the occasional tornado warning, but the place seems pretty peaceful compared to other parts of the country.

I wonder if the telemarketing calls will decrease after the election? We're getting a huge number of junk calls now. I don't answer any of them but they are still irritating. How do you eliminate these things? I use Nomorobo and another AT&T service designed to eliminate spam and the calls still get through. Most of our mail is junk too. It just seems like someone is spending an enormous amount of effort to reach people who aren't interested anyway.

It's still raining. I need to remember to turn off the pumps before I go to bed tonight. If I forget, it usually quits raining while I'm asleep and the pumps overheat. I've already burned out quite a few pumps and I'm getting more forgetful by the day. The only advice I'd ever offer young people is to never buy a house with a flat roof. A flat roof is nothing by trouble.

Maybe it will be a nice day tomorrow. One can always hope.

Chief is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day