Finally, Central snowpack is at 100% of normal for this date. First time in quite a while.

Mouse in the house

On a quiet Sunday afternoon, I hear a rustling noise. If everything else had been quiet, I probably wouldn't have noticed it; I could easily have missed it because it was so unobtrusive. But I had just finished my puzzle, was available to my surroundings; noticed the rustling and wondered what was causing it.

The noise continued as I crossed the room to trace the noise.

I opened the lower cupboard, took some things off the lower shelf; nothing there. The upper shelf (of the lower cupboard) held a couple of appliances, pasta in Costco quantities, and miscellaneous items that had been relegated to the corner cupboard because they are no longer in use. As I pulled out the pasta, the mouse ran to the right, behind the appliances, squeaking. Several packages had ragged holes; rigatoni was scattered over the shelf; there was an Oreo-sized hole in the back wall. Tiny black pellets of mouse poop on everything I pulled out.

Grabbing a flashlight, I emptied the shelf. As I removed each hiding place, he ran quickly to the next, till there were no hiding places left. Maggie stuck her head into the cupboard, sniffing, and we both watched the mouse run back and forth, up the wall and down, unable to get away from the beam of light.

I left the flashlight there and disposed of items that had been ruined by chewing; also moved a few into the giveaway pile. Maggie was climbing into the cupboard trying to get at the mouse, so by the time I got back it had left, presumably through the hole in the back wall.

Duct taped the wall, cleaned up, stored the remaining pasta in a covered metal container. Glad the mouse got away and glad that it's no longer in there; cute little fellow.

Twenty dollars

I saw a twenty lying on the sidewalk and picked it up without thinking about it. Before I had gone twenty feet, I decided I had done the wrong thing. I should have left it where it was so that the person who lost it could come back and find it. If everybody did the same thing, no problem. But I didn't want to put it back. That would call attention to the twenty and somebody else, somebody who wasn't the original owner, would take it. I wondered about how the money came to be lying there and guessed that an over-full pocket or purse had been rummaged through, knocking the money out of place without the owner noticing. I imagined how I would feel if I lost a twenty in that way, probably a bit bothered but not hugely so.

Since I shouldn't have taken the money, I did not spend it, and instead gave it to a man who was selling Street Spirits on the sidewalk. He seemed a little surprised, but not overly so, and said thanks in a matter-of-fact tone, which I appreciated.

To partially make up for taking the money and other wrongs I have committed lately, I participated in the blood drive that was going on at the student union. My iron level was barely high enough to squeak me in, and I had to lie on a couple of the questions - e.g. I once took money for sex, but since it was my husband that paid me it didn't make any difference to the composition of my blood.

The needle stick was neither the best nor worst I've had; the procedure was efficient, and the setup adequate for the number of bleeders, so I hardly had to wait at all. As I squeezed the ball and watched the machine rock my quickly-filling blood bag from side to side, I thought that if I ever had a serious injury it would not take long to bleed out - I filled my bag before two other people that got there before I did.

I shouldn't have taken that free t-shirt.

Pluto, biggest ice
in the Kuiper belt. Can't compete
in size with Eris.

Spirit silent, Troy.
Still listening, spring has come
Goodbye, poor rover.

90-day mission
lasted more than seven years -
Opportunity

Haiku

1/23 p23

One dog wakes and shakes,

Whines in the dark of pre-dawn,

Grumbles for morning.

1/23 p24

Stance. Fletch, nock, clip, back.

Hold straight, pull straight, shoulders down.

Anchor, aim, release.

1/24 p25

Hard-dried paw prints crowd

Bounds of the gouged hollow where

Water blocked our path.

1/26

Fourty-five minutes

Later, she yelps, “Oh my god!”

It worked. Heart lets go.

1/28

Before the sun, fog

Hides all except this green field,

One dog, and sparrows.

Bird lands on the end

of the twig. It droops, bounces.

Bird hops farther in.

1/29

Tail stands straight up, stiff.

Hackles raise, low growl from jaws.

Legs race straight at me.

1/31

Windows 7 errors

Virtual Private Network

Connection doesn't

2/1

Heathen strip-club bro

trolling facebook for mormons

baiting for outrage

Facebook Odekirks

vary some: boozers, mormons,

athletes and dog-ones

Yesterday's wedding

The wedding cost me $670 and five days and here's what I got out of it:

• To explain myself to Will
• To play an important role there
• Some flirting that soured
• To see how it is to be a college kid with good friends
• Many hugs from my kids
• Expressions of well-wishing from others
• Time on the beach with Maggie
• Some mediocre dancing
• To have Rachel put makeup on me
• To put a boutonniere on Sam and on Ben
• To experience feelings of generosity
• Some time with Will and Cassie before anybody else was there
• To see my kids efforts to put me at ease (wish they didn't need to)
• To attempt to bond with Cassie's mom
• A sweet thank-you note from Cassie and Will
• A name tag that has my name spelled right
• To spend time with all of my kids
• To provide my support for something I can really get behind
• Practice on social interaction. Time with other human beings.
• One West Coast Swing dance with a somewhat drunk Rachel.
• Some pretty good french toast
• Some decent pictures of redwood forest
• A review of humboldt county as a place to live
• A personal talk with Rachel
• Time alone with Will
• To see Maggie dripping with thick mud
• A picture of Maggie lying in the ocean

Avenue of the Giants

Arrived yesterday in Arcata for the wedding. On our way here, Maggie and I stopped at will, and one of our stops was a state rest stop a bit more than an hour south of Eureka. Beyond the grassy area set aside for "walking" dogs, a steep rocky slope led down to a creek. Maggie and I scrambled most of the way down, when she balked at a particularly scary-looking rock outcropping, and I had to find a less scary way down for her. Once we got to the creek, she did her usual belly down into the water, then we waded around, exploring the area. We broke some sticks together, as we often do. Maggie sniffed at a rock sticking out of the water. I picked it up and threw it in a near-vertical arc to make a big splash nearby. Maggie excitedly tried to bite the splashing water. She was so funny that I did it again, and we spent the next fifteen minutes playing with rock splashes.

Later we followed Avenue of the Giants, for the quietly joyful beauty of it.







This morning Maggie got herself muddier than ever before at the City of Eureka's marvelous Sequoia Park, where the mud was thicker then any she has encountered before. No pictures of that, though. Later we walked most of the length of clam beach, which was full of unfamiliar smells for maggie, as she has only been at ocean beach once before. She got tired enough that she put herself to bed, early.