Wildlife: Two Raccoons were helping themselves to the peanuts and sunflower seeds on the deck this morning. They usually are gone by daylight, but not these guys! My wife went out with a stick in her hand, but they regrouped after a short retreat and started advancing. I went out and made a lot more noise, but they weren't very shy with me either. It took a garden hose to discourage them, but they were still pretty defiant. (No, I didn't hurt them or soak them, but I confused them JUST enough.)



Visit: A Tale of Two Movies
Watch for the Update SOON -- starting tonight!

Weather: It's been threatening all day -- maybe a little rain has fallen in the mountains, but not much.

Charity Alert: The Hunger Site Clickety-click will do the trick!

Media Watch: I can't stand to see more than a few minutes of the New Orleans catastrophe at a time, or emotionally deal with the massive failure of our institutions in the face of it all -- so I'm reading even more than I normally do.
Last night it was An Operating Manual For Spaceship Earth (1969) by R. Buckminster Fuller.
He was an inspiring man for those of us who prefer optimistic philosophy, but he had a warning for our species in this book:
(Paraphrased)...Like a baby bird is allowed to grow within his shell for a given period of time, we humans developed our civilization on Planet Earth without suffering too many reprecussions for our often-destructive actions. With our numbers and technology the way they are now, our former shell of global insignificance is broken, and the old ways will not promote our survival or growth anymore.


This is ME, clowning at Sykes Grocery
with my OWN coffee cup.