Falling Squirrels and Mating Snakes

Originally Posted Monday, March 18, 2013

A good weekend and perfect weather leads to a workweek and seasonal change.  The best of the weather is behind us, now, those perfect days of mild temperatures and clear, blue skies and sharp, cool nights.  It is the week of spring rain that brings the mythical balminess of movie lore. 

But I went out of my house and had people in, two things I've avoided much for some time.  And, of course, having people in makes you see things with strange eyes and now everything must be fixed or replaced or thrown away.  I suppose it should be thrilling.  It was once.  I bought the house from a widower in his eighties who said, "Old houses are for young people."  I know now what he means. 

And going out means some changes, too.  The fluidity of life increases with age until it is a narrow rapid racing over rocks and fallen trees and you can never seem to paddle enough to keep the boat from  twisting and turning.  But a good boat and better equipment, you know, might let you run them again for a little while longer among the kids who simply swim along bobbing up and down, laughing. 

I make too much of everything, though.  My peers hardly understand.  Peers.  Hmm.  Do I have any? 

I think I'll take a walk now before work just to feel the day.  I may not work much if I can possibly avoid it which I believe I can.  I have an evaluation with my supervisor this week about which I am numb as I expect the worst.  It hardly causes me anxiety. . . but that will surely come. 

I haven't made a photo in a very long time.  The studio sits unused.  Perhaps I will be motivated to do some pictures again.  I am thinking. 

As I write, a squirrel just fell from the tree into the bushes and onto the ground right in front of my window.  It reminds me that I saw two snakes mating on Friday.  They were thin and about six feet long each.  How do I know they were mating?  Oh, I know such things.  Cloacas and hemipenes.  They crawled onto a piece of concrete driveway in the sun and began to curl and writhe.  I was watching it happen across the street from the window of the Y.  I almost brought strangers over to watch, but my reputation is probably already shaky enough without doing that. 

Falling squirrels and mating snakes.  It's something to think about.