Cold Night

I heard deer skulking about a while ago. The moon had already set, so they were well concealed as they made their way up the lampless street. I risked a brief look with the flashlight, and a good-sized stag played statue as the light fell on him, then departed cautiously after I turned it off. I heard other deer following, but didn't want to startle them with the light, so I just listened as their faint footfalls clicked on the pavement. I think they ate my neighbor's roses.

The owl is hooting again tonight, and cats are abroad. No small rodent is safe in these parts. No rodent is warm, either, I'm sure. I'm surprised that any blossoms have survived the last two nights. It has been as cold as midwinter. My toes begin to numb within minutes whenever I go outdoors to look at the stars. Yes, there are stars tonight. The clouds are entirely gone, and dawn will undoubtedly be bright, and my drapes will not keep out its glare. I will attempt to get to sleep before it comes.

I fired up Sluggo to check on some of the image files I've downloaded to the new computer in the last couple of days. Sluggo, too, sees them as being HTML files rather than as the .jpg files they actually are, so it was clearly not just the new machine screwing things up. I'm not sure exactly what is happening. I think that parts of the Internet may be going
goofy goofier.

Say goodnight, not-Sluggo.

Local News

Thuggish neighbor has one of those remote-control toy cars which he runs up and down the street now and then (yeah, he's in his thirties.) This afternoon he had it out, and there was a squirrel passing by, so he used the car to chase it. The squirrel took refuge in a tree, and thugboy stopped the car nearby until the rodent came down, then sent the car after it again. The performance was repeated several times, until the squirrel made a dash for it across the street and finally escaped beyond a fence. A few neighborhood kids had gathered and were watching this event with great amusement. There's not much for kids to do in this town, I guess. I, of course, was rooting for the squirrel. I hope it comes back with a bunch of its friends in the middle of the night, breaks into thugboy's house, and steals his nuts and buries them.

The day was nice, though, being fairly cool despite the bright sunshine. I got next to nothing done. The tree pollen count is up, and I'm sneezing again, and still lethargic. Why do the twits have all the energy, while all I want to do is nap?