Exposed!

Oops! My last pair of pants without a hole in them just got a hole in them. Rats! Now I must arrange a trip to Chico to buy more clothes. The hole is still small, but I know from experience that it will rapidly grow. Once a pair of Levi's begins to unravel, full exposure is not far behind. Or, in this case (given the location of the hole), full behind is not far from exposure. If I don't go shopping soon, there will be the problem of what to wear to the shops. Malls, as a rule, demand of their customers full arse coverage. Maybe I'll end up shopping on-line, though that would mean actually activating The Card. The C*rd, I mean (sorry for the obscenity.) Why does stuff have to wear out? Shopping is such a pain!

During a brief period of partial clearness last night, I saw a meteor. It's almost entirely cloudy again this morning, but it hasn't rained for hours, so the pavement has dried out and is as gray as the sky. That little patch of blue in the west is ominous though. The day could turn sunny. What a depressing thought.

Squirrely

Three young squirrels have been scampering about the neighborhood this afternoon. I first became aware of them when I heard them run across my roof, and they suddenly leaped into sight, landing on a branch of the mulberry tree just outside my window. They scrambled down the trunk and engaged in a bit of frolic on my lawn, then crossed the street as a tight little pack, except when one of them decided halfway across to run back to the shelter of a bush in my front yard. I don't know what might have spooked that one, but the other two just stopped and watched until there wayward companion got over its fit and returned. Then they bounded across the street and clambered up the trunk of a pine tree.

I saw them several times in the next half hour, running along fences or over rooftops, up and down trees, diving under shrubs and bounding back out, but never getting too far from one another. They look to be a bit over half grown, and are probably litter mates out in the world on their first adventure. I haven't seen or heard them for several minutes now, so they've probably sought out some place to spend the night and settled down. They had a pleasant afternoon in which to play, but the clouds which had broken into scattered, sunlit clumps for a few hours are thickening again, bringing a cool and sombre dusk, so I hope they've found a sheltered spot. It looks as though there might be more rain.