A Little Fall of Rain

During my sophomore year in high school, I fancied myself a poet and spoiled reams of paper with my truly terrible poems and song lyrics. Most of which chronicled my unrequited love for my guitar teacher. Here's a sample:

The clouds hover over
Dark and billowing
Like my feelings for you.

I am held back
Restrained
My feelings like the rain.

Yes, I somehow managed to express that my feelings were both out of control and yet restrained, all in one poem. This is just the beginning of this epic tome, by the way. I only bring up this embarrassing literary episode, because whenever the skies are overcast or storm clouds roll in, my brain immediately coughs up my little poem. Carrie Fisher recently said that until the day she dies, the words Help me, Obi-Wan Kenobi, you're my only hope will be stuck in her head. I guess the same is true for me and my meteorological poetry (though I will also have the Princess's plea stuck in there, too).

As you might have guessed, it's raining here. But that did not stop me from putting up my squirrel feeder. We had friendly (and hungry) squirrels in our backyard in Los Angeles, too. They were loads of fun and Michael even taught them to take peanuts out of his hand. But those were L.A. squirrels and probably had some prior training and SAG cards. Here, the squirrels are a bit more...well, squirrelly. But like their Los Angeles brethren, they quickly fell in line once I put up the feeder.

It took them no time at all to figure out how to get the food, and three of them spent the morning feasting, barking and running up and down the tree. Don't worry, I placed the feeder far enough from the house to protect us just in case they're rabid or have the plague.

My next project will be the birds. It's a diverse group. Then there are the chipmunks, but they spend most of their time in the front yard singing pop songs. The one food that seems to enthrall the entire animal kingdom (and humans) is peanut butter, so I will give that a try. As soon as the dark and billowing clouds (and my metaphoric feelings) clear up.