And by strange you mean AWESOME

Let the record show that I am still sad about that dog who used to live here. Tears have abated to about once a week, but they are still coming. When I walk in the door, I have to stop myself from saying, "Hi pup! We are home!" We just were not made for death. We were designed for eternity, and it is good and right that the separation from those we love (both human and otherwise Animalia) should grieve us. I have realized that the deep sadness with pets is that they don't ever hurt you, or do any mean thing, so the 'missing' is really uncomplicated and acute. I MISS that puppy girl who had decided that her sole purpose was to be in my lap, even if she had to fight for space with a book.

I have lots of Events that I need to write about--important things that have transpired over the past few months--performances in plays, trips we took, and things like that. I will get to it. For now, I will just write about today. The weather is DIVINE. When we woke up this morning, a little groggy from spring break and day light savings etc., I said to the kids, "Let's get the schoolwork FINISHED so we can go be outside!" We did our best, picked up bagels for lunch, and ended up at the nature trails near Harper's piano lessons. We saw a BALD EAGLE soaring over the tollway while en route, which I took to be a Very Good Sign. (n.b.: when you see a bald eagle, and you are driving on the tollway at 70 mph, it is probably not prudent to attempt to get all three children to actually SEE the bald eagle. One-third is actually a decent statistic.) When we got there, we were sitting near the feeders eating our bagels when a guy walked over, wearing Houston Audubon garb. We chatted a bit, about kinglets, and Cooper's hawks, and female red-winged black birds. "Are you an ornithologist?" I asked. And he confessed he was. He said, "I heard your daughter whistling to a tufted titmouse, and I thought, 'Hm, that's strange!'" I replied, "And by 'strange' you mean 'AWESOME.'" He conceded that YES, we are awesome. I then asked him many nosy questions about Earning a Living as an Ornithologist, while the kids roamed around and climbed over log bridges, and also whistled at birds and talked to turtles and petted lizards. Harper at one point came over with a Polyphemus moth draped over a stick: "It was stuck in some pond muck, so I fished it out!" and we watched it free itself and fly away.

These days are as good as it gets. Here is a picture Harper painted of some burrowing owls. Clearly, that is the Daddy to the far right, and his owlets are saying, "What is the MEANING of all this?"