Yesterday morning as we pulled into the driveway after grocery shopping, I spotted a crow swaggering around the front yard, looking pleased with itself. It stopped, intensely poked at something in the grass, then flew off. I spotted something about the size of a peanut in its beak, yellowish. I had to scratch my head because I didn’t think we’d had something like that in the grass that a bird would think yummy. Plus the lawn had been mowed just yesterday. The crow also hadn’t had anything in its mouth when I first saw it.
Then a blue jay landed in the same spot and started picking around the same spot. It flew up when we got out of the car, but flew back. It started frantically picking around the mounds of dried grass, getting madder and madder, sending stuff flying, squawking in frustration. Meanwhile, the crow sat on the powerline and cawed mockingly.
I looked more closely, and realized that the crow had just faked out the blue jay by pretending that a yellowed leaf from the dogwood Was A Really Tasty Treat. Just another crow joke, and an escalation in the ongoing Crow vs Blue Jay wars.
Yesterday was somewhat of a break from Novel Deathmarch. I wrote a wee bit in the morning, then spent the rest of the day doing errands and minor care stuff for a long-term rural friend who is gravely ill and needs help with figuring out applications for high risk health insurance pools amongst other things.
I’m also starting to develop a theory of how one goes about applying regulation theory analysis to teaching and other systems. Is very interesting. A task for August.
Today I intend to engage in full-court Rewrite Deathmarch. I have a block of about four hours before I will need to Do Other Stuff. I have caffeine, carbs, occasional chocolate, fresh fruit, and a raucous bluegrass version of Dark Side of the Moon (Poor Man’s Whiskey, Dark Side of the Moonshine). Netwalker Uprising, here I come!
Onward.
