~Trinket, my four-year-old niece, has lost her first tooth~

Wild animals I have not seen this week but Scott and/or Everett have:

1. a fox that ran back and forth in front of the basement window and across the yard
2. the mouse —still goddamn alive— coming from under the china cabinet in the kitchen and across the floor. Everett says it is small and quiet. I sit here in my housecoat with my bare feet up on the chair and wonder why the hell that thing has not yet had its neck crushed by a trap or been eaten by Ralph the Cat. Why, why?

***

The concert Sunday afternoon was very good, of course. These guys had incredible talent and we are fortunate to get acts like theirs out here in the boonies. But tell me, why is it that most every guitar player contorts his mouth while strumming and picking? Even classical types, like these guys; even me, who can hardly play. There must be some visceral connection between the lips and the fingers.

***

So. Emil is home fighting a sinus cold. I am on flood watch; the pumps have started running, which means every two hours I must go check around the foundation to see if water is coming in. On Saturday I moved things away from the basement walls, but if water starts coming in the carpet will have to be rolled back too, and the furniture dragged to the middle of the room. It won’t be pretty.

On the bright side, the Canada geese are back.

***

On Sunday night a TV show called An Audience with Coronation Street was on. Some of the Corrie Street actors are singers as well, and performed before an audience peppered with Corrie actors who participated in some question-and-answer exchanges. I was so tickled that I called Mom telepathically several times to make sure she was watching. She would have enjoyed it.

Tomorrow is her birthday.
She’d be 66.
I'll be making a donation to her favourite charity, the Sandra Schmirler Foundation, in her memory.

***

Yesterday on the way back from the neighbours', after having coffee with them and picking up three dozen eggs and a quart of fresh cream, I saw a bald eagle and a robin. Was so delighted when that robin flew past my windshield. Even though the flight of the majestic eagle, less often seen around here, is awe-inspiring, the little redbreasted robin’s return lifted my heart.

The mouse is still not caught. I am enjoying having the cat in, though; he is so cuddleable. If I don’t start seeing his hair everywhere, and if he figures out that he’s to stay off the kitchen table, and we don’t have to get a litterbox for him, then as far as I’m concerned he might be welcome to stay. I actually poured some of Violet’s Jersey cream into my cereal bowl, after I’d finished eating, and let the cat drink from it. Seeing an animal eat from a dish people will later use, even after vigorous washing with hot soapy water, is something I have looked upon with incredulous disgust, even in the very recent past. What is happening to me here?

Now Playing: Joni Mitchell, Night Ride Home ~~ in case you haven't figured it out yet, I never tire of Joni's music. Am thinking about her today, at her mother's funeral in Saskatoon. Poor thing. Even though Joni's in her sixties, it can't be easy for her.

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