Good News/Bad News

Bad: A said he didn't feel so great at breakfast this morning.

Good: No fever, no throwing up, so off to school he went

Bad: 102 degree fever when he got home this afternoon, so no Scouts tonight and no school tomorrow

Good: M dressed nicely to give a presentation at school today

Bad: M called me just after he got to school saying he didn't have his flash drive.  I couldn't find it here or along the street

Good: M took the initiative to call transportation and have the bus driver search the bus.

More good: I finally found the flash drive (hiding in the USB port) and took it to school

Bad: M had realized just before leaving for school that he didn't have some info on his project that he needed

Good: M talked to the teacher this morning (well before class and when he was still missing the flash drive) and she said he could do his presentation tomorrow

More good: M added (most of) the missing info and practiced his presentation some

Bad (in M's opinion): M has to dress up again tomorrow (collared shirt)

Good: I found a missing library book

Bad: it was 2 weeks overdue

Bad: the cats evidently brought a bird into the house

Good: D managed to get it safely outside where it flew off, seemingly unharmed

Bye-bye turtle

M has been keeping a turtle since the end of last summer, part of earning his reptiles and amphibians merit badge. We tried to return the turtle back to the teacher we got it from, but he didn't really want it back. Then it seemed rather cruel to release it in the middle of winter. But this past weekend, spurred on by Mutts "Happy World Turtle Day", we took the turtle over to my mom's backyard, where she has an occasional creek and plenty of green stuff and released her. She wandered off eagerly. I hope she enjoys the yard (and doesn't discover the garden!).

Deer at Nara

One of the big thing to see and do at Nara is the deer. They are very tame - well, except when you have deer crackers - then they get very pushy and insistent.

M has the deer following him around.
A has several deer wanting to get in on the food.

Even D and I fed the deer a few crackers (no pictures of the photographer though).

Critters before breakfast

Yesterday seemed like a normal ordinary day... that is, until I got out of the shower, only to discover bird feathers all over the back hall.  But NO BIRD.  Urrrggh.  The cat is not known for taking his "friends" back outside, so now I have to wonder exactly where this bird is?  Is it decaying under some piece of furniture??  (I checked under the obvious sofa and chair, but haven't done an exhaustive search yet.  I guess I'm waiting for my nose to tell me...)

Then, while I was eating breakfast, I heard the cats and discovered that Shadow had brought in a snake.  Just your ordinary small garden snake, but still not what I want to see during breakfast.  I decided it would have to wait until I finished eating.  But by that time, the snake had disappeared.  Oh no, another missing critter!

Mid-afternoon though, a snake appeared with no cat around, so I think it must be the missing morning snake.  I ushered it outside in the dustpan.

Today the cats have brought in a lizard and another snake.  Joy.  I guess the snakes are coming out of hibernation/hatching/whatever.  We're certainly seeing more of them now...

Entomologist

A's class had a session on goal-setting with the counselor last week. A decided his long term goal is to be an entomologist. Oh, yay, more bugs in the house - as if the cats didn't bring in enough already...

A decided that the steps on the way to becoming an entomologist are:
Study hard in entomology (gifted class he's taking this semester)
Get good grades in Challenge (gifted classes)
Study insects in college
Finish college

There were statements to finish:
I think I can achieve my goal with this plan...
- because I made it.

I believe my goal is important and I can achieve it because...
- It is my life-time goal

Wildlife

We saw various sorts of wildlife while we were in the Smokies.

Wild turkeys:


Deer. Lots and lots of deer.

We saw 2 deer in the campground the first evening, just 2 campsites over from us.

Then when we went on an evening hayride (in a flatbead 18 wheeler, or so it seemed), the person counting deer, supposedly counted 89. Wow. There were a LOT of deer, but I'm not sure there were really 89. 50 at least, though.

Squirrels aren't so odd to see, but this one came up really close. He stood right next to D's chair. If D had reached down, he could have touched the squirrel.


We even saw 2 bears - yearlings, we think. I took a picture, but can't for the life of me actually SEE any bears in the photo, so I won't post it here.

The bat is dead and gone

D and I got around to dealing with the bat this afternoon. After all the strategizing about how to make sure the bat didn't get into the house, we found that it wasn't needed - the bat had died. We still had a little struggle getting the screen off and back on again, but once again we can open that window safely. Yeah.

In fact, the windows are open right now and the attic fan is pulling in the lovely cool, 72 degree air right now. Which is good, since the AC is still acting up. The latest air-chair diagnosis is that the fan controller on the furnace is kaput. The fan has been cycling off and on WAY too frequently - like 45 seconds on and 3 minutes off - repeatedly. The AC (or perhaps just the fan) would cycle even when the thermostat was set to OFF. And when the house temp was well below the setpoint. I finally got tired of all the cycling and flipped the circuit breaker for the fan.

The AC and furnace are just less than 2 years old, so they may still be under some sort of warranty. We are looking into that. In the meantime, we're grateful that the weather is much more reasonable than last week!