I’m outside. The sun was here earlier but has since disappeared behind a sea of clouds, varying gray clouds. None seem ominous. The breeze is strong and the air dry. I couldn’t bear the thought of going inside to write so I brought my laptop to the deck. It’s not a quiet day, but I can still hear the fountain and the birds at the feeders and the squirrels in the leaves. I can also hear little kids laughing and talking, a most unusual sound for here. The voices belong to the family next door, renting for the week. They speak Albania to one another, and it’s been interesting listening to a language I have never heard before. None of it is familiar. I went online and learned to say hello.

Today is a stay around the house day. Cloudy days invite the tourists to take to the road so I don’t.  A few weeks ago I heard a local writer speak about her new book so I bought it, starting reading it and put it down after only a few pages. I got snotty I guess. I didn’t like all the grammatical errors. Today I’ll give it another go and try to ignore my standards for the English language. I’m holding off on the title for now. If I like it, I’ll let you know.

It was a showdown at the OK Corral this morning. The red squirrel and I went eye to eye, and he flinched and fled, but I found his antics pretty funny. He’d jump from one branch to another, stop and look right at me then jump to another branch, stop and look at me then jump again, always jumping near the feeder. This went on for about ten minutes until he realized I wasn’t going anywhere. It was then I watched him jump to the biggest tree in the yard, run across a huge branch and jump into the neighbor’s yard.

This squirrel and I have a long, unpleasant history. He is an ungrateful cur. Once I saw he’d caught his paw on the wire on the inside of the squirrel proof feeder, the inside where the seeds are, so I tried to push his foot clear. He went after me. I then used my phone to push his foot, and he was freed but he attacked my phone.  He chirped at me over and over, and I knew he was mad. Many other times he’s been in the feeder but usually manages to escape when I come on the deck, but he didn’t the other day. I saw him and walked slowly and quietly to the feeder where he was chomping on the sunflowers seeds. He never saw or heard me so he was quite startled when I tapped the feeder. As he fell to the ground, he looked like a flying squirrel with his arms and legs straight out, but he landed just fine and took off only to return today.

I thinking I’m turning into the crazed squirrel lady. Soon I’ll be an urban legend.