What's on the Agenda for today - the 92nd Indy 500

OK - so this is the last year that Bill will be working for Bridgestone/Firestone. Presumably he will have no more reason to need to talk intelligently about the Indy 500 around the water cooler in the morning. Want to bet that means it won't be on our TV set next Memorial Day weekend . . . the wheels going round and round and round and round! Don't take that sucker bet. By the way, Scott Dixon won. Don't ask me who that is. I know he rode on Firestone tires, but I think they all do.

How much wood could a woodchuck chuck . . .

On the left is Muskrat Sally: see the skinny tail On the right is Groundhog Gary: see the bushy tail If a woodchuck could chuck wood? A woodchuck would chuck all the wood if a woodchuck could chuck wood. I've been stewing over Muskrat Sally (and evidently you can eat both of these animals as well as wear the muskrat, particularly on your head; that would be as a hat) since she didn't have a rat-like tail like a musk-rat. So I emailed the San Diego Zoo and the Nashville Zoo with a picture of the muskrat and asked them to name that mammal! Can you believe they answered lickity-split! Maybe San Diego even answered too quicky and didn't read that I was from TN because they told me that it was a prairie dog. But, Nashville said it was - ding ding ding!!! - a groundhog (also called woodchuck). Perhaps Punxsutawney Phil was on vacation and bunking in the area or we have our own groundhogs. And, our own evidently aren't as well fed as P-Phil. Groundhogs' diets, for your edification, consist of grasses, berries, grubs, grasshoppers, snails, insects, and other small animals (I'm assuming this means mice). They are also one of the few mammals that hibernate (hence Groundhog's Day). Whatever, Wikipedia, the online encyclopedia says that groundhogs' natural predators are coyotes, so now I'm pretty sure he was hiding under our deck until the coast was clear the other night when I heard the coyotes howl. Now, to end, for all you groundhog lovers out there, yes, and sung to the tune of "I'm a little teapot", here is: I'm a little groundhog:

I'm a little groundhog, it's my day.

Wake and stretch, go out and play.

Down in my burrow, down so deep,

Time to wake, from my long winter's sleep.

* * * * *

Grumble, grumble, scratch, scratch,

Grunt, grunt, yawn.

I'll eat my breakfast in your front lawn.

I'm a little groundhog, it's my day.

Wake and stretch, go out and play.

A Redder Shade of Pale

Spring is in full force in Brentwood TN which means the roses are in bloom at the Brentwood Library.

This is the second season for the rear-facing reading terrace, complete with flowers, fountain, statuary, and benches for reading or talking on your cell phone, which we try to discourage in the library.

And if you don't like the real colors of life, I have, like the Queen of Hearts, decided to make them more intense for you. Do you like the roses RED?

It's getting to be a regular zoo out here, and I'm not just talking about the kids - a tail of Muskrat Sally

Relaxing this morning in the sunroom with the Sunday paper, I was surprised to hear Bill exclaim, "look who's at the door." Then again in another second, "look who's at the door." I wondered why he wasn't getting up to answer it since he sounded like it was someone we knew even though it was sort of early for visitors. He finally said, "there was a muskrat at the door."

Now I'm really confused.

"What door?" I looked at him.

"The door right here. It looked just like a muskrat looking at us through the door," he replied calmly like we always had muskrats peeping in on us.

I got up and saw nothing. "It's gone now. Are you sure it wasn't a 'possum. We have a lot more 'possums around here." Like we lived in the country and not in the middle of Cool Springs, which, if you've been paying attention, you already know is mostly retail, large office buildings, motels, and residential. Not really 'possum or muskrats. Still deer, of course. But they practically frolic on the Mall in Washington, D.C.

He was sure it wasn't a 'possum. He described what it looked like. He could have picked it out from a rodent line-up. Pointy face with the whiskers away from the face and a bushy tail. I guess it probably wasn't any more likely to be a mole or a beaver or a figment of his imagination either. He repeated again that it was at the top of our 8 steps looking in at us. He/she probably wanted breakfast. I was terribly sorry to have missed her/him since I hadn't previously seen any of the species ravishing my perennials.

At which point, there he/she was again. Down in the dog pen, a 20 x 8 ft. enclosure made with some admitedly tacky, but green, chicken-wire fencing that no one but us really saw and anyway was only meant to have the shelf life of our dogs who, bless their departed hearts, have never been noted for their longevity. Bill keeps asking when we can take it down, and I keep saying, "but, sweetheart, it's so handy for the granddogs now." Meanwhile, there was the skinny, though definitely not a squirrel either, muskrat. Obviously looking for the way back out. Pacing the perimeter. Shaking the fence. Trying to go under. Fairly frantic, I thought, though I'm also not familiar with muskrat behavior in the early stages of enforced captivity.

"You're right. Not a 'possum. Much cuter." It was my first muskrat in years, so I rushed to get my new camera. By the way, it isn't easy to photograph wildlife, I'm finding from a bird friend of mine who sits on my garden arch and sings constantly, yet flies away everytime I get the camera locked and loaded so to speak. At least the muskrat was caged. Compared to the children, you can take multiple pictures of wildlife without any lip, but they'll never face the camera and smile, which I can usually get once out of the kids. That being said, I'm pretty pleased with my first muskrat pictures. Dear Muskrat Sally.

After a few minutes Bill, being a kind soul, decided he needed to go down and direct her escape. Without anything but the clothes he had on. Which were shorts. Bare legs.

"Don't get bit," I shouted.

"I won't," he responded without an ounce of sense.

This just wasn't right. How would he direct her escape? With his foot? A leg? His whole body in a strange muskrat sally dance? Just how do you slow that muskrat down?

"Don't you think you need a shovel or something," I suggested.

VandeWater's don't usually respond to suggestions. I could picture the final outcome: rabies shots for Bill; silent, but smug satisfaction with the mental "I told you so" for me.

Fortunately, at that point, the bushy-tailed muskrat took cover under the enclosed part of our former deck that the sunroom is built on, perhaps pinging the frontal or backal lobe (whichever contains the muskrat memory) and finding the elusive route out. And out she went like a streak of greased lightning, running along the side neighbor's fence towards the back neighbor's wooded backyard. Adios, Muskrat Sally. :-(

My theory for this unusual visitation? Last night as I was going to bed around 1 a.m., I heard howling that sounded like coyotes. Not that I know what coyotes sound like, but I know they howl and I know what howling sounds like. Also, they absolutely have been spotted various places in Williamson County. My second thought, to be honest, was that it could be dogs that someone had cooped up too long. But they would have been howling longer. Then I heard that horrible sound that cats can sometimes make. Then back to quiet.

My hypothesis is that the whole thing freaked the little muskrat out of her habitat, and she hid under my deck until morning when she thought the coast was clear. Only she had been there so long she forgot the way back out until Bill scared her out again.

So, do coyotes eat muskrat? Sounds like a question for a reference librarian to me!

I said wildlife was one of my favorite things, but I didn't necessarily mean in my backyard

After articulating the words "I think the rabbits are gone" - refering to the ones that ate my perennials to shreds - hence, my boring garden, guess who? I have seen one parent and 2 children inside the dog pen. The children are still pretty small as you can see in comparison to an ivy leaf. Oh well, they are no worse than the deer. And make a cute picture for the blog?

This one's for you Grant

Mother's Day.

That was last Sunday; this being Thursday, and I've finally gotten around to downloading pictures from the day's events. We had planned a cookout, but it was so cold and windy that we decided to eat at Goten after a visit to the Frist Museum of Art. The art wasn't very good, in my opinion, but they also had a Tiffany lamp exhibit which was wonderful.

When Grant noticed I had brought my camera, he said something like "I guess we can expect lots of pictures taken today that will end up on the blog tomorrow - just what the internet needs - more pictures on more blogs." I must have embarrassed him when he was a teenager when I took his picture once because he rags me about taking photos all the time. He should have an alcoholic for a mother, huh? There could be worse hobbies. And, I don't even know thing one about it - just that I enjoy it for some unknown reason. I think I just want to capture and hold on to the things that I like or love or find beautiful or amusing. The bad things in life can slip away and be forgotten. If only.

Would you see this deer in the headlights?

Near the library, which is quite populated with houses, trees, and a park, lives an albino deer. Several people have seen it; unfortunately not me. But one of my friends got a picture of it finally. It does hang out with several other deer, but it doesn't seem to come out into the open quite as far as the others. An instinct survival thing? Don't know any albino deer consultants to ask!

BIG Trees

Redwoods

For Heaven's sake! I tried to learn how to do something new tonight and here it is! I never have enough time (or maybe brains?) to figure it out before I have to do something else. I'm hoping to get Bill to give me more input on this kind of stuff once he retires and has more time too. In other words, a lot of things on the blog aren't placed right (some of that is the blog's part, like when it will not take a paragraph return). Anyway, I love Muir Woods north of San Francisco, so there are some pictures that I didn't take. I have some that I did in real albums.

Tears on the Sun

Today I told my boss I was retiring, somewhere around the July 1 date. Talk about bittersweet! I've known some of my happiest days with my great friends and the patrons at the library. I was overwhelmed by the get well cards I got while I was sick this past year. Being at the library means being able to smile a hundred times a day at people, and we all know that's good for you. I hope they call me back to sub. Thank goodness we live close, and we can now be easily back and forth as patrons ourselves.

Well I lost $10, but it'll be worth it if Big Brown, the Kentucky Derby winner, can go on to be a Triple Crown winner.

He's a beautiful horse, and the first to win from Gate 20 in a gazillion years!

Tragically, Eight Bells, the filly who came in 2nd, broke both ankles and had to be euthanized. She just fell down about 10 yds. after the finish line, throwing the jockey. How sad, sad, sad.

It's Saturday noon and the tire man has a phone interview. That usually means he's on a radio show. Lucky is beginning to pace around looking for more napping spots. I am looking for any way to put off Sat. chores.

Last night we had an all staff meeting to hear about the library bldg. expansion. It only amounts to 13,000 sq. ft. but it will mean a lot of books to move. I enjoyed being able to sit back and think about how I wouldn't have to move any of them since I'll be retired. The circulation people seemed pretty up in arms over a second drive up window and 1-person circ desk that is in the new plan. The Adult section will get a rather large chunk of that 13,000 sq. ft. with much of it devoted to audio-visual. The library world is really changing faster than a speeding bullet. Yesterday I also attended an audio teleconference on our new language learning database called Tell Me More. It is absolutely amazing!

Meanwhile, to add to my post about stuff in the Cool Springs area. Less than a mile down the main road from us, Carothers, is an amazing business district. There must be more than a dozen business buildings all about 6 stories tall. I have no idea what businesses are there other than the new Nissan headquarters. The traffic at the morning and evening rush hours never bothers us, and, once again, they must generate a lot of tax revenue. If all the workers got to live in all the nearby houses, they would have nice little 5 miles commutes like I do. Not to mention becoming COOL, if they aren't already.

It's May and that means Kentucky Derby and Oregano Julips !

We have good friends that we had dinner with every month back in Ohio. As statistics would have it, once our dinner date fell on Derby weekend, and our host thought he'd serve us mint julips as tradition dictated. Lucky for him, his neighbor was quite the gardener and had a large herb garden to pick the mint from. Not having had mint julips before, we didn't have anything to compare them to, but they were not a taste delight, to put it delicately. We said they were delicious.

Several weeks later our friend called us up to say that the mint julips were actually oregano julips; he had picked the wrong herb. We never had them again, mint, oregano or otherwise, but every year we talk about it.

By the way, our children, who are big fans of the Derby and have been attending now for about 10 years, rain or shine, will be in the infield tomorrow. That's my horse up there, Colonel John. I've picked the winner the last couple of years but not sent the money. Since we're babysitting Lucky, one of the granddogs, this year I made sure to send my $10 when they brought the dog. It will probably go to gasoline, but I swear this time I will collect if I win. Go Colonel !