those other creatures – Memorial day edition

This morning my dad went outside to water some plants in the front yard. While he was watering one of the bushes, a rabbit suddenly darted out. A few seconds later, a turtle crawled out from the same bush. Needless to say, dad was able to catch the turtle and not the rabbit. He found a box and put the turtle in it, then called me over to look at it. Mom, being mom, took pictures of the turtle as it tried to climb up the sides of the box. I don’t think I’ve seen a turtle with such bright orange spots before, like it went through a bath and a polish (turtle wax?). Anyway, after a while, dad let the turtle go into the back yard. We still have no idea what the rabbit and the turtle were doing in the same bush. Settling an old bet maybe?

I saw an oriole perched out on the deck earlier this week and again over the weekend a few times. I’ve never seen a bird with such bright orange / cadmium yellow (sorry, watercolor reference) feathers up close. It looked more like a tropical bird than anything else I’ve seen around here. One time I was in the living room and I kept hearing a thumping against the window. I thought the wind had picked up and was blowing a tree branch or something against the pane. I peeked outside, but I didn’t see any branch near the window and the wind wasn’t blowing hard enough. Suddenly a flurry of bright orange slammed against the window not far from my face. I saw the oriole fly into the nearby bush, chirping and fluttering angrily. It slammed again into the window, before flying away. Later on, dad reasoned it might be mating season and that the oriole probably saw its reflection in the window, thinking it was a rival bird.

Speaking of birds, they are everywhere in force. Around 4 or so in the morning, they suddenly all begin chirping. I leave my window open, so I should know. Around midday, they suddenly all get quiet. Until evening, when the sun is not as strong, they all come back out again. The pool hasn’t been opened yet (I know, I know, I’m lazy) so there is a small pond of water on the pool cover. The birds like to swoop down for a drink. Of course, they leave their poop there as well, so I’m not quite sure why they still insist on drinking from that pond. I can’t decide which is more noisy at 4am, the birds chirping or those raccoons.

Yes, those raccoons are back. The past few days, I’ve seen them lumbering and waddling about in the evening – all over the deck and back yard. They look pretty big – I blame the neighbors for not securing their trash that well. Last night I heard some splashing – I thought it was strange. I didn’t recall the neighbors opening their pool as well, even though I knew their grandkids were over. Plus it was like 9pm and I could hear them (the neighbors and grandkids) playing basketball next door. Then I heard some shrieking and animal noises along with the splashing. The way the noises sounded – thrashing and splashing – I thought, “Oh crap. Something got caught underneath the pool cover.” The last thing I wanted to see when they opened the pool was some dead thing lying at the bottom. So I turned on the outside lights and went outside. The pool and the cover seemed fine. In fact, the splashing and shrieking had stopped. Sitting on top of the pool cover, in the middle of the pond, two pairs of eyes stared back at me. It took me a moment to realize the pale yellow eyes belonged to raccoons (of course). We stared at each other for a minute. It was funny – they stood perfectly still, water dripping down their fur, looking ready to bolt. “Umm, whatever you’re doing, just keep it down,” I said.
I went back inside. I didn’t hear any more splashing or raccoon frolicking the rest of the night.

***

The calendar claims summer won’t start for another few weeks, however it feels like it already. The local weather gurus predicted some sort of thunderstorm sometime during this Memorial day weekend. It hasn’t happened yet – nothing but nice clear skies and low humidity. I’ve done really nothing but relax and be lazy. I read my email Saturday afternoon and discovered that my brother, F, had sent me an email Friday morning asking if I wanted to visit him this weekend. Oops. I saw the NCAA lacrosse semifinals on Saturday (on tv,of course). Lacrosse is a big deal around here on Long Island, so I blame my surroundings for that. I also went running Saturday morning, at like 6am (yeah I know, I’m crazy sometimes), so of course I felt a little sore all day the next day (I’m fine now today). Yesterday I saw the Pirates of the Caribbean which was a nice summer getaway movie. I still think the first one was the best one.

In more recent news, the family had planned a Disney World / Florida trip after July 4th (don’t ask why after July 4th). We had to cancel those plans because we found out my sister-in-law is pregnant – which is great news. However, since we want her to be in great health, a trip to Florida in July probably wasn’t the best thing. However, the airline tickets that my parents got (they were nice enough to get the tickets) for some reason or other could not be transferred to next year or something like that, so we have to use the tickets anyway. Gosh darn. So my parents, F and I will be forced to go to Florida in July after all. We have relatives in the area which I haven’t seen in a while, so that will be fun. Although, Florida in July with the humidity down there may not be so fun. Oh well.

Anyway. There will be more lazying about today. And the lacrosse championship. And summer hours at work started last week.