North-easter looming

Air temperature 45 F, wind east about 9 mph gusting to 18, cloudy. Clouds and wind supposed to hang around all day, going to rain overnight and into tomorrow. May be snow back in the hills. Catbird pair still hanging around our area but not working on a nest in the azalea. They have many other bushes available that don't have nosy neighbors.

Feathered dinosaurs

Pair of geese grazing the park again, terrorizing the grackles. City crew mowed about 90% of the grass yesterday, and the geese are in the general area where one of the mowers bogged down and had to be dragged out by the other. Twice. Yes, our park is a bad neighborhood where the mowers patrol in pairs.

Goose guards off duty

Not raining or snowing, and the park looked clear, so I got out for my walk. Met up with Ms. Sasha and we performed the ritual of a session of scritches, a walk around the corner to her front steps, and another session. Mockingbird emphatic about ownership of one street-corner on our old block. Saw my first chipmunk of the year -- we think we have some efficient predators reducing the population.

Periodic note

"Power tends to corrupt and absolute power corrupts absolutely."

Lord Acton

Counter-survival

A relative of ours was a foreign grad student at Harvard. After he earned his PhD, he did not go back to his birth country. Driving out foreign students hurts the US.