In April of 2005 I moved into my apartment. Today, I picked my toolbox up off the floor where it has been living for the past two and a half years and put it away in the closet.
Archive for the 'General' Category
This is a painting titled “The Field” by T. Peters. It was painted in 1987. I know this because it is written on the back of the canvas, in pen. I think it is a very beautiful painting. I bought it from an old woman (T. Peters, I assume) in New York City. 
She had a small display set up along the wall that divides Central Park from 5th Avenue. Assuming I purchased it the same year it was painted, I would have been 10 or 11. I don’t know how old the old woman was, but I guess I wanted to encourage her artistic endeavors. She told me that the building in the painting is not a house, but a shed, because it does not have any windows. The painting had a white mat around it and instead of having a piece of glass or plastic protecting its front, it was covered carefully in saran wrap. For many years, it hung on the wall next to my bed. Just recently I had a new, proper mat cut for it and framed it in a proper frame. It is hanging by my bed again.
Sadly, the Waynesboro wildlife center just called to tell me that Hebron, the little Easter bat, passed away this morning. Apparently he was too cold and dehydrated to make it. Poor Hebron. Perhaps one day he will rise again since he was, after all, an Easter bat.
R.I.P. Hebron.
Today, Hayley and Liz and I went to the Hebron Baptist Church for Easter services. Before the service started I found a small brown bat lying in the parking lot. It was freezing cold out and at first I thougth he was dead, but then I noticed he was breathing. Hayley scooped him up with a piece of plastic and deposited him in an old Ugg shoe box that Liz had in her car (ha ha, Liz has Uggs). After church, we took the bat to the wildlife center in Waynesboro. They said he seemed OK and that they would fatten him up and then release him. Apprently, the weather we are having (really warm out and then suddenly really cold) causes a lot of problems for bats, because they unhibernate, innocently enjoy the high temperatures, and then turn into little bat popsicles when the temperature unexpectedly drops. Poor bats.
I have named the bat Hebron. Here is a picture:
Interestingly, or not, depending on your point of view, Hebron is not the first bat I have found.
Once when I was little I was walking in Central Park with my mom and I saw a small brown bat lying on the ground. He seemed hurt and we did not know what to do. My mom wanted to kill him, because she thought he was suffering, but by this time a small crowd had gathered and they were against any type of bat murder. It was decided that my mom and I would stay with the bat while another man went to find a park ranger. As we were sitting there, watching the bat, he suddenly got up, scampered a few feet, and then flew away. We were quite happy at this turn of events, but soon grew concerened that when the man and the park ranger returned, they would think we had killed the bat against their wishes. We waited a while but soon became bored (because there was no longer a bat to look at) and wanted to leave. So, we left a note on the ground that said “Mr., the bat flew away.” I think we also drew a picture of a flying bat.
I have no idea if the man ever returned and found that note, but if he did, I hope he believed it.
Many thanks to the good people of Sometowninpennsylvania for their enthusiastic willingness to change my flat tire.
Today I was talking with my friend Mary, and we were lamenting the fact that we did not make it out west this year on our Annual National Parks Tour. She suggested that next year we go to Yosemite, and then she sent me this awesome email:
fyi, this is what we would look like in yosemite. only older, wiser and hotter.
we should totally plan on going next year.
Here is what we might look like in some other places we’ve never been. Many thanks to Mary for her mad skills with the photoshop.
This summer I grew a cherry tomato plant on my balcony. It produced these three tomatos. Soon I will be able to give up my day job and just live off the land.
I feel bad. Yesterday I was looking at my balcony and noticed a small bird coming out of an open carton of tri-poly fortified sanded grout that I had stashed out there, left over from when I was tiling my bathroom. I went to investigate and found that the bird and his/her partner were building a nest. I didn’t do anything. This morning, I checked on things and was amazed by how much progress the birds had made. The nest was almost totally complete, perfect and round like a hollow ball made entirely of leaves and twigs and stuff, with a little hole for a door. It’s amazing that the two birds could construct such a perfect home, and with no arms to help them! At any rate, I was concerned. I didn’t mind the birds nesting on my porch, but I was worried that I would constantly be scaring them, and that they might lay eggs and then abandon them because I have to go water my plants, or something like that. So, tonight I destroyed the nest. I felt really bad, it only took me 2 minutes to dispose of something they took two days to build. I hope it was the right thing to do. I hope they can build another nest before the mother bird lays her eggs.
I just discovered that this adorable beaver-like mammal (BLM) lives right behind my building. I can see the door to his/her house from my balcony. We are neighbors! Here is a photo - he/she is right there in the middle.
I always thought that big pile of crap that the beaver is emerging from was just…well…
a big pile of crap that my neighbors for some reason kept in their yard. But now, I am thinking maybe it is a specially-constructed beaver house. I know they have a chicken in their yard, because it squawks and wakes me up every morning, so maybe they are animal lovers and thus are prone to doing things such as building beaver abodes.
Note: look at the word squawk, it’s like the weirdest word ever! What a strange combination of letters.
Today Walter took me flying in a teeny little airplane. Considering the fact that I hate planes and I hate flying, I think this serves as conclusive evidence that I will go *anywhere* I am invited. Anyhow, I survived, and here are some photos:
1. Shadow. The plane was small.
2. Charlottesville is so beautiful. With all the land out there, you’d think there would be a *few* affordable acres I could buy! Sigh.
3. This is what it looked like as we were landing. It was the scariest part.
