Chipmunk capers, Misfits box, and Mrs Gaskell

Chipmunks in various blogs lately and why I look askance at the cute little critters.

To wit: library friend reported a chipmunk got in through an open patio door after she'd repeatedly reminded her husband to shut it every time because of chipmunks and squirrels on the patio. 

She thought she saw something flittering across the living room to the kitchen where the dishwasher was running. Couple of minutes later, explosion in kitchen, flames and water together shooting about,  fire fighters cut water and power to extinguish the fire and found a tiny charred body in the wiring. I don't know what she said to her husband.

To second wit: pet supply store friends came home from vacation, to find water running down the driveway, discovered the basement was full, couple of inches throughout the ground floor, and many tiny toothmarks in the pvc basement water supply pipes,  through which water had evidently been jetting while they were away. 

Also a drowned chipmunk. And all appliances drowned and needing replacement. Serious furnace damage.

On a cheerier note, I have added to my classic Kindle library a complete Mrs Gaskell, and I'm currently rereading Cranford with much more appreciation than when it was a school set book. 

While I'm stitching, I also found a good audio version, so my FOMO is satisfied.

Before the pink Misfits van arrived, I fitted in a walk to admire late patio flowers, natural color combos and fall colors at the pond, little wind coming and going 

Misfits day

Great deal on white sweet potatoes, which will be roasted, baked, souped, various meals.

The yogurt front needed a boost from Nancy after several weeks of homemade. The flour may become bread. The big size seen here isn't often available. Cooking with Will Yeung uses up rice, so there's reinforcements. 

The ground turkey will be burgers soon, and spaghetti sauce, and the chicken will be in the depths of the freezer till I need chicken again.  Mozzarella because it's a melting change from cheddar. Future toasted cheese sandwiches.

I also found a good chickpea pasta dish which I'll try with the fettuccine currently in the freezer. It can work with my other favorite, cannellini beans, too. Hummus because it's been a while since I had any I hadn't made. And I've been out of vanilla forever, high time.

Nice haul, and as usual, great quality.

Early voting in North Carolina is booming. Huge turnout. Many anecdotal reports of GOP voting Harris, had it with the wannabe dictator. They may split their ticket, so we can't count on their Senate yet, but we'll see. 

Ticket-splitting, for blogistas in furrin parts,  unfamiliar, is where you vote one party for one or more offices, another for other positions. 

There are usually a lot of offices up for voting in a Presidential year because they seize on voters who don't turn out for the midterms and other elections. Unlike immigrants who make sure they're heard in everyone election no matter what's up for decision.  President or dog warden, hear our voices.

In primaries many states only permit registered party affiliates to vote, in their own party primary, some variation across states. 

But in Presidential elections you vote freely any candidate, any party,  you choose. And you can usually, in any election, write in the name of someone not on the printed ballot.

Thoughts too deep for blogging, ty Bill, and birdfeeders

Many thoughts today, about extroverts and introverts, current discussions online, with many participants unaware of the meanings. The Bill in the title above is Wordsworth, but you knew that.

And the successful DNS attack on the empire of the criminal enterprise formerly known as FB. Right after a major expose on national TV last evening by a whistleblower. 

But it's too much for the laborious one-finger typing which is how I do my blogging on a phone with a tiny screen.

More important in the existential sense is the ladybug that rode home with me in the car and is now flying free, reminding me that I may as well put out the bird feeders.

 The front one is settled into the Russian sage, so it feels safe to birds not used to a feeder right there. See the suet block hanging in there?

And the back one has an extra added basket I set up for birds who like suet but are not too adept with the no perch feeder.

They're used to feeding here. So are the squirrels. Very few squirrels around this year, though. Chipmunks put in their first excitable appearance yesterday. As long as they stay outdoors, it's fine.

Back to my book. 

Carpenter bees and other teachers

Those bees with shiny butts, buzzing around noisily a couple of weeks ago, drowning out the convo with Handsome Son on the patio, distanced, so more like a muted bellow than a chat, wonder what they're doing, we wondered.

Found out they're carpenter bees, that's an interesting name, I thought, wonder why they're called that. Yesterday I noticed piles of sawdust at the foot of the fence.

And checked to find a couple of perfectly drilled holes in the fence and my planter boxes.  The bees  have been much quieter recently.

I checked and found out why. These are nesting sites, now probably completed and only requiring the bee to finish laying low her eggs inside the brood chamber she and possibly one other bee made. Hence the shiny butts, maybe.

If you're working with sawdust the shiny dust repelling butt is suited to your job. Unlike the furry butts of bees needing the fur to carry pollen. At least that's my surmise.

I saw a couple of skirmishes with a third bee a couple of weeks ago, probably competition for the best parts of my fence.

The fence is scheduled to be replaced this year and some factory made material will be used, no wood,  so I'm not going to tell on them.  Let them coexist while they can.

My other constant companion is this chipmunk, who often sits by, see my toe, to watch me reading, probably taking notes on the daily habits of the common human.

Who will be out there this afternoon continuing with Ulysses, it being Bloomsday tomorrow and time for the annual go at Joyce.

 My brain gets tired after an hour or so, very dense and demanding and brilliant writing, so I'm pacing myself. Couple of hours a year, and I'm 85% through according to my Kindle. Easier to hold than the book. Also it opens right where I was last year, a big point.