Menu change was all it took to attract squirrel

There is a poem that declares, “What is so rare as a day in June...”  We could be using that and inserting “as a day in November.”  

After a flurry of cold in the earliest days, the past two weeks have been wonderful.  The month is three-fourths of the way gone, and it has been almost balmy ... almost.  Was in Cody twice and it was calm, warm, not a bit of wind, which is rare. I like it. I had my druthers, it could stay like this until Christmas Eve day, then snow gently, and vertically, all day and night. Pile up pure white ... and go away right after New Year’s.  I can dream, can’t I?

The squirrels have been storing up food for the winter. I can attest to that. I had a few apples that had grown wrinkled with age waiting for me to use them. I put them in a plastic bucket and just put it on the deck right in front of the patio doors.  One morning, a squirrel came up, helped himself (or herself) to an apple, and scurried away. Not sure if he was storing it up or just enjoying dessert after breakfast.

He, or she, hasn’t returned since, and I haven’t counted the apples. Think I’ll just leave them in the bucket, in front of the doors.  Give him, or her, the opportunity to eat them or store them.

Incidentally, I hadn’t seen a squirrel around the property all summer. Guess I just wasn’t offering the right menu.

While spending a four-hour layover in the first-class lounge at the Seattle airport, Boo discovered she could pour herself a soft drink using her cell phone. Bet she was pouring “a round of drinks” for her three fly-mates.

And niece Jana, visiting from Kansas City, used her smartphone as a timer when she cooked our dinner one evening. It politely told her it was ready for her next step.

I remember thinking it was great when I could dial a number and not have to ask the operator to get it for me — or, on the same subject, when we didn’t share a party line with seven neighbors. And I remember getting calls and hearing various soft clicks when people stopped listening in to hear if there was any new news she could share when the line was free.

Isn’t progress great?