Last year I started keeping a photographic journal of the annuals I plant in pots for the front porch and back deck. Now that we've had two nights in a row in the which the temperatures have remained above freezing it's time to plant some pansies and violets. This year I'll keep better track of when I plant the flowers and which ones thrive and which do not do well. These are the pansies on the front porch last year and some of the other flowers that were scattered about.

Driving home this afternoon there appeared to be a large traffic back-up at a light that typically keeps no more than a few cars waiting. It was actually a small Subaru station wagon stopped in the right lane, a large deer off to the side of the road, apparently badly injured, chest heaving, disoriented. The driver of the car was an older man with a long, untrimmed white beard who appeared to be gesturing to the passenger. He seemed to be agitated and upset, although the car did not seem to be damaged. I imagined him as an animal rights activist, appalled at the suffering he had caused, unable to even call the police or animal control to come put the animal down.

There are back roads I dread traveling at night, especially at this time of year when the deer seem half-crazed and will jump out with no warning. This, however, was a heavily traveled stretch of US Route 30, with the Main Line train tracks a short distance off the right and shops lining the left hand side of the road. Like the other cars around me, I drove off without stopping to inquire about the driver and his passenger, whether they were hurt or needed help. Now *that* is true herd mentality.

TV: HBO, Real Sex. Are there tackier stories about sex anywhere? The producers of this show always seem half a step behind the rest of the population when it comes to technology. And would anyone really pay $7,000 for a male sex doll, with or without interchangeable penises?