I forgot to tell you all about the squirrel. When we moved in here, the place came with a nice hammock in the backyard, one with wooden rods in either end so it stayed open even, which was left out because it rarely rains around here in the summer. About a month or two after we'd moved in, the hammock was no longer safe.

Thanks to the squirrel.

He'd unravelled the hammock until it was hanging by only a few strands on one end. Eventually, our housemates took it down.

Lucky for me, I own a nice hammock. I'd put it on my Amazon wishlist several years ago, but I never had a good place to hang it. So, now when we have a nice day, we haul it out and hang it up for the afternoon.

Sunday was the first day in months we'd been able to do this, and I really upset the squirrel. He came out and stared at me, his mouth hanging open. He chattered at me, ran towards me, then away, unsure what to do. Finally he climbed the tree behind my head into the branches above my head.

Then he chittered and threw stuff down at me for awhile. Luckily, he didn't seem to have more than one nut in the tree, so it was mostly leaves and twigs. Still. Cheeky little squirrel!

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It's another gorgeous day, and it bodes well for Tim's new schedule (which, because we have but one car, I must adjust my own schedule to). I made to work an hour before I usually do, an hour and a half before I have to be in, which means I had to take a half an hour lunch so I didn't go overtime (I have to stay until 5pm for the phones, sigh). I went to the store and bought sandwich fixings earlier, so when it came time to clock out I made a PB&J and headed over to the local park.

Now, this is pretty near the Mission district (or the puke, poo and piss district, as I like to sometimes call it), so this park wasn't exactly full of mommas with strollers (though a few strolled through, but didn't stop). Still, there was still a spot of shade for a working girl in amongst the homeless napping and the druggies handing off drugs. I ate sitting in the grass, then spread out on a relatively clean slap of concrete under a nice big tree, reading for awhile, stopping occasionally to watch a gull ride the air currents so far above me he sometimes looked more like a glint of sun than a bird. How lovely it would be, I thought, to have nothing to do other than lazily glide above the city on a gorgeous day such as today. I love it that birds do this -- use flying for more than transportation.

I came back from my lunch much refreshed and calmer than I'd been when I left.

Ok, so maybe this new schedule isn't so bad after all.