Well, sorta. This morning after being awakened very early by
the cats and while I was waiting for my morning cup of tea to steep, I
happened to be petting Madeline and looking out our kitchen window when
boink a bluebird landed on the branch just feet from my nose.
Moments later a second bluebird landed next to him. Of course, Madeline
was going ape. Two birds were taunting her!
This highlights one of the differences between living in Rhinebeck
and Jersey City. As I recall, there were lots of birds in Jersey City:
pigeons, seagulls, and other aerial rodents. But this is somehow
better.
Update: my grasp of ornithology is severely limited. That
explains why I mistook a blue jay for a bluebird. It seems they are two
entirely different types of birds. Who knew?
One of the best aspects of our new home in Rhinebeck, NY is that
Augustus no longer howls at night. There must have been something about
the Jersey City apartment that drove him nuts. And every night he’d
start howling, which would keep us awake until we locked him in the
guest bathroom.
Now he is no more annoying than any cat is during the night: he
occasionally competes in the Feline 500 with Tim and Magic, or knocks
over boxes or fragile items on our shelves.
But that’s no problem by comparison to his howling.
I just ran across an interesting
article in a back issue of Inc magazine about one guy’s decision to
base his career in Bozeman, Montana. What really struck me was this
quote from about half-way down the article:
I’ve recently come to realize that I’ve been a mere consumer of
place, investing nothing in and giving little to the various
communities that I’ve passed through. In the past my lack of
connection showed in my aversion to buying a home — I didn’t want
to be tied down by one, just in case I felt the itch to move on.
This sounds a lot like me and my recent discovery that I wanted a
real home where I could put down some roots and make a
difference.
