Yesterday I strategically suggested a trip to CostCo after work, achieving the dual purposes of more contact lenses for me and not having to bike home in 35-degree rain in no more than a t-shirt. (Today I took the bus, and possibly will bike home.)
When we got home there was snow too, dime-sized flakes that melted at contact with any surface. I filled the birdfeeder for the second time that day, a dispensation I wouldn't have made except for the unseasonable cold in nesting season. (I hope my robins are okay--robins are nesting in one of my plum trees!) We watched sparrows and finches shelter on the windowsills and utility lines under the eaves. RDC wanted to offer them the house, which I think would be fine. We need a sparrow to eat the moths that have suddenly erupted. Last year was a peak in the miller moth population and this year enough are left over that sparrows, so excited in their pursuit of fluttering yumminess, do not think to dodge traffic.
This morning I watched a soaking wet squirrel on my neighbor's windowsill groom itself. It's so unfair that they can be so cute. It washed its face like a cat or a rabbit, it pulled its tail through its claws to comb it and applied the water it wrang out to its hind feet, the muddiness of which I never would have thought would bother a squirrel.
Also at the bus stop I met a four-month-old golden retriever puppy named Mason.