164 - Mystery Rodent

Methinks we have... a ground hog. It is much too big to be a squirrel and lacks the tail of a beaver or the extruded teeth of a gopher. So that's my conclusion. That and a brief DuckDuckGo search that seemed to confirm my suspicion. So now I've seen turkey, deer, rabbit, several varieties of bird, a bouncing white cat, squirrels, cows and... a groundhog.

Butterflies seem to love our windowsills.

Another trip to the creek and along the way I found this guy.

And these.

And this.

And then I was near the creek.

Where some dumbass tossed their trash. But... two butterflies... how cool is that? Maybe they're moths. Who cares? They're pretty and there's two of them. But they're still not as pretty as that bird...

Today's haul almost killed me. I think six rocks was overly ambitious, especially the one next to the jars, it's pretty thick. This time I really thought I was gonna die. I know I meant it when I said it yesterday, but I didn't know until today... and I really, really mean it this time.

I may go back again this evening. :)

But for now, this is where I'm at with the gravel/fireplace project.

How crazy is this? The onions are shooting up like no one's business!

And the celery is still chugging along.

Even the fig cuttings are starting to sprout roots (the little white dots). Grabbed three from my grandma's fig tree when we were there. Mike loves figs, and I love the idea of an heirloom fig tree. And figs. I'm excited about the figs, too.

Next time I buy lettuce I will try again. I think maybe the water was up too high and it caused the leaves to rot. But free lettuce would be awesome, and my garden is nowhere near to becoming reality at the moment. I would be happy just to be able to mow the grass, so I'm not worried about much beyond that. But I am dying to get things into the ground, so this water project is helping (somewhat) to satisfy that urge.

Talked to a recruiter today. I wasn't selected to apply for the job they initially called me about, but he did offer me something interesting... an idea. We were talking about what I would get excited about if I had to do my old job over again. I told him I liked the challenge of creating a spreadsheet that could answer any question that was thrown at me; it was like a puzzle. And as a manager I liked the fun side of management... interacting with employees, being able to bump their pay up, interviewing, even reviews. He told me he was going to throw me a major curveball, so keep an open mind, and asked if I had ever considered recruiting, because that's what recruiters do. He doesn't have anything he can put me in, but said he'd be willing to sit down with me and help me tweak my resume, give me some names that might be closer to where we live and give me some pointers about how to move forward with it if I decide I want to pursue it. I used to do a little HR and wanted to go that route but ended up being pushed into purchasing, which turned out great, but I enjoyed HR because I was interacting with people and part of me has wanted to get back to that.

Since I need to take my car to Nashville to get the struts replaced (insurance should cover it since it stems from the accident I had a couple of years ago), I am going to call and see if Mini has a loaner car and if they do I'll take him up on it. I'm still going forward with The Concrete Angel, but there may be room for both, and frankly I need to maximize my income. Everyone out here diversifies, and I'm not above attempting it myself as long as it's realistic.

Speaking of attempts...

I decided to go back. I'm ambitious. I'm not a quitter. I may also be a little on the dense side.

My friend came back.

This however... this is NOT my friend. He's lucky I was wearing Crocs and was too scared to step on him, or he'd be a dead bumble.

And this is not THE blue bird, but it is A blue bird.

My shadow never sweats. I sure do. I'm surprised you can't see rivulets of it streaming down the road.

I wish I had been prepared, but this blue heron(?) surprised me. As I approached the creek he took off and I was lucky to get a pic at all. Big bird. BIG.

And I came back with this. Not sure it was any less ambitious than my last haul since that slab is pretty heavy, but it was less cumbersome to carry and I made it all the way up the hill this time. By the skin of my teeth. And I had to have that rock. It's perfect for a fireplace.

And now we're seeing some progress... If I cheated and took the car down there I could fill the whole thing up... and believe me, I have considered it... but this is not just about the gravel... it's about exploring and getting into shape. So that someday, when zombies are chasing me, I can run up that hill! :)

So for comparison, this was earlier:

And this is now:

See how I had to pan out?

...because the diameter of the pile has increased?

This is where you go oooooh and aaaah and praise me for my tenacity.

Don't worry. I'll wait.

...

This is me waiting.

...

Okay you're just not getting it. That's okay. Some people are slower on the uptake than others. I'm sure you have your special skills, we just need to suss them out. I'll give you more time. We'll revisit this tomorrow. In the meantime, go find one of those picture comparison games and we'll see how you do tomorrow.