A Cat In The Food House...

 Did a little shuffling in our storage room today. It's also are cat's domain. He rules his kingdom as a curious and sometimes callous leader. No dogs are admitted into his realm--dogs (some dogs...) have proven themselves unworthy. But he allows us humans to enter...

As long as we give his head a little scratch.

There is a room in our cat's space, a room within a room. Behind that door we've stored some supplies, including bottles and bottles of canned pickles due to--for us--a bumper cucumber crop this summer. We don't enter the room within a room often, hence the need for shuffling. Since the door is not opened much, when the cat sees the opportunity, he takes it, usually darting past us to see all the wonders contained therein. 

Is it safe to have a cat in the food house? I have no idea, but he doesn't stay in the room too long. We shew him out after a little while, after the cat has surveyed the human food. 

I think if I were a cat and there was a door behind a door in my kingdom, I'd be curious, too. 

Many Hate Them...But I Think Pigeons Are Cool

 Back in the day, kids had hobbies. I am perhaps jaded by what I think young kids do today. I think they all sit in front of computers and play video games. I KNOW that's not right, and now that we live in a neighborhood with a lot of kids, I see them playing outside, running around, riding bikes, even setting up car washes for money.

Those are the kinds of things we did as kids. Without computer games and the internet (heck, even without VCRs...), entertaining ourselves was up to us. What was one thing I did as a kid?

We built a pigeon coop.

And raised pigeons.

Today, my family and I went to our local county fair and had a blast. I'll be blogging about the experience in days to come, but there was one exhibit I loved...the pigeons. It took me back to when not only me and my brother raised pigeons, but many other kids did as well. We had some beautiful birds, different types of pigeons--I've long forgotten the names of the breeds. I was hoping to see some of those amazing birds at the fair, but they were pretty average--beautiful, but average.

I know many people hate pigeons, and they have some good reasons to do so. Many transmit disease, they're scavengers, among other things. But, I really like them. I miss raising them and seeing them fly in the air above our house.

My wife asked me after checking out the birds if I'd like to build a coop and raise pigeons again. In one way, I'd love to, but in another, no. Maybe, it's something kids w/o internet and video games should do. 

But, I'm not saying never say never...

Like Moths (Or Humans...) To A Flame...

An explosion in our neighborhood sort of shook things up a little bit at our house this afternoon. It was just a few houses down the next street so I decided to go down and have a look. The event took place an hour or so after I got home so things were pretty much settled down.

From what I understand and from local news reports no one was seriously injured, but one man was taken to the hospital to be evaluated. I hope he'll be okay.

Before I left my house to investigate, I thought I should grab my good camera. I take my camera with me when I go for a walk at work. You never know when you'll get a chance for a great shot. But this afternoon, I had second thoughts. I didn't know if anyone had been seriously injured. From what my wife said about the explosions I thought there might just be a big hole in the ground where a house once stood.

Nope--from the street it wasn't that bad. I guess most of the damage took place in the back yard. I'm glad I didn't take the good camera. There were many law enforcement officers and fire fighters on site and I didn't want to look too ghoulish with a nice camera in hand like I was being opportunistic with another person's tragedy. I did get a couple of shots, though. I snapped these two photos with my phone as I walked away.

I also had another thought as I walked away. Humans are just like insects when we see shiny lights and hear loud sirens. I'm sure I wasn't the only one who wanted to get closer to the scene. There's the natural curiosity, of course. But those big shiny truck sure draw us in.

I wonder, maybe bugs are just curious as they fly into bug zappers, open flames and incandescent lights.

Maybe...