Bits of Random

Carter and I gathered locust shells last night. (I think he said 22 in all. There were two on the chicken coop that we couldn't reach. I even tried to stand on a chair. Until it started to tip. Suddenly the other two didn't see so important to us.)

They are pretty ugly close up. They are uglier when alive though.

Our hen, Poachy, laid two more eggs. Both very teeny tiny. I was there when one literally dropped out of her (she was standing up when it came out of her, which totally surprised me). I had just closed the door on the coop when I heard a thud on the nesting box bottom. I opened the door to peek in and there was an egg between her feet. Then, I assume to let the other chickens know, she began to cluck as loud as she could. I have never, ever heard such a sound. She continued for a minute or two and then hopped down and walked down the ramp into the chicken run. Then she stood there and clucked again for a half minute more and then went about her business. The other chickens just ignored her. Once she was distracted enough, I went back in to get the egg. It was slightly wet and still warm. It was completely amazing. I shall never forget witnessing it.

At a town meeting on Monday (a public planning meeting, not a council meeting) my most-annoying neighbor yelled at me. He's an ignorant, old man who has no friends. (I'm quite surprised he has a wife.) I am happy to say that, even though our mayor was not at the meeting, our council president squashed the issue and ended the meeting. Afterwards I went into the bathroom. When I came out, I was ambushed by the most-annoying neighbor. I held my own and did not back down. I was right and I knew it. And everyone in the meeting knew it. And even the most-annoying neighbor knew it. I think he was angry because I called him on his lie. Again, as I was being ambushed in the dark hallway, our council president came out and made him leave. Our mayor was not at our meeting, but I have learned that if he had been there, the most-annoying neighbor would have been asked to leave immediately. (And had our town resident been present, he would have had an official escort by the police.) Sweet!

And since most-annoying neighbor's only skill is to annoy the neighbors, he is messing with me now. He has two pieces of his junky cars in front of my house. He owns four pieces of junk and never drives them (actually owns five, but he only parks four of them on the street). Joe had nowhere to park when he came home from work last night. So Joe parked in front of most-annoying neighbor's house. It's a silly little feud that he wants to play. And that is fine. I stopped in at the town office today and most-annoying has six days to move his two pieces of junk (officially documented by the office, pavement markings and photos) from the front of my house.

We have our town council meeting in two weeks and I know he'll be there (and Joe will be out of town). I am prepared and ready. And now I'm relieved to know that I have the backing of not just my neighbors, but town council as well. And that our mayor will have him police-escorted out the door if he yells at me anymore.

And, if you've read this far, thank you. You should also know that Mason has to have surgery now. He has been experiencing a hearing loss that was officially detected at his last well checkup. I knew he wasn't listening to me, but I didn't realize it wasn't selective. The doctor tried some meds, but they didn't help, so he wants to remove his adenoids and put tubes in his ears to alleviate the extra fluid in his ears. And he wants to thin out his nasal tissues/passages (or something like that). Didn't we just go through this recently?!? Deja vu.