Solstice: 06/21/06
Today is the solstice, summer up here in the northern hemisphere and winter for folks in the southern hemisphere. It heralds the official start of summer in the states and for me, the slow but steady march to end of the year. Today we will be having the most day light hours that we will all year and then things will steadily unwind with the days starting later and the sun setting earlier. I love watching the retreat of the sun as fall and winter approaches.

When the next equinox comes (the halfway point between the solstices), Harriet will be about two weeks old. This morning I realized just how soon her birth is as my belly has really popped now. As I stared at myself in the mirror this morning I couldn't believe how much more pregnant I looked today as I did when I went to bed. She had done a bunch of squirming when I had gone to bed and I guess she must have been repositioning herself.

Today is also supposed to be the hottest day we've had so far this year. While the coastal areas are expecting the low to mid seventies, inland areas are expecting to rise over the century mark. Our home can fall under either weather report depending on how well the air flows over the bay and up our hill. I'm hoping it will tend towards the temperatures on the peninsula and not towards the inland cities.

Bird Song:
Every morning when I get to work I am greeted by the bird song of a flock of house sparrows. They fly around our roof, land on our phone and T1 lines while constantly singing.

Yesterday I had my camera with me and it for once wasn't filled with Sean photographs. I was able to snap a couple pictures of them. With the high number of pixels the camera is capable of, I was further able to divide the two pictures into about ten to really high light the different birds.

The house sparrow reminds me of my grandmother. She built a bird feeder out of hurricane fencing and wood to give the smaller birds a safe place to eat away from the reach of the larger birds of prey. There was a gate to get inside the aviary where she would put seed in hanging baskets and some of the floor and fresh water in a standing bird bath. Every evening around dusk huge flocks of birds (mostly house sparrows and morning doves) would arrive and sit on her roof and her back fence waiting for her to put the food and water into the aviary. Once she was done and back into her house (usually the kitchen for prime viewing) the hundreds of birds would stream through the diamond shaped holes and begin to eat and sing for the next hour.

Now that my brother lives at grandmother's house, I don't know if he's kept the aviary or not. He's done many well needed improvements inside the house and to the front yard but I can't remember if the bird feeder was on the list. It's his house now and he can (and should) do with it as he pleases. Regardless of what he does, I will always have the fond memories whenever I see house sparrows.

Flat Tire: Argh!
Ian was already running late because he and his advisor needed to work on some code. Then just as he was about to pull into our complex, his car got a flat tire. So now he has filled it up as best he could and is limping his car down to a service station. At this time at night I think he's going to find them all closed. I don't know when he'll be home for dinner.

On top of that it is ninety-one degrees inside the house. I think it is hotter outside. We don't have AC (couldn't afford it if we did), so we have all the windows open hoping that the cross breeze will eventually cool things down. So far it doesn't seem to be working.

Steps: 3500