AUGUST 8 -Boring Day Off, A Maybe Hawk, and Old Letters

Day Off 1 - I didn't do much, although I did more than I did on my last Day Off. I:

• rode Breehy to Walmart, in the rain (little tiny rain) 
• made 5 loaves of delicious white/whole wheat bread
• swept/mopped the kitchen, porch and bathroom floors
• took the kids to the park
• watched TWO hours of Coronation Street
• started knitting again

A list always makes things look greater. On our way to the store, a big two-shades-of-brown bird flew in front of me. I know it wasn't a crow or a seagull, or even an eagle, so I wonder what it was. Probably a hawk. It landed in a tree, but I couldn't really get a good picture - though these are zoomed in with my camera, and also enlarged on my computer and on the blog.

Can you see it, sitting up high in the tree? Underneath, it looks like it is sitting low in the tree. Also the way the tree is below, the bird looks like a robin, but believe me, it's not.
I'm going to assume it is a hawk. I pointed it out to a walker, who warned me not to call it - she tapped the top of my helmet with her finger and said it would come and attack me. Yeah, as if. I wouldn't know how to call a hawk anyway - do I look like a Hawk Whisperer? However, I wasn't going to take any chance on being attacked, and rode on home.

I have a big thick binder filled up with old letters and today I pulled it out and started reading them. They are all from 1993, so are fat with memories. My brother Killie and I exchanged so many letters that year, and I kept them all, plus copies of all the ones I sent him. Unfortunately, the ink is getting faded in some of them - I don't think they'll last another 19 years. However, I do realize now, that although we are very much alike in some ways, he outdoes me when it comes to crazy.

Dear Tamar,
Not being one to pry, I will refrain from asking what you were doing in the Albatross Motel in Gander. However, it was a nice surprise to have a letter from you today, even if it was contained in an envelope from an establishment that you might have frequented under dubious circumstances. The cat is talking to me, but I haven't learned the language yet. Do you know what's fun? Take some masking tape and roll it up in a ball, inside out, so the sticky side is out, and hang it on the cat so she can't reach it. I believe the cat enjoys it too.

In the local news lately, a funeral director in town was chastised for disposing of amputated limbs from the hospital by placing them in caskets with complete bodies prior to burial. No kidding, this is true! Then I hear he wants to sell the operation because he lost his licence, but he wants an arm and a leg for it.

Now, this was just an 'open the binder' random letter. By the way, I was in Gander on NTA business (Newfoundland Teachers Association, that is.) Just in case anyone was wondering. And it is the Albatross HOTEL not Motel.

But come to think of it, that is a really strange name for a hotel, isn't it?