While others complain about the inconvenience of having tornadoes pass through their backyards, I'm just about half sick of the chilly breeze that's been keeping me from enjoying my own yard these afternoons. For the last few days I've had to shut myself up indoors much earlier than I would've chosen to.

It's not so bad, though. The timing is good, because I don't have any room to put any weeds I might pull anyway. By the weekend, the weather should be better and my yard waste container will be empty again. Can't wait to try out the new kneepads.

And instead of reading outside in the frozen air, I've been taking my book up into the cozy loft. That's a pretty neat set of alternatives for spending whatever free afternoon time I can come up with.

I really have a lot not to complain about today. Compared to yesterday, anyway, when I felt as if every little thing in my life had just come out of a secret meeting where they all decided to tweak me in the most annoying possible manner.

Today, though, un-sucked. The copier seems to have fixed itself. The new battery I put in the cordless phone is working fine (so far, although I don't have full confidence yet). I got my work done without too much hassle. And the Giants won a spectacular game in San Diego tonight.

Even if I couldn't spend much time outside, I did spot two new bird species in my yard today. One of them I identified as a Nuttall's woodpecker, a true redhead that according to the guide is almost exclusive to the California coastal areas.

I couldn't quite pin down the other bird, but I'm pretty sure it was some kind of flycatcher, possibly either the ash-throated or olive-sided variety. (It had a dark face with yellowish stripes over the eyes, brown back and light gray chest.) It doesn't really matter that I couldn't figure out what it was. I'm just happy about every new creature that finds its way here.

I got caught in the rain today. It rained for about thirty seconds total, all day, and it just happened to be when I was walking back from the post office. Big drops, but widely spaced so that I could almost shuffle between them. Instead of doing that I picked up the pace a bit, which was probably good for me anyway, since it's the only exercise I got today.