Things were going swell this morning. I’d lounged in bed almost late enough to make up for not falling asleep until after 4:00 am. I did my morning exercises and was getting ready to get into the shower. Then I heard someone square dancing on the roof.

It’s a sound that isn’t familiar to me, so I was just guessing about the dancing part. All I was sure of was that someone was up there, scraping around and making the whole house echo with harsh noise. I pulled my sweats over myself and walked outside to see what was going on. I don’t know what I expected, but I thought maybe the landlord was cleaning my gutters for me.

No such luck, of course. Instead I found three turkey vultures stomping around up there. Before I could stop myself I shouted at them to get lost. One of them looked me square in the eyes with obvious contempt. As I scrambled back into the house to get my camera, two of the buzzards took off, circling the house and garden before lighting out for the far trees.

I thought I was out of luck, but one big bird was still sitting on the peak of the roof, wondering why his cohorts had abandoned him. I didn’t try to engage this one in conversation. Instead I aimed and shot. Then I waited for him to fly off and shot again.

I’m used to buzzards flying overhead, and once in a while they’ll perch briefly on the fence posts. I’ve never had them on the roof before, at least not that I know of. Nothing personal or anything, but they’re ugly and filthy. I respect the good work they do to keep dead gophers and such from rotting in the yard and stinking up the air. They probably look at me and wonder what I’m good for, so I’m not one to be judgmental of them.

If the sky looks white in those photos, that’s because it was. All day long, in fact, until it started getting gray (and windy and cold). I took advantage of the chance to get some mowing done, finally, although it’s the same as with any gardening I do, in that no matter how hard I work at it, I can’t do enough at one time so that anyone would notice (except me, of course; I can tell).

This time I did about two-thirds of the side yard, which doesn’t sound like much. But I also went up and down both edges of the driveway, almost all the way to the street, so the weeds won’t brush against the sides of my car when I go in and out. I did the center strip two weeks ago (also the last time I used the mower), and it’s grown some but not enough for me to take the time to do it again.

I just hope the rain holds off until Monday, so that I can get another session with the mower in tomorrow. I don’t have much hope of that, though, from the looks of the sky tonight.