Although the snow we’ve had almost all melted in the last couple of days, it’s still winter (almost), and hence, bird-feeding season. Alan has set up the suet feeder for the woodpeckers, the thistle seed feeder for the goldfinches, and the gen-pop feeder for the rest.
And now, the war with the squirrels begins.
Sometimes I’ll be upstairs and Alan down, and I’ll hear GODDAMNIT accompanied by a sharp rap on the window, and I know that, once again, some crafty squirrel has figured out how to leap from the fence onto the finch feeder, and use its sharp little teeth to rip big holes in the screen. Alan added another piece to the pole, raising the height, which would (he thought), not be reachable, but that didn’t last. Turns out squirrels are good jumpers. Now he’s talking about adding a length of wire to the takeoff zone, to foil a clean leap.
He’s been making noises about electrifying it, but I’m pretty sure he’s kidding.
As for the rest of the week, let’s just forget it, shall we? Between the Reiner murders, and President Shit-for-braiins’ reaction to it, to the renaming of the Kennedy Center (which will forever be the Kennedy Center, sorry), to yet another utter disgrace at the White House, I just want this week to be over. Soon it will be.
Watch out, squirrels.
Deborah said on December 18, 2025 at 8:59 pm
You’ve probably seen this before, it’s been out for a while. A squirrel obstacle course a guy built in his back yard https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hFZFjoX2cGg
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Dorothy said on December 18, 2025 at 9:04 pm
I just filled my two birdfeeders this afternoon. We have no squirrels around here because it’s such a new subdivision, and we have barely any trees. Rabbits are here, and the geese population is a pain in my a**. I’m glad the birds here don’t have to compete with squirrels.
This might be nothing but I just read on social media that a helicopter was seen leaving the White House and headed to a nearby hospital. Is that a glimmer of hope I see?
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alex said on December 19, 2025 at 3:07 am
Yay helicopter!
We’re overpopulated with squirrels around here, and we found some squirrel-proof bird feeders and lemme tell ya they’re even more entertaining to watch than the regular variety. The varmints don’t give up, no matter how many times they’re flung across the yard. Under the weight of birds they remain stationary but under the weight of squirrels they spin. So we see a lot of flying squirrels even if they’re not of the flying variety.
We haven’t been too regular about filling the feeders, though, because our feral outdoor cat kills the birds that are attracted to the feeders and that’s not fun to watch.
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David C said on December 19, 2025 at 5:35 am
Our bird population seems to be just three juncos. We put up feeders, but they’re ground feeders, so we scatter seed on the patio. No squirrels though, so I guess that’s good. We’ve never lived in a place so devoid of animal life. We have a nature reserve just around the corner and we figure why would a critter choose to live in a suburban condo development when they have a whole nature reserve to live in.
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Jeff Gill said on December 19, 2025 at 7:26 am
“Aw, Bullwinkle, that trick never works…”
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alex said on December 19, 2025 at 10:59 am
Social media are rife with talk about the White House helicopter flying to Walter Reed last night but absolutely zilch in the regular news media so far. Here’s hoping that our fondest Christmas wishes come true.
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Deborah said on December 19, 2025 at 11:10 am
Lots of people are complaining about today’s Wordle word. I got it in 4, I didn’t think it was so hard because of my upbringing and (spoiler alert) the season.
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Icarus said on December 19, 2025 at 11:43 am
many of my neighbors have ponds in their front or back yards so we have a lot of geese. I’ve started giving them the end pieces of bread that my kids won’t eat anymore (they actually use to eat them). It might be my wishful thinking but I feel like since I started paying tribute to my Widgeon Overlords, there is less goose shit on my driveway.
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alex said on December 19, 2025 at 12:10 pm
I figured Wordle out in four after eliminating all of the vowels on my first three tries. Sorry if that’s a spoiler.
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Icarus said on December 19, 2025 at 1:05 pm
A programmer/software developer/code monkey* friend of mine opened up the source file for Wordle and determined that the following three words would help solve most of the puzzles by turn four:
Soare
Clint
Pudgy
it uses half the English alphabet and all the vowels.
* we keep changing the name for the person who write computer code.
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Dexter Friend said on December 19, 2025 at 3:11 pm
Today , by law, all Epstein files must be released. But, of course, we knew better. Todd Blanche said hundreds of thousands of files will be released today, and many more will be released when they feel like it, basically.
A friend said Trump has stated today that no files will be released today. I can’t verify this.
Also, there are no provisions or past cases in which a national institution like The Kennedy Center can be re-named by a sitting President, and never has such an occurrence in American history until a President is long-dead, except in the case of President John Fitzgerald Kennedy many moons ago.
And I still want to call him “Mandami”. It’s Mamdani. I will learn; this dog learns new tricks.
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Dorothy said on December 19, 2025 at 7:49 pm
Alex – same. When you run out of the 5 usual vowels there’s really only one choice left. Got it in four, too.
I’m friends with lots of you on Facebook or IG, but some of you I am not. So because of that I wanted to share that we found out today that my husband is cancer free! It’s the best possible news we could have hoped for. He had some slivers of his left vocal cord removed two days before Thanksgiving. The pathology shows NO cancer now. What an amazing thing to learn after so much hard news since August! Now that crazy guy is celebrating by getting a knee replacement on New Year’s Eve. We know how to party big-time in this house.
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Suzanne said on December 19, 2025 at 8:01 pm
Oh Dorothy! What a perfect Christmas gift to find no cancer! Let the celebration begin!
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Deborah said on December 19, 2025 at 8:23 pm
So glad to hear your good news Dorothy. May you all have the best holiday ever, knee replacement or not.
We got out in the 11° windchill this afternoon after having the high be 47° yesterday. Weather gone wild.
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Julie Robinson said on December 19, 2025 at 8:57 pm
So glad for Mike, and for you, too, Dorothy. Another surgery so soon? Or is it better to get it in 2025 for insurance coverage?
Dennis is on a bunch of pricey drugs now, and all of a sudden one was zero. The pharmacist helpfully told us they would all be free for the rest of the year, because we reached the maximum. So I got 90 day supplies of all the rest.
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Peter said on December 19, 2025 at 9:52 pm
Dorothy, I am so happy to hear the good news. It’s a timely reminder that even when the news is one dumpster fire after another, there are positive and good things that keep hope alive.
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