My old friends are back, or at least their associates, who are ignoring the Terro bait, and wandering up and down the wall by the medicine cabinet when they aren’t criss-crossing the floor. Most of my shoes have the kind of soles that ants find highly amusing, so stepping on them hasn’t been effective. Now, even though it is late, and I want to read, I will get down on my hands and knees and scrub the floor, so there won’t be any scent for them to find.

The renovated Cupertino library is stunning. Next time I will take the camera, and get pictures of the aquarium. I didn’t really need to check any books out, still having several from my last visit to Los Altos library, but they had a copy of This Boy’s Life by Tobias Wolff. I’ve almost finished Alice Sebold’s Lucky. Am I depressed yet? I haven’t even begun A Slender Thread, Diane Ackerman’s account of her work at a crisis center. But then I can always take a break with The Whole Hog by Lyall Watson, and it is not a cookbook.

If only I didn’t need sleep.

Any library that stocks a copy of Sneakers in the video section ranks high with me.

I added canned vegetable juice to the watery (frozen) soup from the other night, and it was still bland, so I stirred in some duck fat from my stockpile. Not bad with garlic bread and fruit salad. Since I will be dining sparingly the rest of the week, I got several more Full Circle with Michael Palin videos from the library to eat by.

Yes, it’s not very clear or sharp, but it was taken through my still-unwashed window in front of the desk that is very hard to move.

Some of his works could be regarded as ‘The Floating World Meets Baskin-Robbins and McDonald’s”. His imagery can be quite dark, but the samples at this site will give you an idea of his style.

Strongly influenced by the nearby woods in North Carolina, where he grew up, Dougherty produces graceful structures on a monumental scale. At his site, click on ‘installations’.

I wonder if this would be an advantage for snow games (see earlier post about raven play).

This seems to be something more common to waterfowl and migratory birds.