The snails were not high on the windows earlier, possibly succumbing to all the Sluggo, so I thought it would only drizzle. But we’re getting serious November-type rain. So here goes the routine:

Did I leave my car windows cracked? Which garden tools did I leave out in the open? Did I leave a workshirt out there too? Is my favorite, expensive pair of pruners rusting as we speak? Is there an open bag of time-release fertilizer turning to mush? Do I have a container of Miracle-Gro leaking a dark blue-green stain on the patio somewhere?

And I had just emptied every possible reservoir of standing water so the mosquitoes would not get ideas.

Tip to the frugal: if an Asian pear caves in slightly when squeezed, consider it dead. Hasn’t it been in the crisper since Thanksgiving? Do not try to pretty it up with cream or mix it into slightly perkier fruits. The pieces will sink to the bottom of the bowl (I pushed them down there), where they will sit dejectedly, because they realize that the blueberries in the yogurt have more life than they do.

Will I eat this again tomorrow night, since I made such a generous amount? I’ll consider it if there is ganache poured over.

Their ice cream section was depleted. The usual dessert offerings were there, but I’m not supposed to be having mud pie, cheesecake, carrot cake, or fruit strudel. Not supposed to have ice cream either, but the part of me that’s human was craving a little something. I got two blocks of Ghirardelli chocolate for making ganache later in the week. Ganache is necessary for life around here.

There were puddles in the parking lot. It never rains in May in the Bay Area.

I found some cherries over the weekend. Not luscious, but not bad either. Yesterday I cut up 5 or 6 big oranges, and even though they were heavy for their size, some were dryish in the middle. Today I threw out the liquified veggies in the crisper, and found an Asian pear that still had a pulse, faint though it was. At Trader Joe’s tonight I got some blueberry yogurt. After mixing all the above together, it still didn’t look creamy enough. Some cream helped, then I crumbled leftover sponge cake over a bowlful of the fruit mix. It’s not pretty, but it’s reminiscent of trifle. A little. Just a tad maybe.

In which the artist recounts a memory , seared in his childhood mind, of a salamander unmoved by fire.

A lizard can regrow its tail. Some starfish can regrow several entire starfishes from the parts of one. A salamander can regrow its tails, limbs, retinas and lenses, and part of its heart.

But the planerian worm tops them all.

Cats purr when they’re happy, and it makes us happy when they do. But cats also purr when they are severely injured. Scientists have found that the purr occurs between 25 and 150 Hertz, which is the frequency in which bone density improves, and healing is optimum.

Astronauts’ bones and muscles deteriorate in the zero gravity of space. Could a few cats squeeze into the first-aid kit aboard future space journeys?

A personal note here: cats in a weightless situation seem like a fine idea, but only if those of the Siamese persuasion are left behind.

A suspicious story out of Guangzhou tells of a man smuggling a turtle disguised as his dowager’s hump onto a plane. Give me a break.

This is either Raphael, Leonardo, Michaelangelo or Donatello in retirement, trying to get past airport security, on his way to some mission. For those of you who were not a small boy in the 80s, the parent of a small boy, or the wealthy merchandiser to small boys, the quartet were mutations of the order Testudinata. And for a while, evil was held back.

What do they have in common ? Both suffer from vitiligo or leukoderma , the condition that gives a patchy look to the skin.

But the change did not increase its longevity, catastrophic events aside.

The wall-sized aquarium at the Cupertino library. I was unable to get a good shot due to the large number of patrons rushing by to line up at the checkout machines, plus the low-light conditions. Next time I will try to get there before the closing minutes. But you get the idea.

Development of a superlens by a group of Berkeley scientists will enable advances in optical storage, superior biomedical imaging, and faster fiber optics.

You can find out all about the stuff we carry with us wherever we go - at least we do here in California.

Disturbing revelations about our water supply:

Lowered sperm count
Arsenic
Rocket fuel

Last year, tired of blowdrying my hair daily, I got a perm for the first time in at least ten years. Not much has changed. I leaned back in the shampoo station, felt the cold sink on my neck, and submitted to a vigorous scrubbing from the amiable beautician. As we chatted about movies, it never occurred to me that I might suffer a stroke as a direct result of my body position.

Because the neck arteries get stretched for a period of time, they can tear and bleed, causing a clot.

Getting a perm means leaning back over the sink again with rollers, as the solution is added and drips. For a long time. People who get perms regularly may not be aware how dangerous this can be. While there are products that allow for shampooing with the customer upright, no one knows how many salons utilize them.