Things I saw outside today

I guess it was yesterday, but within 24 hrs so whatever.

I saw some cool flower (possibly weed thing?) by the side of the road near the bay that had a very flat structure to its spanned cluster of little flower head things?

and when I was swimming in the bay, I saw a little water beetle thing that was an interesting combination of black, orange, green, and shiny!

The Iowa doppelgänger of @patrickbatman

We had an absolutely beautiful sunset today. Lots of dust in the air, heavy thunderstorm clouds on the horizon. It was a color explosion of orange, yellow, red, purple and blue. Wish I hadn't been driving during it. I would have loved a photograph.

I saw the head of this pink teddy bear floating in my pool. It was missing an eye. Took forever to find out where it came from.

A dude with a magnificent skullet and facial scars that suggested an incident involving holding fireworks in his mouth.

One of my students. Since he didn't see me, and since I prefer not to talk to these people unless I'm being paid for it, and since Trampled Underfoot was on the iPod at that moment, I kept right on walkin'.

(Disclaimer: there are more than a few students I would speak to if I saw them. And have done.)

You'd be kicked out of my class for using a cliché like that. And for being a smartass. And because I can.

Mods, is there a post threshold newbs have to reach before they can sass? If so, looks like we need the banhammer over here.

I saw a cardinal, a blue jay, some moths, and almost ran over a toad with the lawnmower.

the little guy kept thinking his camouflage was protective with this giant machine coming his way. I had to poke him with my foot a few times. glad I saw him, I would've been pretty upset and sad if I hit him with the mower :/

I saw a Baltimore Oriole (at least I think that's what they're called even though I live nowhere near Baltimore) at my aunt and uncle's. so orange!

and a bunch of yellow jackets. fucking wasps, man...

We have one of those plastic hawks on our garden fence, installed in a futile attempt to keep the voles at bay.  Despite its uselessness, we kind of love it, so we continue to put it out every year, moving it from fencepost to fencepost every few weeks.  We named it Songbird.  It looks juuuuuust realistic enough that passersby on the street will often stop to gawk at it when they walk by, thinking there is a real hawk just sitting on the fence chilling out.  LIKE A REAL HAWK WOULD DO THAT.  I mean, please.

The garden is in our front yard, immediately outside the living room picture window.  We were watching a matinee baseball game yesterday when all of a sudden Hugs exclaimed, "OH!  That's not Songbird!"  Out of the corner of my eye it looked like Songbird had been moved to one of the fenceposts nearest the window, but in fact... it was a real Cooper's Hawk*!  He sat there for a good, long time, glancing around, trying to appear casual.  We had some concern he was trying to woo Songbird.  Then he alit from the fencepost... and took up near the ground, on one of the corners of one of the raised beds, nearer to Songbird.  And he sat there for a few minutes, looking up at his plastic doppelganger.  And then finally he flew off, no doubt muttering under his breath about how frigid and stuck-up that other hawk was.





*This guy has been around our yard for years.  We've named him Derpy.  I don't know how he survives, because he does a piss-poor job of picking lower-case-"S" songbirds from the bird feeders in our front yard, despite skulking around them all the time.  And he's easily spooked by blue jays.  Not the sharpest tool in the shed, our Derpy.

A woman wearing scrubs and a stethoscope around her neck, smoking a cigarette.

Yesterday, I read an article on AVC (boo Kinja!) about real life clowns feeling like they need to have a PR response to IT. I thought, "I just don't even encounter real clowns at all; is this really necessary?" Several hours later, I found myself driving behind a custom-painted PT Cruiser, advertising Antsy The Clown. The illustration was adorable so it really caught my eye. The Mannerist clown on the side of the car was tall and thin, sporting a white face, red clown nose, and bright pink hair. I started to pass the car and thought, "I gotta see what the person driving this car looks like!" Then, "But wait, Hugs, get a grip. Clowns don't go driving around in their clown get-up. Come on!" Still, I sneaked a peek. Lo and behold, Antsy the Clown *does* drive around in make-up! The driver was tall and thin, with white-face, a red clown nose, and bright pink hair! That's when I realized kids party clowns would have show up in make-up and costume, right? Which would mean they'd have to drive around in their make-up and costumes, too. I wonder how many cops tell stories at family gatherings about pulling clowns over for speeding.

I'm very disappointed to hear there was only one clown in the car.  That's not how that's supposed to work!