Saturday, September 24, 2011

Vampires, Spiders, Chickens, Woodpeckers And A Prius (No, This Is Not A Give-Away)



Last night Mr. Moon drove home in my new car. No, it is not a gold Honda. I think that for right now, the gold Honda streak is over.
This is a silver Toyota Prius.
Oh my.
He got it in trade and he decided to keep it in the family. For awhile. This is how it is in the car biz. Don't get attached to a car because it will one day belong to someone else. Which works out fine for me. I don't get attached to cars. I like cars in that they take me where I need to go (notice I didn't say want to go because we all know I never want to go anywhere) and that they have air conditioning and a radio and a CD player. And a cupholder.
Beyond that- whatever.
But this looks like fun, this toy car which has a strange key which does not look like a key and a power button like a vacuum cleaner or other appliance and is shaped not unlike a tiny little space ship. It's not THAT tiny. I can get two car seats in the back which is good in that I will need to do that before too long. It has plenty of room for groceries and library books. And the garbage for when I take that to the garbage place.
Yeah. I feel like I have my own little space ship. Mr. Moon says it's fun when you're going downhill and the display says that you are getting 99 miles to the gallon and you can't hear the engine running. I wouldn't know yet as I have only driven it in the yard. I suppose I shall find out today as I need to go to town to buy pizzas and birthday presents. Oh boy. I brought in the manual to read but of course I haven't even looked at it. Do I need to read it? Maybe I should give it a lookover, at least.

It's sort of awesome. Now all I need to do is dig up a little white Apple sticker and put it on the back and I'll be a traveling stereotype.
Works for me.

Freddy's going to be filming here tonight. When he won a contest a few months ago he made enough money to buy a new mic and a light. This doubles his equipment as far as I can tell. But the film he's doing now is also a contest and they gave him a theme, which is vampires, and so he is going to film at night. I am proud of that boy. But it's going to be odd to have filming going on at night.

Mr. Moon and Jessie and Lily left out early this morning to go fishing. I did not even get up to say good-bye. I stayed in bed like the slug I am. I baked them brownies to take last night and they only took a very polite small amount with them. I suppose maybe the people who are coming tonight may eat some. I hope so.

When I went out to let the chickens out this morning, I heard a knock-knock-knock above my head and saw bark falling from a tree. Luckily, I had my camera and managed to get this picture:

That, my friends, is a Pileated Woodpecker. Around here we may say pill-e-aited, or we may say, pie-lated. Whichever, they are awesome and huge. I was thrilled to see one, even more so to get her picture. I believe this is a female in that I have read that the male has a red stripe on his face and the female a black one.
Isn't she beautiful?

So then I took a picture of the chickens which was not nearly as impressive.

Elvis is down to about three tail-feathers now. He also looks skinny to me right now. This could be his lack of feathers but it could also be his new duties as husband to so many more sister-wives.

In other nature news around here, the Banana Spider is still hanging in there on the porch, directly above the entrance.

Her web is looking tattered and she was in the way during filming yesterday but the actor who had to pass under her carefully dipped below the web every time he had to come out the front door and off the porch. I appreciated that. A green lizard had gotten caught in her web yesterday and was unable to get out and I freed it and it skittered away without even stopping to say thanks. Those webs are strong. I have no doubt the spider would have eaten the lizard after it had finally stopped struggling and died. Talk about vampires.
One of the lines in the film is, "There are some strange things that live in that house."

I have to agree. And in the yard, too.

Well, I think I will eat an egg sandwich and then go clean out the poop in the hen house and then, eventually, go to town. In my space ship, my silver space ship. I am thinking that if I drive really, really slowly, I may never have to buy gas again.

It's a good theory but I doubt it's true.

And that's the Saturday morning news from the house in Lloyd where strange things live.

Including me.

17 comments:

  1. Sounds like a good morning, and how wonderful that you got a Prius. I like those cars --

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  2. Good morning Miss Spider, Elvis and you too.

    Love your new little space ship but I'm wondering how long and tall Mr. Moon fits inside it.

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  3. Elizabeth- It's pretty cool, I have to say.

    Mel's Way- Cars are funny. Mr. Moon can't fit into a Volvo because of where the center console is but he fit into the Mini Cooper we had just fine. Also this Prius.

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  4. You, Mary Moon, are not a slug, stop being silly.

    Be careful of heedless pedestrians who aren't used to silent cars walking out in front of you because they didn't hear you. I wish I had a Prius, they sounds great :)

    Pie-lated is right, no?

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  5. oh, the pileated woodpeckers are amazing. we had a couple that would visit the yard at the city house for a year or two but I haven't seen one out here at the country house. No rat-a-tat-tat for them. they go THONK.

    when we first looked at the country house, it had been vacant for about a year and there were banana spiders (also called golden orb weavers) everywhere. I loved that and took it as a good omen. once we moved in though, they packed up and left. I haven't seen one for the last two years.

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  6. You got a great shot of the woodpecker! And I think that banana spider looks like it's half-bat.

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  7. The weirdest thing about the Prius is getting used to the gear shifting. You can only put it on park by hitting that button, and its a pain in the ass to shift between drive and reverse til you get the hang of it. I've only driven it a couple times, but they're ok. Like a good liberal, I like how good they are for the environment.

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  8. I like the stereotype of the Prius and the Apple. LOL. I am hoping for only electric cars soon. It would be so good to not guzzle gas. Huge SUVs around in this part of the world. I am guilty with my pick up truck and the BMW.

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  9. Damn that spider still scares me, Sister Moon!

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  10. Wow! That is a grrrreat shot of Ms Pilieated! Whoo doggie!

    Ms Spidie is looking quite divine in her web of doom. Yea, those webs are strong. Having been caught in them many a time, I can attest to their strength and stickiness., yikes!

    I was thinking yesterday that your yard looked like a car lot! I can't wait to see your new wheels.

    Who's birthday is it? Tell them happy b day for me!
    xo

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  11. That woodpecker is marvelous. And the car is certainly cool.

    Looking forward to the vampire movie!

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  12. I think the chickens are very, very impressive! Such lovely ladies.
    Nice car and equally nice spider. :-)

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  13. I actually asked Steph on the phone this past week if all Prius (I don't know how to pluralize it) came factory equipped with the Apple sticker. I just want to know how someone of Glenn's height was able to drive that car comfortably.

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  14. Ok, got caught up with your critters and the Prius! Love the banana spider!!!

    XX Beth

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  15. So your banana spider might be related to my golden orb spiders? Mine are browner and less photogenic but the same elongated dancer quality.

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  16. Enjoy the new car. I still think the spider is icky.

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  17. Gosh! I don't know which is more exciting--the Prius or the woodpecker. My dad was a car dealer. One summer I had a used midnight blue chevy Mailbu convertible. Another, a white Corvair with red interior. Loved those cars. Now I have a red Prius that I got after my marriage broke up. It held two 55-lb dogs (RIP Lola and Layla) very nicely. Discovered a couple weeks ago, that it can carry a stand up bass and three people.
    I love woodpeckers. Catalina Island has hoards of little woodpeckers called Acorn woodpeckers. Your guy could carry one of those in his pocket. We have tons of them here in my neighborhood on the mainland, too. But they seem a tad bit bigger.

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