Dear everyone,
I’m writing this letter (This is the 501st post on this blog!) early because we are leaving for
Yellowstone on Friday on a Natural Habitats trip to see bison, elk, moose, and
wolves in descending order of probability.
Wish us luck.
The weather has been warming up lately, but we had some very
severe cold last week. The birds have
been at our safflower feeder and birdbath when not scared off by people (or
hawks). There is a big flock of mourning
doves, and their whistling wingbeat always comes as a surprise. Otherwise pretty normal backyard birds - -
mostly English sparrows, but chickadees, juncos, house finches, cardinals, and
the occasional robin, flicker, and downy woodpecker show up. I also have a bird buddy video feeder, but the
birds empty it within a day, and it’s a bit hard to fill, so I don’t always use
it. It’s a good thing I’ve been using
safflower seed for the last several years; if I was using sunflower seed the
squirrels would demolish that feeder. (I
also have a thistle feeder, but the finches don’t seem to like it; I don’t know
why).
We have watched a lot of football the last 10 days. We saw the college grand finale between Notre
Dame and Ohio State (Ohio State won). I
think college sports at this level is an educational abomination. They should either have sports ‘majors’ for
these athletes, or, I think a better solution, hire them to play sports with a
guarantee of one year of college (tuition and room and board) for every year
they play on the team. There should also
be a financial wall between the ‘minor league’ teams (football, men and women’s
basketball, and anything else that generates sufficient revenue and costs),
which should be expected to pay for themselves, and the rest of the more amateur
sports that are covered by the institution.
We also saw the exciting (Chiefs vs Bills) and boring (Eagles
vs Commanders) NFL semi-finals. The
rematch of the Chiefs vs Eagles could be a good game.
Otherwise, life in Hinsdale, in contradistinction to
Washington DC continues on as placidly as usual. Welcome to the chaotic klepto-kakistocracy. Just today, Britany’s (Cindy’s niece) Brazilian
grandmother-in-law, who has been helping with twin child care was told that her
visa extension (good until the end of March) was revoked, and she is expected to
return to Brazil by the end of February. Multiply that 100,000s. Let alone
everything else….
Tonight, there is a big family dinner at the Pomeroy in Winnetka. Happy Year of the
Snake!
Love, H.
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