Thursday, June 23, 2016

Squirrel Baffle (by request)


Day 254: A couple of days ago, I built squirrel baffles to keep the little buggers out of my bird feeders. They consist of a pair of aluminum pie tins hung by fine copper wires about a squirrelslength apart, centered on the metal poles supporting the feeders and just loosely enough that they tilt when moved. I figured if a squirrel got around the bottom one, they'd try to stand on it to try to get around the top one, and if they hadn't fallen yet, that would cinch it. It seemed to be working. Squirrel was back, feeding on the ground, not even trying to go up the pole.

Until...

I saw a clever squirrel get around the bottom tin through an amazingly acrobatic set of maneuvers. He got hold of the copper wires (very close to the pole), snugged his body in close and was struggling to get around the top tin, but much to my dismay, it looked like he was going to make it. I was torn between watching and going out to chase him off, but before I had made my decision, I woke up.

Right. It had been a dream.

But when I woke up, I realized that I'd fallen asleep in my lawn chair and it was after dark. Mad at myself, I started thinking, "Gee, I've been out here since right after dinner." Judging from the depth of the darkness, I figured it was about 11 PM, but it was an uncharacteristically warm evening and actually quite pleasant. I had gotten a bit of a stiff neck from sleeping in the chair, and I was wondering if I'd get back to sleep once I got in bed. I started gathering up my stuff to go in the house...coffee cup, lichen book, fleece blanket (I'd had the sense to take that out with me) and was thinking that I was lucky the mosquitoes hadn't found me when...

...I woke up again. Yeah, I was in my own bed, dreaming a dream within a dream. Took me a minute to figure out where I was. Y'know, a thing like that can really make you doubt the rest of your day, or even your very existence. Am I really going to work now, or just dreaming it?

No comments:

Post a Comment