Finding places

I'm settling into the new digs a little more each day but it's a slow process. This place is so much bigger and of course it's configured differently, so it's taking a while to figure out where things should go. It's weird to have a utility closet again for instance. Not to mention that I brought so little with me that I'm realizing I need a lot of furniture to fill this place up. I was however, excited to figure out that I can keep my electronic keyboard up here (It lived under my bed for years). I think it's going to fit perfectly on the white workbench (that wasn't worth shipping except for the sentimental value) and I have a chair that works with it perfectly. Maybe I'll even learn to play some music on it this time.

I sort of like this part of the moving-in process as you get used to the place and discover the little things. A closer inspection of the property reveals I have bulb like plants growing all around the foundation, although it's hard to say what they are except for the daffodils. My nature identification skills have deserted me here. Everything is sort of the same but different, and I don't know the name of anything, including the birds of course. The family has a lot of cardinals and what looks like a really big mockingbird that has a propensity for sitting on the deck rail and watching us through the window.

Here at my HQ, I seem to have mostly some kind of little nuthatch-like ones that cling to sides of the big trees and hop madly around in the bushes outside my window, furiously eating invisible bugs and a couple of larger birds that haven't come close enough to even try to identify. I saw a couple of crows yesterday as well. However, as long time readers know, I often have bird encounters of the strange kind and I did have one here already that almost qualifies.

I was walking out for the mail and I have to actually cross the road and walk the width of my neighbor's lot to get there. He has some dogwood trees planted close to the road and I passed by a few feet from the biggest fattest wild bird I've ever seen up close. Seriously, its chest looked to be the size of my fist and the feathers were so downy, he looked like a baby. I thought at first it might be a baby hawk, but the beak didn't look right. A preliminary investigation leads to me to believe it may be a Pacific Flycatcher but I wouldn't bet the farm on it.

He didn't move or make a sound, he just hung on to the end of an impossibly small branch that managed to hold his weight even as it bobbed and swayed in the rising wind. Occasionally he would open and shut his mouth, but he made no noise and he looked a little stunned I thought as he watched me walk closer to his perch. I got within four feet before he even flinched, but when I stopped he didn't move again. I stood there for a long time in the cold dusk, until finally I became concerned my new neighbors would think me a nut case for standing there staring at a tree, so I left without disturbing him further. He never moved more than his tail feathers - he just sat there watching me walk back down the driveway.

Speaking of which, it's a long driveway and I was concerned to see someone had dumped a plastic bag at the end of it yesterday evening. I didn't know quite what to expect as I trudged out to inspect it. It crossed my mind that I'd find a brick with Yankee Go Home written on it or something but it turned out to be a phone book - not from Sprint, the company that installed my phone - but from Verizon whose book covers a larger geographic area but unfortunately its service doesn't. They apparently hired someone to deliver it on a Sunday night. You would have thought Sprint could have done that as well since they have a building a couple of miles away from here but I've yet to receive my local book. Perhaps in tomorrow's mail, probably mailed to me from their book center in Pakistan or something.

But enough of minor inconveniences, I've had another good omen. I found a marble yesterday. I love marbles, always have since I was a kid and this is another one of spooky little things about my life. Whenever I move, I always find a marble in the first few days. This one is a beauty, a pale green cat's eye in translucent green glass.

So it's back to the unpacking for a few hours for me. I expect to return after dark to catch up on news.