I love a short week. So here we are on Thursday and it feels kind of Tuesday-ish. Also time has no edges and days are all the same so there’s that.

Today was, as many are, a work day. I had one call and as is my general way, I was 5 minutes late for it. I was sitting here at my kitchen table with my headset on and suddenly there was a very loud rumbling noise and my house started to shake.

Since I had the headset on and I was trying to be a good corporate citizen and pay attention I couldn’t really identify the noise. I texted my friend to confirm that there was not some sort of turbo thunder or an earthquake underway.

There was not.

I listened to people talking about Google Tag Manager and media tracking (snore) and then the rumbling and shaking happened again! I snuck away from my computer (knowing this would be the exact moment someone would ask me my opinion…) and looked outside to see what was going on and there was a hugenormous truck in the driveway next door dumping a very large pile of very large…cinder blocks? Pavers? Rocks? Something huge and heavy that literally shook the ground as it landed. 😳

I Snapchatted a picture to Amanda, but of course forgot to take a real picture. Just imagine a big ass pile of rocks. That’s pretty much what it looks like.

This particular neighbor doesn’t seem to be on a regular schedule for lawnmowing or particularly motivated to do things around the house, so I am curious how long the pile will sit there and what they are planning to turn it into.

Anyway, I was able to scope it out and skitter back to my seat before anyone noticed I was gone. Whew.

This was the second day of outside drama (I guess the 3rd if we include the nest-under-the-deck-freaking-out-the-dog incident). Yesterday three (3!) birds flew into my kitchen window over the course of about an hour.

They all seemed to survive the immediate impact, which is a positive for sure.

Maybe they are tired of being quarantined with their families and trying to get in here for a change of scenery.

Last week there was a dead bird on the deck who most likely flew into a porch window. And then a few days later we found one on the steps to the deck who apparently met the same fate.

Of course the only thing to do was ask Google “why do birds keep flying into my windows?” Google said they might be trying to get to something they see inside (plants in the window?), or the windows might be too clean and they can’t see them (haha haha – no), or there is glare that is confusing them.

There were a multitude of products that can be purchase to resolve this. One way film that makes the window look opaque from the outside, strings that hang down in front of the windows, fancy reflective tape.

There are also DIY alternatives like sticking Post It notes or paper or CDs up. Or painting lines on the windows 4 inches apart.

All of this feels like it sort of negates the reasons for having a wall of windows. But I ended up drawing lines on the kitchen window and turning them into flowers. I think it looks sort of insane, but no birds bonked today so that’s a win.

I haven’t done anything about the glass walled porch. I might hang some wind chimes or something.

The kids spent the day with my folks having lunch and working on puzzles. It was good for them to get out and go somewhere. I’m hoping they’ll make a standing date to go more often.

Tonight I had book club with my friends via Zoom. When I told Jack I had book club tonight and we’d do dinner afterwards he said “when will you be back?” And I had to remind him that we don’t go places anymore.

I am having a lot of white guilt about how best to be part of the solution in relation to all of the terrible things that keep happening to POC across the country. It never feels like it’s right or enough and I really do want to be useful and helpful as I generally do.

I got a book called “How to be an Anti-Racist” and I’m going to try to focus my last few functioning brain cells that aren’t freaking out about the future to work on that.

That’s all the news from this end of the Quar. Hope you are all continuing to hang in there!