The Squirrel's Drey is empty

and my heart is heavy. Tonight, Bennie moved to his new home. And even though he appears to be quite happy, digging in and eating dirt, and running around as well as a crip can, it was very sad to come back to a house that will no longer echo with the scampering feet of Benjamin. Oh Bennie, it was a great 3.5 years with you. I hope that you stay healthy. I'm certain that he understood what was happening, because when it was getting to be bedtime for squirrels, he looked at me out of his nest box hole, for about 30 seconds, and then crawled inside. I opened it up, patted his little furry head, and then left. I hope that I'm doing the right thing.

Reflections

I've been working on the house quite a lot, and so it was with great enthusiasm that I accepted a jet skiing invitation from my friends Richard and Debbie. I met up with them Sunday afternoon, and about 4:00 we took off down the Wisconsin River. I thought that it would only be a two hour adventure, or so, but it ended up being much longer. We went all the way to the Mississippi River and then stopped at Marquette, IA for burgers and beer. On the way back we landed on a sandbar to watch the sunset's changing reflections. I arrived home around midnight. It was so good to hangout with them again. It was a year since we had spent time together, and the last time was not under the most desirable circumstances -- we were "un-backfilling" an archaeological site.

I've heard that my brother is getting married. Apparently his girlfriend (on again, off again) told some people this news at her workplace, and I just happened to hear about it from one of her co-workers who didn't know that my brother is her boyfriend. What an odd feeling.