Squirrels and Hail

Hello everyone! Since today is my day off, and Ari wants something more posts, and I'm procrastinating about going for a run, I thought I'd share a few things. First of all - I had a weird gray squirrel experience today. I live on the 1st floor of an apt complex with a glass sliding door going onto a small concrete patio. I noticed over the last few weeks that (most likely) squirrels had dug into some of my potted plants, and eaten some bulbs that I hoped would bloom sometime later this winter (that potted arrangement of bulbs is now indoors!). I thought squirrels were supposed to be BURYING food, not eating it now.

Anyway, I was sitting at my eat-in table and watching this female ruby-throated hummingbird stop and sample my impatiens, when this gray squirrel came right up to my glass door, and scratch his front paws repetitively like a dog trying to get back inside. I knocked on the glass, and it went away, but then it came right back and started scratching harder! I knocked on the glass at his nose-level, but that didn't scare him away. Eventually he gave up and started digging in one of my other potted plants - now that made me mad, but I only knocked on the glass b/c I was afraid if I opened the door he'd come in!

I'm not sure if he saw his reflection in the door, and was trying to fight with it, if he really wanted to come in, or if I have some subconscious animal-attracting vibe - even though animals should really want to run away from a vet. I've had the neighboorhood cat do the same thing - but she obviously just wanted a scratch on the belly; a toad came in when my boyfriend was grilling some burgers; and a husky trotted into my kitchen as if he owned the place (I had left the door open to get a quick drink in between reading on the patio!). Very weird - oh there's the little bugger again - I see him again in the grass right now, looking for places to bury food, but I've got the screen door locked and a spray bottle ready to defend my territory ;).

The second weird occurrence was a hailstorm my family and I experienced while vacationing at Bear Spring Camps in Rome, Maine. It's a fishing/family camp where you stay in tiny cabins along Great Pond. Anyway, one late afternoon of a 90 degree high humidity day, a big cold front and thunderstorm came along quickly. It was scary with so much wind, lightning, thunder right overhead - and we saw a few splashes in the water that looked like a fish had jumped. But it started hailing, until there were golf-ball sized hail for 20 minutes, as well as lightning nearby. The lake looked like it was boiling b/c the hail was hitting so hard! It was pretty exciting - until the next morning when we saw all our cars have lots of nice dents on the hood, roof and trunk. Luckily my car is old, but my boyfriends' is not, and we both have a high deductible. Oh well! Here's a few pictures, but if you go to the links below on youtube you can see one of my videos (no sound), and that of another camper's (with sound). Enjoy!

- Felise

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ns40S-Xfv_w
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4NEj2eS13t8