things missing and the full moon rising

The first Thursday of the month is usually a slow day at SHARE, maybe 25 - 30 orders for food because people have gotten their SNAP benefits. As the month goes on the last Thursday is usually the busiest because that money has run out. Yesterday was horribly busy with 50 or 51 orders for food, mostly large families, a few one or two person households. The first Thursday is also when Jan places her order from the regional food bank and she said the list of available stuff was dismal. We expect it to get worse. But according to Holy Mike Johnson after Tuesday’s drubbing republicans are “delivering for the people” and they are “delighted to run on our record”. Yes, please do that. Keep doing that all the way to the midterms.

We’ve been adjusting to the fall back of time. Last week driving home from yoga in El Campo it was still daylight. This week it’s dark. Wednesday was awesome though. Coming back to Wharton I’m heading east and the full moon was rising big and beautiful, clear and detailed. I pulled over to take some pictures but my phone camera just doesn’t focus on the moon, or at least I don’t know how to make it do that, but here’s my attempt to show you what I was seeing. 

Where are the birds? Where are the squirrels? All last winter, spring, and summer the birds emptied the bird feeder every day, the squirrels ate the handful of peanuts I put out. Every fall has been watching the birds tank up for winter but several weeks ago they just…are gone. It will take three or four days for the small bird feeder to empty but I never see any birds except for a few white wing doves now and then. The suet balls are being ignored as well. Where are the cardinals, the chickadees, the titmice, the wrens, the finches? my neighbor at the other end of the street says the same. I can understand the peanuts still out there, the squirrels have a veritable cornucopia of pecans available to them now but why have the birds disappeared?

The birds aren’t the only thing missing. Momcat has not showed up to eat eight days in a row. The three boys and now Ghost stay close to home though Lovey and Twin will cross the street to my house but Momcat was a roamer. She would follow me on occasion when I was walking the dog and I’ve seen her on occasion on the next street over and I’ve seen no sign of her little body in my various walks with the dog so we are thinking, hoping, someone has adopted that sweet friendly little cat and quite frankly I don’t want to hear any other outcome so consider that if you plan to comment on her disappearance. She has had shelter, food, water, and affection as a shop yard cat and it wasn’t unusual for to not show up to eat at feeding time but never for this many days in a row so she must have found a new home.

My night to fix dinner and I have no idea what I’m going to make but here’s a picture from a previous meal sautéing shallots and celery. They just looked so pretty, that pale pink and pale green.