Squirrels Dance of Pain

So we are back into our rhythm of school and the mundane day-to-day things of life, and that's okay.  You get to the end of Christmas and then there's yet another holiday with MLK day, another three-day weekend, and I think that's okay for obvious reasons of course to honor the individual the day is named for.  But beyond that, this month is in dreadful need of something exciting.  Otherwise, all we have is New Year's Day, which is basically just a parade somewhere and a lot of people trying to get over the fact that they have to put all those Christmas decorations up soon or else the neighbors might start applying peer pressure.  So we have that little token Monday off there, and we could go and do something if we wanted to, which we used to do, but lately we've just stayed at home because the weather is cold and miserable and in fact so cold that the bird bath is frozen over again.  So why not stay inside and clean up a bit?  That we did, although we watched some programming that we were catching up with - like the latest National Treasure episode, which is moving along the series with quite a bit of dilemma.  We're anxious for the next episode, of course.  

Today I was writing messages at home, new ones for our "Level Up" series.  We're visiting "Level Up" again, and it'll be fun to go back to that one.  We're adding a few new messages, just because we have a few new things we want to say, so I think this will be a good thing.  One of the messages is based on Minecraft, which Maddie played a lot back for a time.  She might pick it up again as the season moves along here.

Our position of neutrality with the local squirrel population has drawn to a close.  Despite our generous gifts of seed and food, they've overstepped their bounds with invasive policies that have left our other avian citizens left wanting for food.  Furthermore, they've damaged our bird feeders, knocking them to the ground and in one case, breaking it completely apart.  The history of the present squirrel population is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute Tyranny over this back deck.  We must, therefore, acquiesce in the necessity, which denounces our Separation, and hold these squirrels as Enemies in War!  

Today's first repercussion was a shock-and-awe sort of moment, a direct show of our power.  No longer are we using the salt gun with small attacks on fleeing squirrels.  Today's assault was a siege upon their food source!  We loaded down the meal worms with hot sauce - not just ordinary hot sauce, but the ghost pepper variety that brought a joy like Christmas morning when we looked out the window to watch the squirrels on their typical afternoon raid suddenly stop and begin shaking their heads back and forth violently, licking the wood of the railing, or leaping elsewhere to safety, only missing the target because of the blinding heat of the hot sauce sprayed all over the seeds.  The birds can't taste the seeds, so they don't know what's up with the squirrels.  They just know that the squirrels are no longer safe!  Amusingly, the blue birds sit there on the railing nearby, completely aware that we are just a few feet away going after a squirrel, and not flying away at all because they know we are their sworn protectors!  We'll have to let you know how things go, but from what I understand, squirrels can't even stand the smell of hot sauce, so I think we may be on to something.  In any event, it was great to see the squirrels do their dance of pain!  I'm not a terribly vindictive person, but for the good of all our birds, something had to be done!

Okay, moving on.  Maddie had taekwondo and homework tonight, although not too much homework yet.  We're still moving through the first three seasons of "The Chosen," which is a simply amazing show.  Each episode leaves you with so many emotions - there's so much power.  Maddie, Mom and I are loving it.  Afterwards, we were back to bed hopefully at a reasonable hour.  We read from the devotional, from our adventure in the Discworld, and then we said our prayers before going to sleep for a good night's rest.