I just witnessed the most bodacious fight ever seen in my back yard.
Sitting on the back porch this morning, I heard a squirrel barking in a tree. I didn't pay much attention to it, for we hear that sort of thing all the time around here. But in a minute, I heard a ruckus - flapping and squealing - and looked up to see an owl (or a hawk, maybe - some huge bird) battling the squirrel around the tree. In seconds, the bird flew off with something gray in its claws. Now, there's a squirrel in the tree, incessantly crying its heart out. All I can figure is that the owl/hawk nabbed the squirrel's baby, or its mate. Kinda sad.
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Yesterday, The Husband and I spent almost all day at a band competition in which Granddaughter #1 was participating (she's one of three field commanders this year). The preliminaries started mid-morning. We got there about noon, in time to see a few of the smaller bands on the field. Our band won 1st place in its division in the preliminaries. Twelve bands went on to the finals. Our band also won first place in the finals (in the big bands division). This was the band's second competition this year (more to follow), and they needed the win after coming in third in last week's competition.
We waited to see The Granddaughter when the competition was over. (The other 3 granddaughters sat with us all day. The Little Rotten Baby constantly attempted dare-devil stunts on the bleachers; it's a good thing there were plenty of us to watch her!) We felt old and tired by the time we rolled in the driveway at midnight.
The day certainly brought back memories. Both of our sons were in this band, and it was a winning band even back then (20+ years ago). Every weekend we followed a string of buses and instrument trucks to towns all over this end of Tennessee and beyond. We fried in the sun on metal bleachers, and shivered in the cold when the sun went down. And loved every minute of it.
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Poor squirrel is still crying in the tree. :(
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