For the past while, we’ve had a huge drop in deer visits.  I didn’t see any yesterday, until quite late, when one showed up, then ran off when it saw me in the window.  Pretty sure it was a new one, since our regulars are no longer bothered by seeing us.

We are certainly getting plenty of birds, though, including this new one that I’ve been trying to identify.

There were two or three of them among the dark eyed juncos and the male redpolls that were also in the feeding station.  Looking through my bird book, its body looks similar to a Brown Thrasher, but the eye and beak are totally different.  Another closer match is the Fox Sparrow, but according to the book, we’re not really in their territory.  They might be passing through during migration, if that’s what they are.

If anyone reading this knows what they are, please let me know in the comments!  Thanks. :-)

As I was taking pictures of the new birds, there was a sudden whoosh of movement and all the birds flew off.

Well, almost all.

What a beautiful hawk!  I barely managed to tilt the tripod over to snap a few quick pictures before it flew off, with its meal, into the trees.  Much to my surprise, the pictures all turned out, but only a couple caught the hawk’s face as it looked over before flying off.

This is one of the things we have to consider, if we do get chickens.

Later on, I went to tell my older daughter, who was upstairs, about the hawk.  She hadn’t seen the hawk, but she did see the fallout, as panicked birds suddenly flew up, including one that smacked right into the window near her.

She went out onto the roof and moved it, so it could fly off when it regained consciousness.

Except, it didn’t.  It hit the window hard enough to kill itself.  It looked like one of the new birds, too. :-(

Wow.

This all happened in the mid morning or so.  Shortly before noon, my younger daughter and I headed out to the city – our first trip to the city since all that work was done on the van – for a much needed Costco trip.

Just to jump ahead a bit, the van ran beautifully.  Also, I didn’t get a call back from the garage about those parts they’d ordered for me.  I’m not sure how I would have handled such a call, now that the work they wanted to do turns out to not be needed at all.  Aside from not bringing the van in, of course.

I had hoped, even though it’s a Friday, going to Costco in the early afternoon would mean missing out on the crowds.

Maybe we did, but it was still insanely busy.

We didn’t go to the closer one, which is smaller, has a ridiculously horrible parking situation, and where the pharmacy staff were such a problem.  Instead, we went to one that was not only larger, but also near a whole lot of other shopping.

Along with our usual bulk grocery shopping, I had one goal in mind.  To get more undies for my husband.  We’re in the city.  That shouldn’t be a problem, right?

Well, it turns out that Costco didn’t carry any in his size.  They do in clothing, just not in underwear.  Which makes no sense.

So after we finished at Costco, with all its joyous moments (seriously; what is it about people who saunter to a stop, blocking the entire isle, and just stand there, staring into space?  This happened several times, all different people!), we figured we’d just go to that mall up the block.  They had a Marshals there.  Marshals has clothes, right?

We’ve never actually been to a Marshals before.

It turned out to be kinda like a crappy Winners.  We found the teeny, tiny men’s underwear section, half of which was shirts, and it was such a disaster, I could barely find anything at all, never mind the size and style I wanted.  There was only one brand, too – an expensive one, of course.

But we’re in a mall, right?  There’s lots of other stores we can try, right?

I found a map and… it wasn’t very encouraging.  Still, there were several possibilities among the athletic stores.

We went to about 4 or 5 different shops.  Any that did have men’s underwear had hardly anything at all, none in the style I was looking for, and certainly not the size.

What the heck?

As we were leaving the mall, my daughter pointed out that there was a Winners across the road.  So that’s where we tried next.

It was better than the Marshals, at least.  The shelves were better organized, but again, there was only one tiny display for the men’s section, and nothing in the size we were after.

I checked on my phone and found the nearest Walmart.  I figured that would be our last stop.  Even if we didn’t find the style I was after, if I could only find the size, that would be great.

Walmart, at least, has a nice, big section for men’s underclothes – but still a tiny clothing section.

Men, you guys are really short changed in the clothing department!  Sheesh!

We found several brands in the style we wanted.  Yay, right?

Nope.

There was a lot out of stock, so my daughter and I kept hunting for the right size, somewhere.  After a while, I stopped looking at what was there and started looking at the labels in front of the hooks.

It turned out they weren’t just out of stock.  They didn’t even CARRY the size we needed.  In any brand, or any style!

What the heck???  He wears a common size.  Why don’t they have it?

This was supposed to be our last stop, but we had noticed further down the parking lot, a Marks.

One more try…

Sure enough, we actually found both the style and size we were after!!!  Finally!  So I bought as many packages as I could afford without messing up our budget.

When we got to the counter, me looking a little wild eyed by now, the cashier asked us if we’d found everything we were looking for.

I told her that yes, we did, and that they were the ONLY ones to have what we were looking for.  She looked completely surprised.  Not even Walmart, she asked?  Nope.  Nothing in this size.  That is so strange, she tells me.

It’s their most popular size.

Which doesn’t surprise me in the least.  So why don’t other places even HAVE the size at all?

Who know buying underwear would be so difficult?

By the time that was done, we were both exhausted and more than ready to go home.

I really, really dislike shopping.

After we got home and unloaded, it occurred to me that none of us had the energy to cook supper.  My older daughter is sick, my younger daughter is also getting sick, and just unloading the van was more than enough to remind me that I’m certainly not yet recovered from this stupid cold.

Since my daughter can now legally drive, I asked if she was up to a trip into town, so we could get some take-out.  Thankfully, she was.  So off we went to the van and…

When she tried to open the garage door, the handle came off.

Talking to my oldest brother not long ago, I mentioned this.  He told me that thing has needed replacing for probably 15 years.  It just never got done.  It was on our list of things to fix sooner rather than later.  Well, it just got bumped up higher on the list.  :-D

My daughter had to go into the garage from the back door (which is used so rarely, it has self-seeded trees growing in front of it) and open it from the inside.  The bar that runs through the hole to the handle is still there, and I couldn’t find any pieces that fell off onto the ground, so I’m actually not sure why the handle hadn’t fallen off sooner! :-D

I was just informed that we had deer outside our living room window again.  A group of four.  It’s almost completely dark at the moment, but still enough light for us to see them.  And for them to see us.  And hear us.  Even the creaking of the floor had their ears going in all directions, and they could hear my daughter cough!  As I was at the window, one was watching me until I shifted slightly, and off it ran, startling the others away.

So we will stay away from the window for a while, in hopes they come back.

Looks like we’ll be going into town again tomorrow, even if it’s just to pick up a new handle for the garage door! :-D

The Re-Farmer