/>Last week while I was working on my PC at home, I looked out the window and saw this squirrel perched on my garage roof and looking at me. I didn't think much of it at first because this has happened before. Squirrels run across the roof pretty much every day. This one, however, started to feel different. The squirrel sat there for an unusually long time - around 15 minutes - and held the pose while looking into my window. I grabbed my camera, ran out onto my back balcony and took several pictures. The squirrel turned slightly to face me (as shown above) but still did not move. For whatever reason, I then looked down into the yard. To my shock I saw the lifeless body of a squirrel there. I looked back up in time to see the squirrel on the roof scamper off. She had delivered her message to me; her work was done. I went out to my yard to investigate and could not figure out why the squirrel had died. I saw no wounds or blood; it seemed like it hadn't been dead long. I dug a hole, gave it a proper burial and then went out to the group of squirrels who were clustered on my front porch and gave them a bunch of almonds and extra sunflower seeds.

This morning I had to negotiate a literal gauntlet of squirrels on my way to work. It started with only one squirrel approaching me, but soon there were squirrels pouring down from the trees. I handed an almond to a squirrel who remained attached to a trunk, and I hand-fed one of the albino squirrels. Later in the afternoon when I was going to get the mail, I almost punted a squirrel who had run between my feet. It ran into the side of my foot and then stopped directly in front of me. That's a good way to get my attention I suppose. My cats do that all the time.

Had a short rehearsal today for Tartuffe. I'm still a little nervous about this role. It's one thing to have a few lines in a 10 minute play. I'm in about 2/3 (if that few) of the scenes in this full-length play. Yikes(!) I keep reminding myself that I've done the WM & King Solomon parts in the 3° and that required some heavy memorization too.

My econ class is going well. Today was our first exam. This is the first class in quite a while that I'm taking for a grade. (Ordinarily I audit the classes.) I've been keeping up with the reading and did a thorough review for the test which I started last Friday. (I read my econ book between singing songs at karaoke.) Speaking of karaoke, last Friday was crazy! At most there were 4 people in the rotation and throughout most of the night there were only 3 of us. I wound up singing 11 or 12 songs! I added a few new ones to my repertoire: Hey Pretty (Poe), Ava Adore & Bullet With Butterfly Wings (Smashing Pumpkins), The Alabama Song (Kurt Weill via The Doors) and Locomotive Breath (Jethro Tull). I tried Informer again and did that one much better than before. It was a better version of the song.

One of the reasons I enjoy this particular karaoke place is the genuineness of the people and the bar's utter lack of pretense. A middle-aged couple was there a couple weeks ago. They looked stereotypically "working class." It was cute how they held hands every now and then. Each of them would go up and sing and the other would applaud. I assumed they were out on a "date night." The guy went up and sang some sort of military-themed song. I had never heard it before. The song told the story of a boy who went to Viet Nam and how he got injured during some particular battle. The guy sang it well. When he finished, two guys came to him, hugged him and told him how much that song meant to them. They didn't know each other, but they were all military brothers. It was a beautiful moment.