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Echoes from the Loafers’ Club Meeting

I put in a new walk to my house.   

Someone left footprints in the wet concrete. I followed them.

Where did they lead?

To feet.

Driving by Bruce’s drive

I have a wonderful neighbor named Bruce. Whenever I pass his drive, thoughts occur to me. The road I live along is having both destruction and construction work done to it. Now it’s a skull-rattling road with lessened traffic. The signs say I should give serious thought to having a tattoo reading, “Road work ahead.”

I was daydreaming of a time when the only infectious thing would be our laughter when I heard a quacking from our most familiar duck, the mallard. Only the female mallard quacks. This one was very vocal. As the maniacal Daffy Duck said, “Don’t shush me! I’ll make all the noise I wanna! WOO HOO! WOO HOO!”

That’s going to leave a mark

I’ve donned a gown and a robe. I’m all too familiar with that process, but my experience doesn’t lead to a swift completion. I hoped it would be the most troublesome part of my day. I had minor surgery and had stayed somewhat coherent during the entire operation. After I’d been updated, they moved me to a hospital gurney and wheeled me to the recovery room. A man pushed me through a labyrinth of passages. We covered all the directions in our travels. It amazed me how the gurney drivers could travel all those busy halls without colliding with someone or something. A crashed gurney would be good for no one. As I neared the completion of my leisure tour, I thought about a cherry Dilly Bar from Dairy Queen. I realized my prospects were good when my biggest concern was getting an ice cream treat.

I didn’t think of methunky. I’d call it a sauerkraut cookie or cracker. I was told while eating a couple of them in northeastern Wisconsin that the Czech snack needed to be chewy, crispy, doughy and sticky. The ingredients are humble: sauerkraut, flour, salt and cracklings (brown pork fat or lard). It’s good.

Everybody watches something. Some of us purposely smell things. I’m grateful when the lilacs bloom on Memorial Day. It helps me remember.

I’ve learned

Air isn’t free. Buy a bag of chips and see.

With great power comes a great electric bill.

I don’t want to know whom everyone is voting for.

Blessed are the flexible for they shall not become bent out of shape.

Wisdom comes to the place where foolishness had been.

The bad joke department

What has four letters, never has five and sometimes has nine?

The corgiolis effect means a breed of small dogs wags its tail to the left in the Northern Hemisphere and to the right in the Southern Hemisphere.

I walked through the dessert section of a potluck with whom I think was one of the Hansen boys, but I’m not sure. I’ve been through the desserts with a Norse with no name.

As you rip, so shall you sew.

Cookie Monster’s favorite band is Oreo Speedwagon.

Nature notes

The cold, late spring has made birds more evident for folks with feeders. Trees without highly developed foliage made the birds more visible and the lack of abundant food made hungry birds appear tamer.

I helped birders from Utah find Waldo amid a slew of warblers at a state park. The beauty of the warblers (mostly American redstarts and yellow warblers, but many other warbler species), orchard orioles, indigo buntings and Swainson’s thrushes enthralled us. I didn’t have enough eyes to go around.

In the land of 14,380 Lakes (according to a DNR database), the deepest natural inland lake in Minnesota is Lake Saganaga in Cook County at 240 feet.

Dennis Distad of Albert Lea asked where birds sleep at night. Birds seek spots protected from weather and predators inside dense foliage in trees, shrubs or vines. Others sleep in cavities, birdhouses and niches. Many birds perch close to tree trunks, which might hold some of the sun’s warmth and block the wind. Some take advantage of sheltered places like barns, roofs and ledges to roost. Waterfowl sleep floating in the water and wading birds like herons and egrets sleep standing in the water or on land. Birds that live in open fields or shores might hunker down where they are. There are birds, like most owls, that work the night shift and during nesting seasons, birds will sleep in their nests at night to provide eggs and young with warmth and protection.

Meeting adjourned

Kindness is a lever that moves the world.