Bigger or Better: Life outside of Texas

 I like watching life. I'd like to say I love all life, but then I remembered cockroaches, so yes, I am a bit particular on which lives are watch-worthy. Birds are watch-worthy. I've had friends with pet birds before, but they seem mostly smelly and confined [the birds, not the friends], so for Christmas I asked for--and received--a window bird feeder. We always hear birds chattering outside our window in the evenings, but it took them 3 months to notice the feeder was there. And none of them are perfectly well-behaved. The cardinals chase off the smaller brown birds (I think they're a type of finch, or sparrow, or catbird?? I'm not a bird-watcher, despite watching birds) even though there is adequate room for both to feed. Meanwhile, the brown birds tend to sit on my potted plants (which by itself is fine) and pick off sprigs from my thyme plant (which is NOT fine. They don't even eat them, or take them for nest-making; they pluck them off and promptly drop them o

 One of the most eye-opening things I have learned from the ongoing pandemic is that I don't need to personally have any type of social/familial relationship with victims of SARS-CoV-2 in order to have my life derailed. This truth actually makes me feel really guilty. I am not grieving the loss of anyone close to me. I am not the recipient of any racist actions stemming from the pandemic. But my body still seems to feel I should jump the tracks from [relatively] normal functioning to...something else. My symptoms: I have never been obsessed with food--even though I like baking--but now I think about what to eat ALL THE TIME. One of my favorite things about eventide these days is that it is such a short time of consciousness between bedtime and breakfast-time. I think of it as a very-toned-down Christmas every morning: Hurray! It is time for my favorite meal! A couple years ago, one of my friends told me that she is always thinking about what she can eat next, even if she has just h