"Fee! Fie! Fhtagn! Fum! Who stole my Shining Trapezohedron?"
— Despite their diminutive size, screech owls will not hesitate to kill and devour Englishmen.



This weekend was fun, though tinged with a few farewells. On Sunday sheepishlove left for Korea and c215 left for Afghanistan.



I hung out with Deg. for a good portion of the day on Friday.

We walked around the Heights area for a good while, despite the brisk weather, all the way out to the Historic 19th street district and back, as it happened. As we were passing by the ‘witch’ house, a multi-story home with a small, round window with a blatant pentagram design, Deg. mentioned that this was his landlord’s residence when he was living in this area. I noticed a bit of movement glide into the tree we were passing under, and suspected it was a small owl alighting on a branch. Sure enough, it turned out to be a small, grey owl on closer inspection. I suspect that it was probably a western screech owl, because I did not notice the ear tufts that characterize the eastern, and as it turns out southern Texas is one of the few areas where their territories overlap. (If it was not either of those two, my only other guess is that it might have been a whiskered screech owl a bit outside of its normal territory. Who knows?)
Anyway, I thought it was perfectly appropriate to spot such a cvte, little owl in front of just such a house. And I imagine the upper, steeple-like room looks like a fair spot to hunt for shining trapezohedrons.
;)

Later on, in the evening Lethal OD joined up with us, and we watched the director’s cut of Sin City and the H. P. Lovecraft Historical Society’s Call of Cthulhu, while drinking Kopke port and Maudite ale. (Here is the Canadian legend related to this beer’s logo. It involves the Devil and flying canoes.)


Saturday, I dropped off my truck to get a new tire, and Elsa and I dropped by Border’s and then Texas Art Supply. I was on the phone talking with Otty for a good portion of this time, and when Elsa came back out her truck refused to crank. I was pretty certain it was just the battery. Fortunately, we were only a block away from Autozone, so, after acquiring a small crescent wrench I pulled out her battery, jogged it over to Autozone, had them check it — sure enough it was dead — then walked back with the new battery. (Lead, why must thou weigh so heavily upon the periodic table and upon my shoulder?!)

I realize that I could have called any of several people to shuttle us around, but waiting for someone to drop by would have taken more time than simply walking over there with it.

Undead Justin and Marcus dropped by for a little while that evening, and Deg. popped in and out to say goodbye.


Sunday. Fortunately I got a good bit of rest the prior night. Got up, headed over to help OD move. Helped them finish loading and unloading one of those huge U-haul trucks. His new house is awesome, by the way, and he seems to be quite thrilled about living on 23rd! Street.
After that load, I ran back home for a brief respite while I filled out timesheets, ate a snack, and called Otty to finish our conversation from the day prior – which had been interrupted by the truck battery’s untimely demise.
Then, headed back over to OD’s, helped him load and unload the U-haul one more time, and snickety-snack!, we had finished moving all of the heavy and cumbersome things, and it was only 4pm.

Got back home, drank a huge volume of fluids, and Elsa was kind enough to rub icy-hot all over me. Yay!
;)


— To give you a frame of reference for size, here is another gratuitously cute owl picture. Bear in mind that this photo was snapped moments before it tore off this man's hand in a fit of unbridled owl-y rage: