Totally off the subject, but I finally took the time to put the CD collection on the computer. Have only about 200 left of what was once a great collection - Lost? No, mainly loaned. For example, I loaned the Pink Floyd and Cowboy Junkies collections to, of all people, a partner of a lawyer that I worked for. I was trying to be a nice person and get along but I should have just thrown them out on the interstate. And then I got carried away and threw away my Dixie Chicks (regretful) and Perl Jam (not so regretful) music during the Presidential election. Anyway playing CD's became inconvenient several years ago. Although I have continued to buy them occasionally, I only listen for a while and then they go into a box and collect dust with the others. Now the CD's are back in the boxes but I random play the music from them for most of each day and realize that they are one of my few good investments. A few minutes ago I heard "Ripple" and a big portion of my 18th year (35 years ago) flashed through my mind. I was a freshman at UNM, lived in the dorm (Coronado Hall, room 180) and my roommate put on The Grateful Dead's American Beauty every night to go to sleep to. Since the rooms were really small it was also the music that I went to sleep to. I continued to listen to it often for many years after that (I still have the album but haven't seen a record player in years), but haven't heard it in probably the past 10 years until tonight. It was nice, but just as nice as the next song from Unvergessene Melodien Vol. 1., and the next from The Smashing Pumpkins Siamese Dream. I like a much wider range of music now (I have wider range as a person), nearly all except for Polka and Mariachi, but none of it all the time. I never play music at the pond - it's too intrusive, and actually the birds just sound better.
Tomorrow is my last chance to mow and trim the pond before visitors get here on Sunday. I hope I make it. The pond environment and the animals it attracts constantly surprise me. The recent rain was a catalyst and activity has exploded. They are too quick for me to photograph, or even really describe a few seconds later, but I'm sure I have never see some of these birds before. This morning I walked out my back door and there was a large Ring-necked Dove sitting on my gate and right beside it was a small bird with a vivid red upper body. And most of the wildlife is just beyond our control in a lot of different ways. The really wild things for sure, but also even the animals that depend on us. Sometimes I make plans to find a way to trap all of the Koi and get rid of them, then I look at them and some are remarkably beautiful, especially the gold and black ones, so I leave them alone. Bill is the same with the bass. They also were an accidental release and they are tremendously efficient predators. When he sees them attack a ball of baby catfish he gets completely upset and tries to catch all of them. At other times he is almost proud of them when he is watching them dart around like little sharks while they catch insects.