The Screech Owl Omen

You know how it's so easy to find omens when you are looking into the past?

I found an omen today.

First of all - what is the word for a giant herd of screech owls? Pack? Gaggle? Fluffernutter?

I'm going to go with a fluffernutter of owls. Mostly because our screech owls are teeny and fluffy and round and so insanely cute it just makes your face hurt to look at them.

This morning, at about 5:15, a large fluffernutter of owls descended on my backyard and started making their sweet little trilling sounds.

I was telling some friends today that "screech" is an entirely inappropriate word for them because their sound, while amplified in a fluffernutter, is so soft and cute.

When you have a fluffernutter of cooing owls, though, a lot of things happen at once. All cats immediately forcefully eject themselves from your surprised and sleeping stomach and vault to the windows, leaving you dramatically awakened and a wee bit sore and angry.

Then, all the dogs in the neighborhood start barking. (Because we all know dogs are slower than cats.)

The dog barking starts the coyotes howling and yipping at the edges of the neighborhood.

At this point, you just have to get up and start working. There's no going back to sleep now that all of creation is making some sort of a noise.

However, I had an early geocaching date with my friend Lee, so I headed out with her to a local park before the sun was too far up and it was beastly hot. This is where the omen of the fluffernutter became more apparent, specifically when I ran directly into a large prickly pear cactus hidden in some tall grass, and got about 20 large cactus spines embedded into my thigh.

That was fun.

I pulled one out that was at least an inch deep in my leg. No one should have to do that, because it's gross. But after I got all the big ones out, I was left with the teeny ones that are like fiberglass, many of which are still in my leg and under my fingernails. During this hideous process, my friend - a nurse - Lee, was talking to a birder we met on the trails. Both of them were fluffernutter free and had navigated our little path un-spined and were oblivious to my - heh - punctuation.

Cacti don't have brains. They don't have Iphones or the ability to make icecubes and knit granny squares.

But they are so, so, so much better designed than we are.

They just sit there and you kill yourself on them.

Boom.

Cactus winning.

I hope it wasn't some weird zombie cactus that is going to turn ME into a cactus in 24 hours. We will see.

This week it's my brother's wedding anniversary!

I won't tell you how many years because unfortunately, we have aged in tandem, so let's just say they are both still VERY young! :)

I saw something that inspired this card on a convention swap. I was not organized enough to do a general swap, but one of my friends got one with these flowers on it and I filed it away in my brain. Turns out that was just perfect for Tammie Edgerton's Dare to Get Dirty challenge on Splitcoast. Stamps - Backyard Basics, Express yourself Dies - Backyard Basics

Tomorrow morning, I am going to pay close attention to all obvious omens.

And I will also wear pants.

Loveyameanitbye.