Good Afternoon, Taylor.

It’s late on Sunday when I write this because I have a little time and I haven’t written anything in a while. It’s not that we’re busy but that Ragdoll’s new job takes up a lot of time. Like a lot of time.

She is trying to be fair that I get at least half of the not-work time, but it’s hectic and she has a lot of appointments. But she’s good at scheduling and she changes it up to try and get me more time when she eats my time.

I found out I can usually talk to Didi in the mornings, since she goes to sleep just as I’m waking up. She doesn’t say much, but it’s nice to see her again. I’ve started talking a lot more to The Corsair. Lilly and Stargazer, though. I’m trying to reach out to more people, because the lonliness can get really bad sometimes. But anytime they have for me is enough.

But I am reaching out to someone these days. He visits me most every day, and has been for a while. Mister Crow. He’s a crow who has been watching me eat breakfast on the deck since winter. After telling The Corsair about him, she suggested I start feeding him because you can make friends with them. So now in the mornings when I have breakfast I leave out two peanuts for him and Mrs. Crow who is usually watching while he explores.

It’s been neat to see him get braver and braver. The first day I left out peanuts, I didn’t see him at all, but found peanut shells on the deck later. The next day, I noticed him swooping really close while I was having breakfast and his peanuts were out. The third day, he flew up to my roof and watched me. Yesterday, he got really brave and flew to the stairs on the deck. He tried to get his peanut, but I think he got flustered, ran into the water I left out, and flew off.

I’m hoping he’ll get used to me eventually. He’s really lovely to look at. Very graceful and his wings look big and strong. I love watching him swoop by as he checks out the deck. Sometimes I wonder what he’s thinking when he looks at me. He’s pretty big, too. They look so small from far away, but he’s a good size. I hope to make friends with him. It will take a while, but at least I’ll have Mister Crow on lonely days.

I’m still reading my book, and hoping to jump onto the next one. And today the house is cleaner than it’s been for a while. The time it’s taking to do Ragdoll’s new job, and the trip there and back is not leaving either of us a lot of time in the evenings. I’m hoping to use the holiday to catch up on housework. For the first time in a long time, I managed to everything on the chores list!

The nice thing is that we have to wake up early for the commute, but on days when she doesn’t have to work, we still wake up early…and I get morning coffee and breakfast. Maybe one day Mister Crow will join me for Breakfast.

–Andrea