AC Repairman, Chicka Dee Dee Dee and a Dirt Bath

1. On a day when the temperature will rise to 92 degrees, having a repair company who responds by 7:30 AM when your husband calls the night before to tell them your AC isn't working.

2. A very young black-capped chickadee lands on the iron porch railing. His feathers are mottled and messy. He has yet to develop his adult coloring. He squawks a "chicka dee dee dee" and then flies in a little closer...Then even closer. Each flight is begun with hesitancy, as if he is asking himself if he can do it before he takes the leap of faith. He lands on the corner post of the iron porch sofa and looks around. Pleased with himself, he lets out a little whistle, then flutters his way to the phone line.

3. It is our dinner time. A party of sparrows are having a dirt bath in the dried out earth in my gardening wagon. Dust & dirt fly as they squirm and wallow in the powdery earth. We laugh out loud as the dirt flies, leaving our dinner to watch their antics. It is a hot one today and my husband jokes that it dries up their sweat.

(If you've never witnessed a sparrow's dirt bath, put a pan of dry dirt in your yard near your feeders and just wait. They will find it and it is a sight to behold. They go into it head first and wallow, the same as they do in water.)