Life is good ...

… especially if there is a garden hose nearby.

I set out on a walk this morning, glum over the gloomy-looking sky and the fact that it was late when it was finally light enough to head outside. After a few days of lackluster weather … first feeling as if I was bounced around like a tumbleweed, then Sunday’s rainfall and an errand-filled Monday morning, I was glad to finally get a decent walk in again.

While traversing the neighborhood, I saw more and more harvest and Halloween décor assuring me that people have decided to just go ahead and embrace the Fall as the Summer has left for good.

While walking down Emmons Boulevard, in the distance, I saw a cluster of small birds gathered in the middle of a cross-street. Of course, my first thought was “don’t they know that is a dumb thing to do – people can’t see you?” As I got closer, after squinting to see what the attraction was, I noticed the morning congregation seemed to revolve around a colorful bag of some sort. Suddenly a squirrel, seizing the opportunity to be “large and in charge”, raced into the flock of sparrows and rushed over to examine the pickings and make them his own.

As I got right up close to the scene, I had to laugh because there was a foil bag emblazoned with the words “Fritos Flamin’ Hot corn chips” and our furry friend was pawing through the chips and shoveling them into his mouth just as quickly as he could. He reminded me of a squirrel I saw once at Council Point Park who had discovered a Cheetos bag and pretty much inhaled the remnants of it. How did I know? Well, his mouth and paws were smeared with orange cheese dust.

“Sure, go ahead and make a pig of yourself” I called out to him as I passed by, though he was enjoying this unexpected treat so much, he was oblivious to me. Then I added “just be sure you look for a garden hose to guzzle some water to cool off your scorched gullet from your gluttony!” He never budged and paid me no never mind so I just kept walking past this furry Frito Bandito.

And you thought gluttony only happened at the Thanksgiving Day table?

You can catch up on my blog posts before I started blogging at Patch in August 2013 by going here: http://lindaschaubblog.net/