This was to be a great day. My first tomato would be ripe and ready for picking. It was covered with mesh to protect from the birds, or so I thought. A bird had gone under the mesh and found the juicy red orb and had eaten half of it! Not a grackle or sparrow or starling, but the State Bird of Texas!!! A mockingbird! Ann had seen one at work just before dark last evening. She didn't have the heart to tell me. I went across the back lawn feeling the earth give way as I stepped on mole trails traversing the yard. I saw the bird's damage at two other vines. That wasn't all. There were three new mounds where gophers had pitched up their diggings to further frustrate me. Now a young squirrel had leaped some six or seven feet onto my bird-feeding tray. I walked to the front yard to get the paper (in the ditch as usual). Along the edge of the drive were new fire ant beds. I had poisoned just two days ago. That stuff is expensive. Yesterday afternoon I searched in an outside storage shed for a lawn chair and disturbed two rats! Yes, the animal kingdom is out in full force to get me. What a difficult life........and then....
I remember multiplied thousands of persons mourning the dead; looking at bare ground where they once lived. Others swamped by flood waters bringing sewage and disease. In our own land those who have felt the power and devastation of tornadoes. My troubles? A mockingbird and some moles. A pesty squirrel and troublesome gophers. Fire ants that are everywhere now. I breathed a prayer of thanks for these tiny inconveniences in a world of plenty. I do have one small request of the State Bird. Wipe that red stuff off your face along with the smile!
