For ego comfort on a jet

I do now deeply regret

my rash decision to get

an emotional support pet.

The worse of it I now fret

was the choice of my egret.

Big trouble  I was fast beset

An egret pet is a dodgy bet.

This bird often needs a vet.

It gets sick when it gets wet.

So now I’m deeply in debt

and caught up in an awful net.

This egret makes me upset.

It’s an error I won’t forget.

An egret is no great asset.

A worse pet I’ve never met.

Shared with permission of Felix Gagliano

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BIOLOGY LESSON: Worms Do It

Sexual reproduction involves two earthworms. The two earthworms produce a slime tube and grip onto each other using the tubercula pubertatis (located on the saddle). The slime tube provides the right environment for the two earthworms to exchange sperm, with each earthworm storing the sperm of its partner for use later. Because both earthworms are performing the function of both a male and female during sexual reproduction, they are known as simultaneous hermaphrodites.

• Asexual reproduction can also be undertaken by some species of earthworm. This involves a single earthworm producing young from unfertilised eggs and is known as parthenogenesis.
• Flatworms reproduce by a process called fragmentation, and several other species.

I just received an e-mail from a friend in a Pennsylvania nursing home.

She said there were seven new cases of covid there, and she was one of them.

So, though I haven’t had covid yet and have all of my shots, I’m gonna wear the mask when I step out.

Just thought you’d like to know!  Take care.

The Climate Crisis NOVEL by Sweden’s Jens Liljestrand, translated and published this year, does two things well:  dares to envision the arrival of climate change and furthers the resilience of the family.  It’s  Even if Everything Ends, translated by Alice Menzies

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I WISH I’D WRITTEN THIS:

I’m lanky, I’m tall

With little fur at all

My gentle skin can’t take the sun

I’m no harm to anyone

No claws to tear

No teeth to bare

I’m a defenseless baby for years

Dependent on my peers

My appearance, a con

The great deception

I’m the greatest killer in history

Well, both you and me

From <https://murdochmouse.wordpress.com/2023/05/31/natural-prog

Ned Hanson’s blog led me to this site

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INTERESTING :   How to keep plastic away  from the Ocean 5/25/23

See the nytimess opinion piece by Boyan Slat,

founder and chief executive of the Ocean Cleanup.

<https://www.nytimes.com/2023/05/25/opinion/river-plastic-ocean.html?

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I STILL HATE SOME THINGS BESIDES LYING: Trying to get folks to buy something without telling them up front what the price is.  (“Click yes, I want 50% off”)

TWO OF MY FAVORITE PEOPLE:

An arty arty I stumbled across in my old photos.

Art is everywhere!  Depends how you look at it.

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Take a look at Ruth’s experience with animals:

OUR ANIMAL FAMILY

Last year’s nest of chickadees on the front porch

Hanging basket of bright orange impatience,

All hatched, sang, tested their wings and flew away.

This year a nest of four robin’s eggs on the front porch

Atop a plastic floral wreath hanging on the wall,

Still incubating, so we’re using the side door.

An unopened walnut tucked into the wicker mail basket

Also on the front porch. A thank you for the stale Cheerios?

Two big black ants on the white counter top

Face to face, in an embrace not moving

Even with me coming in for a close up.

A pregnant doe, with belly big and round,

Resting in the backyard, watching me as I watch her,

As I suspect, I have been since she was a fawn.

Beyond her, the yard scraps heap suddenly

Sporting a perfectly round entrance hole in its middle

About the size of a ground hog often seen eating my garden, or

That amazing white backed skunk seen streaking across the yard one night,

Who all  the neighbors know as well.

Likewise Thomas, the big orange tom who left cat footprints in the wet cement,

And who I was not about to feed,

But now gets Teaka’s leftovers so is at the back door every morning.

Was it the struggling bee caught in the kitchen that I trapped, then released

Who let the secret out?

Used with permission by R. H. Reilly 5-22-2023