Wildlife

It's been a busy week since my return from Tucson. There was Thanksgiving, then Unky Herb went off to Arizona for a vacation, a chance to see the Grand Canyon, some desert and his cousin, John. I guess all is going well there, but he missed a pretty good pie party on Saturday night. I neglected to get any photos of the festivities, but the usual after Thanksgiving group helped PP and I down some Papa Murphy's pizza, a nice salad and a cold beverage. UH called during the party and several of the party chatted with his Arizona host. It was cool.

PP is off to a road trip for her next to last week at MCC. She's wielding her chain saw somewhere near Rochester.

So today, with the weather still decent and no snow yet on the ground, I went to check out the beaver dam that I was watching before my trip to the high desert. The beavers have been working on the ash trees near Upper Lake. I found one tree that was gnawed through, but had not fallen. This was a fresh casualty of the beavers, gnawed through recently and hung up on another nearby tree..




I walked around Upper Lake, hoping to see the animal of the day. After once around, I sighted a brown head swimming in the lake. I think it's one of the beavers, but I could be wrong. I tried to get closer for a better view and the creature went under water and never came to the surface again. I think that he may have retreated to his lodge, but after waiting about five minutes, I went on my way. It was definitely a wildlife sighting, however.



Incidentally, on my trek around Crosby Farm I sighted two guys on bicycles, and one was helmetless. It seemed to be too cold to bike without a head covering, but maybe it was just a hardcore guy.

No tennis today. I had the day off after three straight days of doubles with various groups. My timing is back - after the altitude problems in Tucson - and I'm playing pretty well. It would have been nice to have been in this zone while the tournament was going on. C'est la vie.