Ramble with Storm: Squirrel question on a Tom Skilling morning

Mulling things on my morning ramble with Storm, the family’s mixed Lab.

Well, that question got answered. What would the meathead do if he ever caught up to a squirrel?

As we neared home this morning, a gray squirrel made a tactical error and tried to escape up a tree after digging in a neighbor’s flower bed.

But it made the run too late and ran right into us. At the last second, it realized its error and tried to reverse field. At the point of turn, right under the meathead’s nose, Storm did what comes naturally and bit down.

And I thought, “Oh, great,at mnow I will spend the morning at the vet’s, taking care of the mutt’s mauled and scratched snout.”

That would be a different sort of mulling or mauling.

But somehow the squirrel squirted free and up a maple.

Astonishingly cold this morning in the teens. I think Tom Skilling said this is the coldest air mass we have had in early November since 1996.

All I know was it was cold, in the teens, and the snow from Monday night is still hanging around. I suspect the snow will be gone by noon today.

I figured I better get a picture of the snowy dawn because we might not have the next one until December.

Canada geese were everywhere. It started with two flying over, directly over my head, this morning as we crossed the side rail that separates the town pond from the town.

They flew so close there within easy shooting range, even for me, maybe 20 or 25 yards overhead.

As we came off the extended portion of the ramble, I noticed about 50 geese on the north old clay pit.

As we circled the pit, four more flocks cupped up and landed. By the time we crossed the bridge over the neckdown between the two pits, there was more than 100 geese on the north pit.

Skim ice, actually more like actual ice, had formed on the neckdown and along the shoreline of the north pit.

It is early for that in recent years.

Questions everywhere.

Yesterday, Thomas Binka asked a question I had expected to be asked much earlier: Where is the town pond?

There is a practical answer to that, but I have a much more involved philosophical answer I thought I would get to today. It can wait for another day.

One of those mornings it was good to be back home, simply to be in basic shelter again.