Air Mail

Hello World,     YIPES! I see that it's back to being Friday the 13th again, thanks not, so I hope that it will not actually be an unlucky day for anyone out in the wide world after all. I suppose what could be considered the luckiest part of it all is that this is the last one for the year, while next year, we won't see one until September, with a second one to follow in December, and that's it for all of 2019. (YAY!) And speaking of occasional days, directly after the unlucky Friday, on the 14th is a day dear to the hearts of revolutionaries everywhere, Bastille Day, celebrated for the storming of the Bastille in 1789, and considered a turning point in the French revolution. It is observed in France much like our Independence Day here, with parades, dances, parties, and fireworks. Of course, unlike American BBQ and beer, in France it's patisseries and cognac - although whether that would be considered an improvement of any sort would be a matter up for debate, I dare say. Garcon, more eclairs, s'il vous plait!     Odd times around the old homestead lately, at least on the wildlife front, and that's not just the ratatouille talking, believe me. It all began a while back, when I came home from work and discovered a cute little brown bunny (with the requisite white cotton tail, of course) happily hunkered down in our buttercup patch on the front lawn, and looking very comfortable, I might add. In fact, he was so calm that I was able to get out of my car, creep up on him in an (admittedly) not very surreptitious manner, and take some pictures while he sat perfectly still, with only his nose twitching to give him away. After that, it was a groundhog, of all things, which I have never seen in our yard ever before, and making himself pretty much right at home around the bird feeders, I can tell you that. I thought perhaps he was on the lookout for a position predicting the weather on his namesake day in February, and scoping out a suitable location for his burrow that would be photogenic and easily accessible for the media. A few days later, I spotted him chomping on the weeds in the driveway, along with a companion groundhog, and I don't mind telling you, these are about the cutest things you are ever going to see in your yard, if only for the novelty factor. They didn't seem to bother the birds in any way, and our cats pointedly refused to acknowledge them out the windows, but they did scare off our wandering stray cats from the front porch for a few days. I haven't seen them now in over a week, so they may have moved on to greener pastures, so to speak, and not taken up residence in our crawl space, as originally supposed. And it must be said, with the "Groundhog Day" movie as a cautionary tale, it's probably just as well.     Meanwhile at work, I needed to get in touch with one of our sub-contractors, and the phone number I had for them wasn't working. So I searched for them online, expecting to be directed to their web site, or at least get a result for a clearinghouse of construction companies that would have their contact information. I was not disappointed when the search results turned up our friends at RIKA Construction Corp. right away, and not only gave me their address and phone number, but provided some background information on the company as well. They were quick to explain to me when the business was incorporated, how many locations they have (one), their annual revenue, and the types of construction they are licensed to perform. But my personal favorite was what I'm sure they considered this helpful tidbit: "Employs a staff of approximately 2." Frankly, I feel that if the whole sum total of the staff there is only two measly little working stiffs, the underlings gathering the company data should be able to verify if they have two people or not two people, without having to estimate an approximation of them. Heck, it's not like trying to nail down how many people work at General Motors, or Wal*Mart, for heaven's sake. Approximately 2, indeed.     For anyone with a hankering to be up, up, and away, our local newspaper ran a big front page story about upcoming hot air balloon festivals in the Hudson Valley - and you can believe me when I say that it was not "approximately 2," but a significant variety of these festivals in many different places throughout the region, and thanks ever so. With more than 25 to choose from, you would expect there to be a little bit of something for everyone, from the simplest to the most exotic, and no reason for anyone to miss out on all the fun, by golly. But you don't have to take my word for it, you can get it right from the horse's mouth, as it were, with this quote from the Dutchess County Regional Chamber of Commerce: "There's nothing like the experience of the hot-air balloons in the air, glowing, and the comradery and the smiles on families faces when the balloons are in the sky." Excuse me? Comradery?? Now, this could easily have been mis-transcribed from a verbal quote, but whether it was the newspaper or the Chamber of Commerce making the error, it's still an error that should never have happened. In this day and age, when everyone in the world has access to the information super highway - in fact, with most of us carrying it around in our pockets with us - finding the correct spelling of "camaraderie" is no challenge at all. On the contrary, "comradery" sounds like some sort of clandestine re-education program that KGB agents use on recalcitrant Russian dissidents, and I would seriously doubt that hot-air balloons would enter into it in any way, comrade. In fact, I would go so far as to say that I would have more than one doubt about it, possibly even approximately 2, da? Elle