walking the tortoise, weather, and more birds

Today I learned that there's a tortoise named Newman who goes on two mile walks in Burbank, CA, following along purposefully behind his person. If you've never seen a tortoise go for a walk, there's a video.

In monsoon news, we're feeling it, even if it isn't yet official. Tweaking the EI grapevine has revealed that we all feel crummy, and we were all quite used to feeling better than this. Apparently water and strong sunlight are great for producing ozone, and the wind that goes with the thunderstorms kicks up a lot of dust, so that goes a long way toward explaining why we feel like we do, and that completely leaves out the problems we have with mold.

In birdy news, more twigs were wrestled this morning, but that leftover egg is still in the nest. I had meant to trim the vine after the nest-renovators took off for the afternoon, but this morning I completely discounted the possibility of going outside today. I read that book I mentioned yesterday instead, and it turns out that the book (in the bag) is safe; I didn't get a headache today.

Not having a headache was fine.