The Seventh Day

So I was lying in bed this morning, thinking about how to begin this post, and it occurred to me that today is the seventh day, Sunday, and the end of the first week of October. Except, according to the calendar, yesterday was the end of the first week of October. Which made me wonder how we ended up with Sunday at the beginning of the week instead of the end. Although I am not religious and do not believe in organized religion, I was raised Lutheran, so I find random offerings of that upbringing presenting themselves to me. For instance, in the bible, when God created earth, he worked for six days and on the seventh day he rested. This day was Sunday, presumably. Given the deep religious roots of Western society, it strikes me as odd that Sunday somehow got moved to the beginning. I'm sure there is an historical tale here to tell. Unfortunately I do not know it. Perhaps, I shall do some digging and figure it out. Interestingly, beginning last year, it became impossible for me to find a calendar that was physically laid out with Sunday to the far left of beginning of the week. It had been shifted to the far right or end of the week. But since we still measure time with Sunday at the beginning, that isn't exactly helpful.

Yesterday, I spent the late afternoon reading on my back porch. I had put the dogs in as they were antsy and hot and barking a lot and I wanted to just sit quietly and read. After I had been there for awhile, the chipmunks that call my yard and the neighbor's yard home began to run their circuit. They have several actually, but one is to leave the neighbors tree, cross my driveway, scamper under the deck and pop up through the hole cut in the deck for the water spigot. They scurry across the deck on a path that goes directly under my chair and disappear off the end by the magnolia bush. I think there are three of them, but this circuit was made 5 or 6 times before they noticed me at all. One even detoured to the dog's water dish for a quick drink. Of course, inevitably, I moved at just the right moment on one of these circuits and spooked one into spinning around and running back down the spigot hole. Two of them did chase each other in the reverse of the the circuit just once. This is not the first time I have been still enough reading to encourage them to scurry around freely. One ran over my foot once. However, yesterday, for the first time, I was still enough for a long enough period, that a squirrel happened upon the deck. It saw me, crossed warily, and used the railing as a springboard to mount the garage roof. I like that I am not a figety person. Also that I can observe nature in an uncontrived way. What's odd to me is that the chipmunks have eluded the cats for 5 years now. It's true that my cats are getting older, but they still bring me treats - robins, headless moles, the occassional bunny. I can't figure out if the chipmunks are just too quick or if the cats simply don't care. To this end, we have raccoons as well. I'm less enamoured of them as they occassionally dump the garbage over and strew it around the driveway. But mostly, they come up on the front porch at night and finish off what's left of the cat food. I've come home late from work and caught them doing this, incredibly while the cats lazily watched. To my knowlege, none of the cats have every engaged them in a fight. But they also don't scatter and hide when the coons come a callin' - so I wonder if they just don't care.

These are the kinds of interactions and musings that become Disney animated movies with raccoons and cats and chipmunks as the main characters.

I love Sunday - no work, football, and it's likely I'll get sushi today.