Sunday was a day of rest for me. I did find and fix a leak in the pool plumbing. Courtesy of a Mockingbird. I noticed the other day that my winterized pool was low, but I figured it was a liner leak that I would fix in the spring. Yesterday, however, I noticed said Mockingbird hanging out by the hose that runs from the pool to the pump. I thought maybe he dug the minerals that might collect there. Then I noticed a drip, to drink. It was coming from a loose hose clamp. I tightened the clamp. The drip stopped. I topped off the pool. The levels are steady this morning.

I have no idea where the Mockingbird will now get his water, but if it was clever enough to find this drip, it will find another. That’s the nice thing about nature, it finds a way. And birds seem particularly adept. I guess it’s part of their DNA. As the last of the dinosaurs, they instinctively understand how to survive. I suppose it helps that they can fly around, it really enlarges the amount of ground they can cover looking for food, water, and shelter. Hats off to the birds. They’ll probably make it through the next extinction event, too.

I wonder how we’ll fare. Personally, I think it’s safe to say when the electricity goes off for good, we’re going to be in a world of hurt. No gas. No plastic. No refrigeration. No heat. No synthetic materials. No machines. No internet. When the lights go off people will find the world to be a very tiny place pretty much limited to what they can see and how far they can walk. At that point, we’ll look at the birds sitting up in the trees looking down at us and think, wow, they’ve got it made, and they probably will.