Bluebirds, Coffee Makers, Etc

Our annual bluebirds are back. They've been around for a few weeks. But last weekend there was nothing in the birdhouse and this weekend we have a full nest and four eggs.

This morning Mr. & Mrs. Bluebird are explaining to a group of tree swallows that they'll just have to live somewhere else. We've put up a second house. The two houses are about 100 feet apart. The tree swallows have ook in it. I don't know of the Bluebirds will tolerate a family a tree swallows that close...

In the past six years the Bluebirds have nested in our bird house five times and the tree swallows have succeeded in holding on it it just once.

---

I retired a coffee maker this morning . Maybe I should say "fired." We've been using Proctr Silas coffee maker because they are sold here in town and are cheap enough to be almost disposable. But they start off making a pot of coffee in about 15 minutes and they get slower and slower. The maker I retired today took 48 minutes to make its last pot of coffee. We'll see how long the new Black &Decker coffee maker lasts.

My cough is almost gone. It's been almost gone for a week or more. But it still goes through short but troubling moments of intensity that leave me heaving like a cat with furballs. Hope I get rid of this soon.