pseudo mouse wars

It was extremely windy yesterday.
I am sure I heard the DJ on WEMU state that we 50 mph winds! Breezey! Said wind was causing all the previously secured pinecones to leap from their branches. I was amazed to see that many pine cones this late--seems like they would have given it up by now. So all these spent seed pods are swirling around on the street. Light enough to be dashed about on the ground, but at the same time heavy enough to be unable to lift above the curb. You have to imagine that feeling you get when, at the beginning of autumn as you are driving down a quiet road--a leaf suddenly darts across your path--that brief instant when you want to hit the brakes because it could be a bunny..or a squirrel--that is the feeling I got as I witnessed about 100 pinecones (the long sausage shaped ones--not the conical fat ones) whirling around in a mini tornado of chaos. They made an odd noise as they scratched across the asphalt in front of Dan's house. A sound not unlike that of the paper plate & dried bean tambourines so favored in preschool bands. It was a bizarre scene. I could not help but think of all the crappy productions of The Nutcracker I have either been in or witnessed. The Battle of the Mouse King? These pine cones were demonstrating what so many ballet teachers have tried to convey--like West Side Story but colder and much smaller. Outraged little armies of pinecones spinning and swirling, like drunks in bumper cars.