Birds on a Wire & Smacking Siblings

I pulled onto the street where my office is this morning to see about 1000 starlings (I'm about 95% sure that's what they were) hanging out on the power lines that run in front of the property. I'm not making that number up, although I did not take the time to count them head by head. When I got out of the car in the parking lot, I was greeted by the melodious sound (read scratchy, irritated bird voices) of these feathered creatures as they fought over the best spot to perch. Flitting here and there, trading places with one another, shoving each other off only to be unseated, themselves, about ten seconds later. Later, I went out to the patio to watch them for a few minutes; it's interesting to see how they behave in a large group like that. Even with all the jostling for their own place on the wire, they were evenly spaced apart from one another - like someone drew them there. If one got spooked or got an odd breeze on his feathers, he'd take off like a shot, which, of course, made all the rest of them think, "OH!!! I've got to follow him!" and then they'd all cloud the sky in a cacophony of wings. They must be migrating early. Our security guard, who was out watching them, too, thinks they are a bad sign - a sign of an early, long, hard, winter. We've had a relatively mild summer, all things considered, but I'm ready for cooler (even cold) weather. I just hope we can get a car that has heat so neither Hubby nor I need to suffer this winter. If we don't get one, I'll take over driving the Taurus again once the weather turns frigid. Well, I know this isn't the most interesting post, but I thought it was "blog-worthy" so here it is. Nothing really new happening on the home-front. I did manage to get a good portion of the kitchen done last night - though it still needs some help. Kiddo and Little Bit have started scrapping with one another - sibling rivalry a bit early, I do believe. Yesterday, Kiddo was in his fabulous rocking chair (the one Uncle M and Aunt M made for him back when he was less-than-knee-high) and Little Bit wanted to get in the chair. She stood in front of him and screamed at him, eventually working herself up to smacking Kiddo with all her 17-month-old strength. He retaliated by smacking her back, so she bit him! He's got the mark on his arm to prove it! Hubby tells me that this morning, Kiddo and Little Bit were hanging out together in her crib and they started smacking at one another then! Kiddo got in trouble for this because, though he says she started it, Hubby asked him, "Who is older?" Kiddo responded appropriately and then Hubby said, "If you're older, bud, don't you think it's up to you to help her understand that you can't hit!?" Things were fine after that and they all sat down to breakfast. I guess, now that I've rambled on about nothing for what seems like forever - I'll sign off. Hope everyone has a fabulous day! TTFN JMS