various fauna

One sort appeared as I was walking up a hill one sunny day last week; they were wheeling about in a car, yelling, and, as I found out, were insane.  They pulled a u-turn on a busy arterial, sped up towards me, and next I heard the sound of a bottle rocket. It was aimed at me, and its whine and explosion missed me by a few feet.  The passenger who shot it was screaming, his face a nasty rictus, wearing what looked like a big gold crown on his stupid shitty head.  And off they flew.
Later in the week, I was walking along the lake and went out onto a dock.  A stream of bubbles was passing under it, and I peered down into the water to see what was making it; the two huge shadowy fish swimming in tandem at first reminded me of sharks, but that wasn't likely.  They had to be a couple of the giant brown carp which reside in this little body of water. Off they wended into the weeds.
Finally, there was a monarch butterfly in our back garden; must have been blown off course.

Fun weekend, including marching in the Bellingham Pride Parade; the weather tormented us on the way up, blowing, spritzing, manifesting as cold and far more than fifty shades of gray, but it was at least dry when we stepped off.
Fine breakfast at the Mount Bakery Cafe, with beloved spouse ordering a Dungeness Crab Benedict atop a Belgian waffle.  An amazing assemblage!
Today became quite beautiful, so I extended a hunting and gathering trip to make a good walk.  At one point I had stopped to check my phone when I became aware of something stirring in the hedge behind me.  I turned around and looked into the face of a small black and white kitten which had ventured out of a fenced in deck and was peeking over my shoulder.  It sniffed my hand as I gave it a pat, and watched me go on down the hill.  Just about the perfect event to cheer me along.
Down in the Fremont neighborhood, some strong young woman was leading a seething group of what looked like 6th graders on some kind of fact-finding tour.  She was pointing to the huge statue of Lenin which looms over one intersection.
"Who can tell me this guy's name?" she shouted to her charges.  One young rake leaped up towards the statue and yelled,"Michael Jackson?"  Much hilarity ensued.

We are relatively delirious; summer has arrived, as of July 4.  It got to about 80 today, as we walked our asses off from our place out to Golden Gardens and back again.  We stayed along waterways, on the side of the streets that got the best breezes.  We indulged in a soft serve swirled ice cream cone, needing a dairy requirement for the day. I am happy to have endured some crappy wet and chilly days to finally have this paradisical state of affairs.  One can only look at the national weather map and marvel at our dumb luck; but it does proceed from dire developments.  We swim in sunny days with undercurrents of coolness due to the melting ice caps, the incipient Slushball Earth.  Satan devours the rest of the continent. 

Post dramatis

Wonderful time down in Ashland, Oregon, seeing plays, getting a bit of hiking in; weather kind of turned on us, as in following us down there from Seattle.  Usually being there is guaranteed summer, but it was variable this time.  One outdoor play, As You Like It, was almost three hours in a cold downpour at night.  The cast applauded the audience for enduring.
But overall, it was a wonderful time.  We cooked and ate in our lodgings more this time, with our dear offspring along. We all saw a version of an ancient Chinese legend, The White Serpent, which was one of the best performances. There was a performance of Romeo and Juliet that amazed us, even after numerous previous experiences. And a performance of Chekov's The Seagull, which was deeply moving.
We got to a local farmers market, and up on Mount Ashland. Different wildflowers display themselves in different windows of time; we weren't terrified by any giant rattlesnakes this year.
It's always marvelous.