Yelling at Wildlife--a new way to start my day

My first interaction of the day is typically with my kids. Graysen and his ten-pound diaper, Chiara and her need for a "honey nut cheerios tasty and sweet" fix, Soren and Mirabai and their battles over a. the space heater in the living room OR b. the TV....

But this morning was different. This morning I found myself standing, bleary-eyed, on the front patio yelling at a giant flicker.

I had a wicked migraine yesterday, which made me feel completely flayed last night. I was here, in the dark quiet house, fire blazing, Graysen asleep as of 6:30 (and he slept through!!!). And I could barely function, my head hurt so much. I went to bed around 9:30 feeling dizzy, shaky, totally spaced out, exhausted. After a night of fitful dreams that had a lot to do with winning (or not, as the case was) a very large house, I was awoken to the sound of something pounding on metal at regular intervals. Rising through the layers of sleep was painful, and I realized I was still under the influence of the migraine aftermath (and it's now early afternoon and I'm functioning only at a very basic level, sadly). I thought at first that I'd dreamed the noise. I tried to open my eyes. I heard it again. Graysen was undisturbed next to me, his legs propped up on mine. He has to be touching me while he sleeps....

Finally, after realizing I hadn't dreamt the metallic din I snuck out of bed, careful not to wake Gray, and found my slippers behind the door. I tried, for reasons relatively unknown to me, to peer up the fireplace first...duh, can't see a thing. Finally, I went outside and looked up into the painfully bright sky.

There, perched on the top of the chimney, was a gorgeous giant flicker. I regarded him. He regarded me. For one fleeting moment I considered my camera back inside. What a shot that would have been! But that moment was intersected by what I actually did: I yelled. "Would you PLEASE GO AWAY?"

And he did.

An hour later, I yelled at a very cute bunny who was very uncutely digging up my daffodil bulbs (stoopid bunny--nobody eats daffodils!).

And that is how things were today....