The Noisemaker

There’s this chipmunk that has decided that the best place to observe life is from our front porch. We have a couple of rabbit statues, some turtle sculptures and a wooden seagull in a log (taken from my parents house) so maybe he just feels comfortable among the other animals. Even if he doesn’t know they are fake.

Pretty sure it is just that he’s got a burrow near the porch and can dive down into it at the first sign of trouble. They used to be all over the bird feeders until I started using hot pepper seed so I’m not sure what he is finding to eat now but I guess he likes the neighborhood and has no interest in moving.

Don’t mind except that he seems to like to announce his presence in an annoying little squeak that he seems to be able to keep up for quite some time. My office is right next to the front door so I’ve got good seats for the chipmunk concert which is not a good thing. Bird song is a melody. This is just noise.

I have to scare him off from time to time but at least it gets me up and moving.

Speaking of that, in a follow up to my Fitbit post from the other day, I’ve discovered that walking down my driveway to the street and back up gives me at least 250 steps. So I can reach the hourly goal just by going out every hour and walking down to the street. The neighbors may think it is strange but Fitbit goals must be met. I did a mailbox check a couple of times just to make it appear more natural.

Yesterday, I managed to get at least 250 steps in each of the nine hours that it counts and I got a little celebration on my device. I know it is just manipulating me but I’ll still take the validation. And it did help meet the step goal even on a day when I had no dance lesson. Plus, the driveway is pretty steep so it even counts for a few active minutes.

Not sure what I’m going to do when it rains. OK, I’ll probably be out there in an umbrella. I mean I can’t have this device nagging me about getting steps in.