Saturday, May 16

We got up at 6:30 a.m. this morning, so we could go to a local radio station parking lot, where they were offering pairs of Branson show tickets for $25. There are a couple of shows I'm interested in, but when we arrived at the station at 7:30, we found there was a line of folks that stretched all around the building.



Apparently, early morning thunderstorms didn't keep them from gathering. It was still raining when we arrived, but people wearing yellow rain capes or carrying umbrellas...some standing and some seated in lawn chairs...were shoulder to shoulder in the line. I have no idea how long they'd been there, but we were unwilling to join them. The event was to go on from 8 a.m. to 3 p.m., so we opted to try again later, though we held out little hope that tickets for the shows we're interested in would still be available.



On the way home, we stopped at a hardware store to pick up a tube of sealant for the upstairs shower drain, which has been leaking and causing damage to the den ceiling.



Back home, I checked the eagle web cam. Early morning fog had fogged over the lens of the camera, but the birds could still be clearly seen. Today, both mates were on board, though one of them soon flew away, and the other presently followed, leaving the baby huddled in a heap, trying to keep warm. After a while one of the birds came back (I presume it was the female, though I don't know if eagles equally share babysitting responsibilities or not). The adult watched over the baby, but didn't shelter it.



The second eagle came back later, bringing a small fish, which was still flopping about in it's beak. Instead of immediately tearing the fish in bits to feed the baby, he or she tried to transfer it to the baby whole. The baby valiantly tried to eat it this way, but couldn't manage it. At each try, the fish would drop to the nest floor, where the adult would pick it up and again offer it to the baby. Each time, the baby would try, unsuccessfully, to grasp it. After several tries, the adult finally shredded the fish for the baby. Then the adult flew away, and the other adult (presumably the mother) settled down near the baby, arranging grass around it, and sheltering it.



Around 10:30 a.m., Mother came over to make a decorative plate as a gift for one of the birthday honorees later this month. Meanwhile, Hubbie went to check on the Branson tickets. He did succeed in getting one of the shows we wanted, plus a decent alternate for another show we had in mind. He was also able to exchange a pair of tickets we'd gotten last year but were unable to use, because the entertainer had cancelled her show and moved on.



After a lunch of leftover biscuits and gravy, with scrambled egg substitute, I checked on the eagles again. The mother was still in the nest, where it was becoming very windy. She had moved around to a point where her back was to the wind, which helped shelter the baby. She had pulled more of the nesting material up and around the baby, too, as further shelter.



When the wind died down, the baby got up, stretched, and wobbled around the nest. When he wandered too close to the edge, the mother calmly nudged him back toward the center. The baby seems to have grown overnight again and appears darker gray today than yesterday, but he is still weak and wobbly.



At 2 p.m., Hubbie and I went to the museum for a book signing. One of my old college professors, who is a friend now retired, has written a novel based on actual events surrounding an 1840s unsolved murder mystery in our area. This professor has written a number of non-fiction books on archeology and Native American folklore, but this is his first venture into fiction. Upon returning home, Hubbie immediately began reading the book.



Later, we had a supper of spaghetti (using regular pasta this time, instead of wheat), and salad. Then we watched TV. Tonight's fare was two PBS movies. The first was Charles Dickens' "The Old Curiosity Shop." The story revolves around a grandfather, who owns the shop and has a gambling habit, his 14-year-old granddaughter, who he frequently sends out to borrow money for him, an unsavory moneylender named Quilp, and various other characters. Nell and her grandfather get in desperate straits, lose the shop, and have to go begging. Things go downhill from there.

The other PBS movie we watched was "Wallander," a Masterpiece Mystery! offering. Wallander is described as a scruffy British detective who "fights crime and his own demons."