Bravo, Mr. F.!  I'll think of you and smile next time I see one of those big birdies lazily kettling on the thermal currents above my sweet Ohio landscape!
     By the way, isn't "kettling" a neat word?  I just learned it in my paper this morning.  In the very same article about buzzards that contained your fascinating quote.  Just goes to show you that you never know where the next small wonder and joy may come from! 

     I think I'd rather come back as a goose myself.  A Canada goose!  I was reminded of this last night 'cause that's when I looked out my back door at dusk and saw a whole battalion of those cuties marching silently towards my home!  Major WOW!  They come back to the open lots and the pond behind my home every July, and every July they manage to catch me off-guard.  I wouldn't have it any other way!  :)
     And yes, "Canada goose" is the right term.  I used to say "Canadian goose" myself until I got to know them better, but don't worry - either way, they're still regular sweetie-pies!  :)

     And as if those sweetie-pies weren't blessing enough for one weekend, MORE natural miracles hit me square in the cynicism today!
     First there was the HUGE mushroom along my east fence, to the south of my little astilbe bush.  It had sprung up soooo fast!  Maybe 3" high, with a 2.5" flat white cap.  Never seen one quite like it before!  And then, as I stood at my kitchen window admiring it, a gray squirrel came along and ate it!!  Amazing critter - sure hope he knew what he was doing!  The closest thing to that fun fungi in my 'shroom book is marked POISONOUS! 

     Well, POISONOUS or not, these babies are still a whole lot less startling to look at than the ones that come up every spring under my southwest locust tree!!!  Heehee!

     First time I ran over one of THOSE with the mower, I thought I was in REAL trouble!!  But that's Mother Nature for ya - always joking around! 

     It was sometime after the mushroom eating that I went out and harvested an actual cherry tomato of my very own!  It was so cute, and it made me hunt for it underneath all the thick green foliage, but in the end I found it, and boy - was it ever good!  Hard to believe that that scrawny tomato plant I didn't think was gonna make it 6 weeks ago is now taller than I am!!  And it's LOADED with still-green fruit.  Maybe I'll have to teach Jester the ways of a herbivore!!!  :-P````

     And as if THAT wasn't enough, I was buzzed by the most incredible dragonfly while I was out there!  Cool phosphorescent green body, long abdomen with black tiger stripes, and red eyes on a head which moved just like a Disney-quality robot! Maybe 
3" stem-to-stern, and at least the same from gossamer wingtip-to-wingtip.  Admittedly I've always had a thing for dragonflies - ambassadors from Fairy Land, you know ;) - but I think you'd have to be an out and out bug-hater to have resisted this little guy's charms! 

     And THEN - an actual cicada buzzed out from the bush to the east of all this!!!  Just as big and clumsy and harmless as any I've ever seen!!!!  Unlike the first one I ever saw back in the late '70s, however, this one DIDN'T fall off his perch and bop me in the head!!!! 
     Not that I would have minded.  I'm just a sucker for every good-looking insect that comes along!  :)

     But enough blather for now.  Who knows what I might be missing by being inside on a beautiful, blue sky day like today???????