Three Turkey Vultures*

When we got in the car this morning, headed for a walk in the Laguna, and some greens from the farmers' market, a long forgotten voice emanated from the dashboard. "Who turned her on?" said OilMan. "Not me." said I. "She" was the voice of the GPS, and unbidden, she kept insisting that "If possible, make the next safe U-turn." The fact that she was trying to get us to go to Los Angeles and we didn't want to go there was irrelevant to her. So, apparently, was the fact that we have never used the GPS, (after the first time) for the very reason that we don't know how to turn it off. Randomly pressing buttons for the rest of the journey, we finally succeeded in silencing her.


At the farmers' market my camera ceased to cooperate. Random pressing of buttons didn't work this time. I'll probably have to take it to the camera store next week. Maybe after I go to the Apple store to find out why my computer keeps freezing. But I refuse to let inanimate objects infuriate me.
No matter how much they try to act like stubborn children, I  know that they are only machines. Unfortunately, as I grow older and less willing to read incomprehensible users' manuals, I also realize that we humans are probably more fallible than the machines we depend on.

But it is a gloriously beautiful day. Unlike the poor people on the East Coast who are suffering through one blizzard after another and more feet of snow than any mortal should be expected to remove, our days are summer like with temperatures approaching 80 degrees. For the moment, we seem to be on the right side of global warming. 

Until our reservoirs are empty again….

*The vultures were sitting in a tree in the laguna, warming their wings in the sun.  You might have to look at the picture in large to figure out where the third one is.