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We saw a good deal more than monarch butterflies the other day. In fact, we both saw we could “see” a face in a big sunflower. I believe that could be called pareidolia. It’s the tendency to perceive meaningful images in the world that aren’t really there (like the Virgin Mary in a jelly donut). A closely related term is apophenia, which is to think there are connections and patterns that aren’t really there.

Anyway, it’s normal to see things in nature change in color when fall begins to creep in to the world. The sumac is starting to turn red and that’s not my imagination.

There are a lot of butterflies about, among them the common buckeyes (their wings look like they have eyes in them) and swallowtails. I wish I could find a reference to identify all the little brown, white, lavender, and yellow ones.

We even saw a White Pelican out on Sand Lake. They commonly live in Iowa. They’re very social birds although I’ve often seen solitary pelicans out there.

And of course we saw wooly bear caterpillars. They looked like they were all black, not with brown and black bands. Can a wooly bear caterpillar predict whether we’ll have a tough winter (a narrow brown band) or a mild one (a wide brown band)? The simple answer is “no” but that didn’t stop the Farmer’s Almanac from posting a very long article about the issue.

I was just wondering where the saying “you’re sitting in the catbird seat” came from. Some say it’s from how a catbird looks for food sitting on a high or secluded perch.

It’s hard to tell exactly where the saying originated but many point to James Thurber’s short story “The Catbird Seat,” first published in the New Yorker in 1942 and later included in his collected stories, “The Thurber Carnival.” The story’s a hoot and you can find it on line despite it still being under copyright.

Sitting in the catbird seat generally means being in an advantageous or superior position. In terms of health, especially if you’re getting to be an old guy like me, it means trying to maintain your health in several ways. I’m not the greatest example, but there are some hacks out there.

Dietary discretion is important. The whole story about processed and unprocessed food is beyond me but you can read more about it from the experts. One of them is University of Iowa researcher Dr. Terry Wahls. She’s got the low down on a healthy gut and part of her work is studying how an on-line wellness course might help those with multiple sclerosis, fibromyalgia, long COVID, and cancer patients with fatigue.

Dr. Wahls also like to play in the dirt in her garden, meaning she doesn’t wear gloves. Sena does that too. I worry about things like tetanus, but maybe that’s just me.

Staying mentally sharp is also important. A University of Alabama at Birmingham aging expert has interesting advice, and it includes “complex card games.” I think that would include cribbage, although you wouldn’t know it if you knew how seldom I win in games with Sena.

Exercise is big on the list and another University of Iowa expert says you could get enough with just 5 minutes a day. And it doesn’t necessarily involve barbells.

And after all that, we might be sitting in the cat bird seat! But don’t sit for too long.

Yesterday, in the “Writing is Dope” post, I said I didn’t remember what happened to an old Halloween story contest to which I submitted an entry (got honorable mention) in our hometown newspaper, the Globe Gazette in Mason City, Iowa. Sena took one look at that and declared we had a clipping of the story somewhere in the basement.

I doubted it. She insisted and went looking for it. Then we both looked. She finally found it! What a miraculous dope! The title was “Trick or Treat” and I wrote it way back in 1981. That would have been shortly before we moved to Ames, Iowa so I could start college at Iowa State University—44 years ago. That was the beginning of an earthquake of a life path change.

After re-reading it after all these years, I remembered how formal my prose was. In fact, I think I was subconsciously imitating one of my favorite writers, Ray Bradbury. This morning, Sena ordered some of his books.

This yellowed relic brought back so many memories! Now I can torture you with one of them!

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