Five random things make an entry

[redbird]

• This summer's butterflies are red admirals. There are cabbage butterflies, as always, but lots of red admirals and few swallowtails or monarchs. I'd noticed that a lot here in New York, but there were quite a few in Montreal as well.


• Knowing that fretting is pointless helps a little, but only a little. Tea, hugs, and actually getting the good news (or lack of problems) confirmed is much better.


• It's been a good summer for fireflies, at least compared to the last few. (I don't remember well enough to say whether there are more or fewer now than when I was a child.) Also, either they've gotten better at evading capture, or I've gotten slower: I had trouble catching one on my hand a few weeks ago.


• It appears that the only agreed-on border in Arctic waters is that between the United States and Russia. (The Atlantic and Pacific boundaries further south seem mostly settled, at least on paper.)


• New York City may set a record for rainfall this year. OK, this happens, the data set is only 150 years. What worries me isn't the amount of rain--it's that the forecasting is noticeably less reliable than it was three years ago. That's both likely evidence of climate change--an increase in chaos in the system--and a practical inconvenience. Inconvenience now, when it's whether to carry an umbrella. More than that come blizzard season, or when the next hurricane hits Long Island.