In the Harry Potter books, when you're attacked by a dementor, the cure is to eat a big block of chocolate. I always thought that was an excellent thought. ... I'm eating chocolate right now.

G & I had a leisurely morning and afternoon, heading out for a breakfast / lunch / dinner (??) meal after 3. On our way out, we were dismayed to see a dead squirrel in the road in front of J's house. Meh!!

I said we should continue on to have our meal first, so we did -- having an excellent mushroom / red onion / feta / roasted red pepper za at Flying Pie Pizza on Stark. A lovely game of scrabble, sans scores.

Back home, I put on latex gloves, grabbed a shovel, newspaper, and lantern. I wrapped the squirrel in the paper, and tried to collect the loose bits of gore... We walked up the hill to the butte... A lovely, dusky sunset, sad but not traumatized.

We found a spot beneath a tree not too far off the path. G dug most of the hole, then I dug a little more. I said an improptu blessing for the squirrel -- sending it back to the earth, hoping that it would become a tree someday, feeding other squirrels, returning to its species. G spoke. And then we covered it, and tried to disguise the grave with surrounding leaves. Thank you tree; hopefully you'll benefit from this nourishment and forgive us the rootlets we severed.

And then we walked back down the hill. G called Michael, and headed off to the Lord of the Rings marathon.

Sigh.

It's shabbat. In a short while I'll head over to J's to play munchkin. She's been craving. It'll be nice to play something low-key together. [Though personally, I think I'm in the mood to play some more Riven right now...]