October 1 - Every evening around 6:00 PM the ducks come for a dinner of cracked corn. At a minimum, they are the babies who grew up at zenpond and their mom. Last night john and joyce had five ducks fly in together: the babies, mom and dad. The night before, while john and joyce were in the spa, three ducks flew in, followed by two more, followed by another group of three. This made a total of eight ducks at the same time, which is a new record for zenpond. john has to fill the cracked corn dish every day.

john and Eddie finished building the third 20' planter box and moved the white tank around the side of the house out of view, so now things are starting to slow down at zenpond. Eddie will have a birthday October 28th and john and joyce plan to get him an electronic guitar tuner to replace the one stolen from him during a recent move. Other than that john is ordering in firewood and beginning to think how he will place netting over the small pond to keep out the leaves. The leaves are starting to change colors here.

Tucka came up from the basement yesterday limping, so john will take him today to the animal hospital to see what is wrong with his right front paw.

For the past couple of weeks john has been working with a patent attorney on what could be a significant new patent. john cannot talk about it just yet.

October 3 - john and Nathan worked hard on the pump house today to get it enclosed before the cold weather sets in. Nathan is 19 years old and is a genius. He has been a friend of john and joyce's since he was about 5 years old when Nathan's parents asked john and joyce if they would be Nathan's guardians if anything happened to them. Because he is a genius, he has some special problems socializing easily, but he and john get along well and the pump house work is going fast.

john took the tuckmeister to the animal hospital yesterday where the doctor pressed on his paw (no response), on his wrist (no response) and on his shoulder (big response). The doctor gave tuck a steroid shot and told him to rest his shoulder for awhile.

This evening at 6:00 PM sharp, john and joyce observed seven ducks land for dinner. Then two more joined them. That's another record for ducks dining at zenpond: nine! There were an Eider male, an Eider female and seven Mallard females. They were have a little trouble all getting around the food dish at once and watching them was a riot! They do like the cracked corn!

October 29 - It has been a long time since john made an entry into this log. john has been busy doing the following things: helping a friend with his new pond, helping other friends build a wall, attending several People to People dinners, preparing zenpond for winter, putting in a new Pella window (27" x 44") in the computer room, painting the ceiling in the computer room, ordering another Pella window for the computer room (35" x 53" fix casement) with an awning window (35" x 17") below it. In addition, john put down a new area rug in the family room. He also volunteered to work at the FBI to help fight terrorism. However, Congress does not allow volunteers to government departments ... and the FBI has a HIRING FREEZE right now! john couldn't believe that! john did buy a copy of the SAS Survival Guide. It's main suggestion is to be prepared.

Life goes on at zenpond. The little critters do not know of September 11 and john and joyce aren't going to be the ones to tell them. Instead, the chickadees are telling joyce and john things quite important. The water still playfully washes over the waterfalls, singing to them on its way down each rock. joyce and john still have a glass of wine at sunset while basking in the spa. john and joyce remember that nothing is permanent and just enjoy each sunset with lovingkindness together ... and then joyce tells of her day at school with 27 fourth graders (oh well, so much for peace and contentment).

And humor still cures:

john was amused by someone's comment while visiting zenpond last Sunday. The person said "maybe the ducks wouldn't come for dinner now that we have switched back to standard time ... it would be too dark for them to fly in now that it gets dark at 6 PM."

"Don't worry ... be happy!"