First things first: I hate the effing squirrel. And thinking about this once more, it occurs to me that I'm pissed at his relatives too--each one of those fast-learning, extended family members without benefit of cute nicknames. But let's be clear; Chewy--the name I've given my squirrely nemesis--is only incidentally cute. Because it's as literal and descriptive a nickname as I've ever managed (and if not the king of nicknaming, I'm certainly the prince-consort of the practice). 

Chewy, he chews things--all manner of things: the tops of stockade fences, the edges of roof gutters and the associated down-spouts, terra-cotta pots, railroad ties, adirondack chairs, garden hoses, the lids of plastic trash cans, begonias, entire flats of pansies, the occasional lupin, and especially jack-o-lanterns. But, remarkably, he ignores the impatiens--which are seemingly squirrel Kryptonite.

And as long as we're in waist-deep background, there are three other things to understand about Chewy: First, the locust-cum-termite behavior isn't a seasonal thing, and it's certainly not squirrel-business-as-usual: Big C is a non-stop gnawer without precedent. And I should know, because prior to the Coming of Chewy, both my house and I had managed to peaceably coexist with countless generations of squirrels. Second, Chewy is a genius--at least among his scatterbrained peers. But that's not accurate: Chewy is an Evil Genius; he is the Moriarty of squirrels. Third, the other members of his circle, the ones who also live on my property, are learning from the little bastard. It's one thing to have a gifted squirrel breaking bad, but quite another when he shows a talent for teaching. It's a bit like one of those deliciously creepy sci-fi moments, when it's determined that somehow the perimeter has been breached, and the deadly virus has spilled into the outside world. In my case, it's Chewyvirales Omnivorous--unstoppable and eating through a neighborhood near you . . . (Cue the dark, brooding string arrangement.)

Throughout this year, Chewy and I have been playing chess with my house and landscaping. For instance, this past autumn I set out a pumpkin, and Chewy's countermove was to start to gnawing on it. I then turned the ripped skin toward the house and poured half a bottle of tabasco over it. Chewy's response was to signal his approval of Southwestern cuisine by tunneling inside the five-alarm pumpkin and then out through the top--pretty much the way James Caan tackled that vault in Thief. Prior to this, in the spring, Chewy bit through my garden hose and I repaired it with duct tape. The next morning he returned and, to make a point, once again chewed through the hose, about six inches down from the repair. After a week of this parry-and-thrust over my right to water the flowers, the hose had morphed into 50 feet of duct tape, which made me conspicuous in the front yard--as if I'd forgotten to put on my tinfoil gardening hat.

Then in summer, some coyotes emerged from the park and claimed my backyard as part of their temporary territory. Transfixed, I watched them in the moonlight doing their collective and surprisingly cliched Coyote Thing, and the next morning I dutifully informed my pet-owning neighbors. But even in mid-Paul-Revere, I kept thinking, well, if Chewy doesn't realize Wile E. and his family have moved in, then, well, you know--Nature Sadly Taking Its Course; a briefly violent National Geographic Moment. After which I'd have a moment of silence for the late Chewy T. Squirrel, PhD, and then go off to confidently purchase a new garden hose. 

But as noted, Chewy is a genius. Within four days, the coyotes had disappeared. County animal control said that it had nothing to do with it, that they had planned to swing into action at week's end. It was assumed Wile E. and family had simply returned to the park, but oddly, no adjacent neighborhoods subsequently reported seeing them. And the next time I saw Chewy--gnawing on a cast-stone relief hanging on the fence--he gave me this weirdly knowing, Tony Soprano kind of look; a hey-I'm-just-a-member-of-the-rodent-family-but-I-don't-think-they'll-be-back-because-it's-kind-of-dangerous-out-here-if-you-know-what-I-mean stare. For weeks afterwards, every time I saw an overpass under construction, I'd stare at its newly poured concrete supports and wonder about the coyotes.

Given my history with Chewy, you'd think any cartoonish, Acme Company misfortune that might befall him--oversized sticks of bright-red dynamite; chunky, hurtling anvils; that can of paint that makes a solid wall of rock look like the entrance to a train tunnel--you'd think that this sort of assisted intervention of fate vis a vis Chewy would be something I'd welcome. And just three months ago you'd be right.

But what if the aforementioned Fate-With-Assistance wasn't cartoonish? What if it was disconcerting, brutal and sad? Because here's the thing: The oak trees around here have stopped making acorns. Let's hover on this point so we're completely clear about this: There are no acorns. Not fewer acorns, Not smaller acorns. There are no acorns at all. The oaks (and hickories, too) have simply stopped making nuts. They've ceased to propagate. Thousands of trees, all at once, all in one season. You can literally walk through miles of oaks and not see a single acorn.

If you're waiting for the proverbial second shoe to plummet, forget it. No one understands why the oaks and hickories have shut down nut production en masse. And yes, of course scientists have mumbled their way through various esoteric theories--but, bottom line, there is no answer. Na-da. Frankly, this has spooked me--which in itself should be cause for alarm, because I don't easily spook. The situation is beginning to feel like a particularly disturbing episode of Fringe playing out in Real Life. I keep thinking about frog die-offs and honeybee hive collapse syndrome and, unavoidably, the apophenia clicks in. 

I'm not saying the disappearance of acorns is a portent, but the problem is that no one can assure me that it's not. And so we arrive back at that deliciously creepy sci-fi moment; when it's determined that somehow the perimeter has been breached, and a mysterious something has spilled into the outside world: The sudden and complete disappearance of acorns--inexplicable, and possibly moving toward a neighborhood near you . . . (Will you cue the dark, brooding string arrangement, or should
I?)

In these circumstances, the brutal, natural equation is succinct: Take away acorns and squirrels die. They starve, but before that, they do crazy, desperate things to get food--things that make Chewy look well-behaved and reasonable. And while there's no love lost between him and me, I find his starvation unacceptable. Because deep down I can't shake the feeling that this isn't just Nature taking its course; it's the unintended consequences of thoroughly crappy human interaction with the planet. It isn't about the not-me of coyotes or the third-party agency of the Acme Company. It's about us. 

And so these days I'm feeding the squirrels--you'd probably be shocked to know how many unshelled peanuts I'm distributing. These days, even though I still glare at him, Chewy is getting room service care of yours truly. I wish I could say that a dramatic and suitably seasonable life lesson is lurking in this story--like Scrooge's transformation or the Grinch turning the sled around--but I can't. I still genuinely hate Chewy and, come spring, when it's time to plant flowers and use garden hoses, I plan on hating him even more. But right now, it's about evening-out the Zen. Because as much as Chewy has fucked around with my house and yard, there's no proof I haven't been complicit in his starvation--which is a much worse way of screwing him back. Thus, for the next few months I'll be busy with peanut delivery as I trying to ignore his triumphant, sneering little face.

Small steps. It's best, I think, not to squint too far into the future. Because if I push the predictions past spring, chances are I might end up thinking about next fall and whether there will be acorns. Which, of course, no one can say with certainty anymore. How strange it is to write that.

A few days ago my coffee-maker went to kitchen appliance heaven, and in retrospect, the gurgling finale of that final pot sounded exactly like a death-rattle. This could have been a huge problem because coffee is my drug, my life, nectar for my creativity, and the fuel that I convert into words. Indeed, post-coital coffee has always made more sense to me than a cigarette. So yeah; the sudden absence of a coffee-maker could have been massively problematic in a DTs / detox sort of way: Me, fetal-positioned in a corner, imagining coffee beans swarming across the walls. Indisputably nasty business.

But the thing is, I never much liked my recently deceased coffee-maker--in truth, it's annoyed me for two years now. (Yes, I actually wore the thing out in 24 months, so you're right in slightly stepping away from me.) It was a brushed-chrome Cuisinart with retro-cool Thomas Dolby gauges: vague '30s Modernism with a Steampunk undercurrent. And, of course, this is the problem--even now, after having pulled the plug on the Cuisinart, I'm still describing it in terms of aesthetics, which is more than a little dodgy since it should be all about the distillation of a caffeine-delivery system.

I admit it, Dear Visitor--I was seduced: I should have been thinking about how it would function on the chosen countertop location. I should have anticipated whether the inherent demands of the thing would rankle over time. But I didn't. Its glowing, brushed beauty spoke to the lizard-brain that routes around the assessment of good industrial design. There in the showroom, I fell victim to its siren song; it was like a tall, slim blonde making deceptively interesting conversation. I was smitten. I boldly picked it up and took it home with me, where we spent the weekend together. And, come Monday, well, it was still there on the counter and, still infatuated, I saw no need for it to keep its box and styrofoam packing.

Over the next two years, however, I began to learn that most cliched of lessons--that sometimes beauty is only chromium-skin-deep. The Cuisinart set the agenda--my interactions with it demanded I move it to the edge of the counter, even as I struggled with what turned out to be a too-short power cord. The hinged top was always banging into the microwave suspended above it. The thing also required that water be poured in from the top and just next to its right side--in the ensuing months, I became resigned to wiping up the counter every other pot. And then there was the daily cleaning of the mesh coffee grounds basket and also the quarterly changing of the water filter (because the Cuisinart insisted on practicing Safe Brewing ). To be fair, the coffee the Cuisinart made was very good, but ultimately not good enough to out-weigh my daily, awkward dance with it.

Looking back, I'm certain there was no commitment problem on my part; during our first weekend together, I'd been very clear about what I was looking for--excellent coffee with minimum effort--Zipless Caffeine, if you will. And the Cuisinart had kept a diplomatic silence that seemed to signal agreement, even as the halogen lights from the range hood glinted provocatively across its Dolby-esque dials, distracting me with the desire to sing a few choruses of "She Blinded Me With Science," or maybe even "Leipzig." I guess that, despite what happened later, we'll always have that weekend of infatuated coffee-making . . . 

But now the Cuisinart is gone and, as grim as this sounds, it's probably for the best. Had it not expired, I'd have dumped it. Harsh, I know, but true. We were only going through the coffee-making motions, the Cuisinart and I. It was becoming progressively difficult and I was increasingly impatient and, yes, ogling other coffee-makers. Sleek, low-maintenance beauties that wanted what I wanted: toe-curling, hair-tossing, shudder-inducing Good Coffee. And why not? I'm still young enough; my coffee-drinking days certainly aren't behind me.

Caution, though, is indicated. I'm determined not to get into a rebound relationship. I want to play the field for a while; check-out my options. It's hardly surprising, then, that for the near-term, I've gotten back together with an ex-coffee-maker. In the recycling bin, the housing of the Cuisinart was hardly cold before I'd loped down to the basement to reconnect with my old Chemex. The Chemex and I had been together for quite a long time in my youth; we'd even gotten experimental with our coffee-making--how to say this discreetly?--the roasting and brewing practices of Other, Exotic Lands sometimes entered into our sessions . . . French Breakfast, need I say more?

So yeah, the Chemex and I currently have a good thing going: lab glass, unbleached filter paper, boiling water, fresh-ground beans. End of story. Good for the Chemex and certainly good for me. We've established an open relationship, meaning I can have dalliances with other brewing systems, while it's free to participate in any basic lab work it wants and even more exotic things, like heating milk for mashed potatoes. Though I've no idea where all this going, I can see always having a little Chemex on side--I'm anxious not to repeat the quiet desperation of the past two years. Sorry, Cuisinart, but I'm so over you . . .

For that handful of visitors who may wonder why I've opted to use an avatar here, this bit of iPhone self-portraiture should neatly explain everything. Try to ignore my look of trepidation and let's have a soul-searching discussion about my hair, shall we? It is not an inexpensive cut and yet everyday it looks like David Lynch, Bryan Ferry and Old-School Hugh Grant are all fighting for domination of my scalp . . .

This is not some seasonal anomaly, some low-humidity Winter Thing; this is basically what it looks like all year 'round. Horrifying as this may seem, the cut is remarkably consistent: It looks like this as I make my entrance at a dinner party and it also looks like this after I've accidently turned the leaf blower on myself while attaching the cord. So clearly, one of these circumstances is getting the not-so-short, hirsute end off things. I'm either turning up to dinner with leaf-blower hair or getting lawn debris to the curb with an inappropriate haircut. If only I know which one it was.

But I've digressed; sod the consistency of thing. The problem is that it clearly needs to make up it's mind: Lynch, Ferry, or Grant; just chose, for god's sake.

Sincere apologies for this post; 20 minutes ago I didn't know I'd be writing this. But loping back to my office with a fresh cup of coffee, I passed by a print under highly reflective glass and it suddenly seemed the right time to confront my Hair Problem. Because admitting there's a problem is always the first step to fixing it. But until then, I've made a mental note not to lose my avatar file--all indications are that I'll be using it in the foreseeable future.