Deer and Acorns (Silicon Valley in Autumn)

On my late morning walk today:

I was on the trail, heading north. Heard a scrabbling; looked down, saw a duck taking a bath in the creek below; not the source. Kept looking. It got closer. After a moment, a doe stuck her head up over the edge of the bank. We looked at each for a good two seconds. I started to take a small step back... she turned and fled. I moved to watch her run, and instead saw a buck bounding away. Very cool! I know they weren't happy... yet I think it was for the best, as late morning was not the time for deer to be heading up into people (and cars) territory.

More and more acorns scatter the paths (as well as kingwyatt's pool cover). I was talking with a Native American friend (a local tribe) awhile ago, and mentioned I'd always wanted to try acorn flour (yeah I am a nature boy geek from way back). She gave me hot tips on how to short cut the make-it-edible process: Grind the acorns, then run hot water through them in a drip coffee machine a few times (and don't then plan on using that coffee maker for making coffee). I can do that!

So now I look at the acorns. Most are still in the oaks, the same color as the leaves. But more and more fall, ranging in color from light tan to nearly black. I picked up a black one today and it cracked easily... clearly too ripe, judging from the mottled look of the nut. Does it matter how brown the acorns are? Probably not, probably just need to be brown and not green. Mostly, I am probably way over-analyzing. Now just have to figure out if I'm actually gonna harvest acorns. :-)

Meanwhile, back in the building, Taiwan has shipped us blank manual cds (to the customer? we think not), and Ops wants more parts numbers (pubs and marcom say nay)... etc etc.