Saturday 9

Saturday 9: Bye Bye Bye (2000)

On Saturdays I take a break from the heavy stuff and have some fun… 

Unfamiliar with this week's tune? Hear it here.

This song was chosen because it's time to say goodbye to 2025.

Thanks for participating in Saturday 9 this year.

1) In this song, a man predicts his lover will start an argument. Is there anyone in your life who can be quarrelsome?

Naw, life is to short to have quarrelsome people in my life.

2) He says he's had it, he's checking out and signing off. Can you think of a time you were glad you walked away from something?

When I fired the plumber for the cottage.

3) This week's song was performed by the band NSYNC. The group was formed in Orlando, FL, which is world famous as home to Walt Disney World. Today there are 12 Disney theme parks located around the globe. Have you ever visited one of these Magic Kingdoms?

Nope. But I have visited the oldest amusement park in the nation when I was little.

4) They made a celebrity appearance on The Simpsons. What's your all-time favorite cartoon show?

The Adventures of Rocky and Bullwinkle and Friends

5) In 2000, the year "Bye Bye Bye" was popular, Brad Pitt was named People's Sexiest Man Alive. Are you crushing on anyone right now?

Naw…

Let's look back on 2025 ...

6) What's the farthest from home you traveled in 2025?

To Cape Cod and to New Jersey.

7) What was the biggest purchase that you made in 2025?

Construction at my cottage.

8) What was your favorite book of 2025?

First I have to remember what I read!

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It is a tossup between the Kingkiller Chronicle series by Patrick Rothfuss and the trilogy Dragon Brigade by Margaret Weis. I had to go and look at my spreadsheet listing the book that I have listened to.

9) What are you looking forward to most in 2026?

Making it to 2027!

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I’m doing something a little different today. I usually write these little essays on Facebook, but I decided to post one here.

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Many of you know I have wetlands between my house and the state road about 300 feet behind me. Overlooking the wetlands, I have a deck where I eat all the time when the weather is nice. There are all types of birds singing in the evening. There are also birds of prey: hawks, eagles, and owls. The birds will be chirping away, gossiping, and then—silence! A red-tailed hawk will be circling overhead.

I have seen deer, rabbits, muskrats, raccoons, and the list goes on and on. I even had a copperhead snake one time, sunning itself on my front sidewalk. I told it not to move while I went to get a shovel to flatten him, but he didn’t listen and slithered off.

Over time, you get to see the patterns of the seasons. Just the other day, we had high winds during a rainstorm that brought down a number of dead trees. One in my yard landed in the swamp—oops, wetlands—and one in the neighbor’s yard landed in the road!

Besides the seasons, there are also plagues of insects. I first noticed it when I saw a lot—I mean a lot—of birds and maybe a dozen woodpeckers. They were all climbing up and down my ash trees. Then I noticed the ash trees were dying. The Emerald Ash Borers had struck! I lost all of my ash trees in the wetlands. Those dead trees opened a window where I could see the state road behind my house… ugh. That was one reason I bought the lot: you couldn’t see the road.

From a winter a couple of years ago

The next year, the woodpeckers were back in force! They started making homes in the trees—a dozen jackhammers going off at once! I also noticed that the gaps where the ash trees used to be have been filled in with branches. The surviving trees saw a good thing with all that sunlight pouring down, and they sprouted branches to fill the void.

The following year, the woodpeckers moved on, leaving behind a whole mess of empty apartments. These were quickly filled with chirping babies and squirrels hiding their nuts. The standing dead trees provided a smorgasbord of insects for the birds to choose from.

Now is the time that the dead hulks of the trees are feeding the insect world on the ground. But there are new foragers; at night, I hear the raccoons and the muskrats tearing the bark off the dead wood. In time, they will melt into the ground to begin the cycle again.

Right now when I look out the window, every thing is covered in about six inches of snow and the birds are going after the berries of last resort. Like the berries on the red cedar trees.