The owner of a house in Sonoma County, California called pest (害虫) control when they spotted worms coming from one of their bedroom walls. Those worms turned out to be meal worms, feeding on an unbelievable amount of acorns (橡树子), believed to be collected by a pair of woodpeckers.

“It was really strange. I had never really seen worms with acorns before,” Castro from the pest control said. But the strangeness was just beginning.

After making a small 4-inch-square hole in the wall, Castro said the acorns began spilling out. That alone wouldn’t be terribly unusual, but they “just kept coming,” he said.

“It was very unbelievable to see the amount,” said Castro. He guesses there were at least 700 pounds of acorns, likely collected over the past two to five years.

Often woodpeckers store acorns on the outside of homes, but hardly do they get them inside. In this case, Castro discovered the birds dropped their treasures through a hole in the chimney and entered the attic through a separate hole to eat.

As they dropped from the attic, tens of thousands of acorns gathered from several nearby oak trees filled the hole of the walls, Castro explained.

But this odd find took unusual to a whole new level for the man who has been working in the pest control industry for more than 20 years.

“On a scale from 1 to 10, this is a 10. It’s a one in a million chance to find something this unusual,” said Castro. “I expected to find a few handfuls, nothing like this.”

It took creating another three holes in the home’s walls to remove all the acorns, which piled and reached about 20 feet high, Castro believed.

Castro and his crew of three spent a full day collecting the nuts.

“We filled eight big black garbage bags. They were so heavy we could hardly pick them up,” said Castro. “They had to have weighed at least a hundred pounds each.”

The acorns were thrown away as they were covered in droppings and bits of fiberglass from the wall’s insulation.

Brandon Smith, in Houston, Texas, turned 12 on April 11. It is a tough time to have a birthday. But he still had a socially distanced birthday celebration that he will always remember.

Celebrations in the age of the coronavirus（冠状病毒） have forced people to get creative. Brandon’s father, Jody Smith, went on Twitter with a simple request. He posted a picture of Brandon on it. In the photo, Brandon is holding up a drawing. It is a blank map of the world. Mr. Smith asked people on Twitter to reply to his post and say where they are. That way, his map-loving son could mark the locations.

“I thought it would be fun to get 50-maybe 100-people to reply from around the world, and most would be in the US.” Smith said, “That’s really what my expectations were.”

To his surprise, however, thousands of responses to Smith’s request came in. Pictures were sent from the Caribbean, South America and Europe.

Brandon would add each spot to his map. “He is having a blast,” Mr. Smith said.

In the afternoon of April 11, Brandon was popular on Twitter. He was the most-talked-about topic.

Brandon did not really want a birthday party. He wanted to do an activity he likes. “Brandon is on the autism spectrum（自闭症）.” Smith said. Children with autism have different abilities. They get very interested in things. They will be interested in it for just a few weeks, Sometimes, months, One thing that Brandon continues to love is maps.

Mr. Smith’s phone pinged with so many birthday messages. Each time one arrived, Brandon put a mark on his map. He put it wherever the message came from. He knew where most places were. He hardly had to look at a real map to check.

By noon, Brandon’s map was covered in marks. Mr. Smith was grateful for all the responses.

“These are pretty trying times,” Mr. Smith said. He was glad to see people being kind. Mr. Smith said the responses made Brandon feel so special on his birthday.

I was never very neat, while my roommate Kate was extremely organized. Each of her objects had its place, but mine always hid somewhere. She even labeled (贴标签) everything. I always looked for everything. Over time, Kate got neater and I got messier. She would push my dirty clothing over, and I would lay my books on her tidy desk. We both got tired of each other.

War broke out one evening. Kate came into the room. Soon, I heard her screaming, “Take your shoes away! Why under my bed!” Deafened, I saw my shoes flying at me. I jumped to my feet and started yelling. She yelled back louder.

The room was filled with anger. We could not have stayed together for a single minute but for a phone call. Kate answered it. From her end of the conversation, I could tell right away her grandma was seriously ill. When she hung up, she quickly crawled (爬) under her covers, sobbing.

Obviously, that was something she should not go through phone. All of a sudden, a warm feeling of sympathy rose up in my heart. Slowly, I collected the pencils, took back the books, made my bed, cleaned the socks and swept the floor, even on her side. I got so into my work that I even didn’t noticed Kate had sat up.

She was watching, her tears dried and her expression one of disbelief. Then, she reached out her hands to grasp mine. I looked up into her eyes. She smiled at me, “Thanks.”

Kate and I stayed roommates for the rest of the year. We didn’t always agree, but we learned the key to living together: giving in, clearning up and holding on.