Time to vote

  

It’s time to vote in the Texas Democratic Primary.  We’re a Super-Tuesday State.  We get to make our choice for the Democratic Presidential Nominee.  But in this field, we can’t find a clear preference.  Bernie; four years ago we were feeling the bern early, but he seems still stuck on a revolution and all we want now is back to normal.  Biden; he would be good for normal, but he’s not exactly inspiring/energizing.  Bloomberg; who knows.  All we know is he has a lot of money and he has flooded the market with ads.  But at least he’s saying normal things.  Buttigieg; he seems kind of normal too, but does he really have the chops for this?  Warren, Klobuchar, Steyer; principled all, but it seems now they’re just bashing each other until it’s time to get out.

 

There are 12 candidates for Senator; I don’t recognize any of them, because we don’t have any Democratic Senators in Texas.  One Democratic Representative for our district running unopposed, we recognize him, Vicente Gonzales.  Otherwise, Railroad Commissioner, Supreme Court Justices, Judges, Sheriff County Tax Assessor-Collector, Justice of the Peace, Constable, and County Chairman.  Not a name in there I even know.  Additionally, eleven Propositions that could all be summed up as “Do you think America should be good and fair?”.  They’re just statements; not actually propositions to do anything.

 

There is no danger that Judy or I will miss the general election.  In the meantime, should we go vote in the Primary?  Can’t find any point to it.  It’s not that we don’t care, it’s that we’d just be randomly checking boxes this early on.

 

 

 

But, but, but, Follow-up

  

That small wire coming down off the electrical pedestal.

 

There were lots of good guesses about what it might be for; and they were all that it’s a ground wire.  Grounding wire would win by popular vote!

 

But wait.  This is an insulated wire.  There isn’t any reason to insulate a grounding wire. A grounding wire is just a bare wire anchored to something in the ground.  We have one late-arriving dissenting opinion.  It’s a communications wire.  If something goes wrong; if one of the relays in the boxes fails, the system needs to alert the operator.  There is an alarm or a blinking light, somewhere in a shack or a control room where the operator is.  The alarm wouldn’t be wired into the electrical grid, because if the electrical grid failed, then there wouldn’t be anything to power the warning.  Time for a recount.  I’m going with Henry’s communications wire theory!

 

 

 

 

But, but, but

  

There are these transformers and switch boxes mounted on concrete pedestals for RV Camping at Mustang Island State Park.

 

We’ve established that all the serious electrical power runs underground, and probably though conduit inside the concrete posts so the transforming and switching equipment can be mounted up high out of flood danger.  That makes great sense.

 

But, if there is all that power, power for the whole RV park, running up and down through the concrete posts the transformers and switches are mounted on, why is there also that one single small wire routed separately up the side of the post like an afterthought?

 

 

What is that for, where did it come from, and why would it need to be run separately?

 

 

 

It takes a lot of trips

  

Back and forth to the doctor and hospital to arrange a knee replacement.  The original doctor visits, back for a mandatory two-hour class on joint replacement, a complete physical, blood work, and imaging, just to get approval to schedule the surgery.  Today’s visit was the pre-surgical check-in at the hospital.

 

 

All the preliminary visits are done.  The paperwork is filed.  We’re on for surgery next Monday.

 

We’ve encountered several life-changing medical moments these last few years.  This one for Judy; it’s not a specific injury to her knee, it’s the cartilage worn out.  Bone on bone.  It’s painful to move.  It’s painful to not move.  In all of human history before our generation, her walking days would be done.

 

But what a wonderful time we live in.  In a week Judy gets the old knee joint out and a totally new one in.  After a few months of recovery and rehab, that knee should be good as new.  We’re both excited for it, but especially Judy!  She’ll get her freedom to move about back.

 

 

 

The challenge:

  

Record at least one bird in every state in the Union and fill in the map.

 

Done.  All 50 states filled in.  The more red the color, the more birds we’ve recorded there 485 species in Texas.  261 species in Colorado.  Only 2 species in Delaware (we didn’t spend much time there).

 

What’s next?  What’s the next logical step?  We could zoom out a little.

 

 

Now we have a new puzzle with lots more pieces to fill in.  652 species recorded in the U.S. so far.  190 species in Canada.

 

So, where do we go next; what’s the next most logical step?  Maybe Greenland?

 

 

 

Gold chain follow-up

  

It reappeared.  And it wasn’t in her poop!

 

Here was Jesse lying on the rug.

 

Gold chain nowhere to be seen.

 

This morning, a different story.

 

Right on the rug she was lying on last night.

 

The missing chain.

 

Right where she had been sleeping.

 

I blow up the picture from the night before and there is no gold chain; a mystery.  Here is what we think happened:  Jesse got the chain, ran around the house playing with it; flipped it in the air, and it landed next to her neck in the cone and disappeared into her fur.  She couldn’t retrieve it, forgot about it, went to sleep and didn’t move while we were stepping back and forth over her, searching.  Later, when she decided to get up and leave the room, she probably shook, and the chain fell out of the cone onto the rug.

 

That’s our story; and it has a happy ending.  The chain is still shiny, and it didn’t require any heroics to retrieve it!

 

 

 

Electricity follow-up

  

Those that seem to know think the serious power runs underground and goes up and down through larger conduit inside the concrete pedestals to the transformers and switch boxes.

 

 

And Jesse.  Isn’t she sweet; sleeping on the bedroom floor?

 

A gold chain disappeared from the table next to Judy’s chair in the front room.  Jesse loves to get on the chair and grab stuff off the table to play with.  Now we’re going to have to examine every poop for the next week to see if it shows up there!

 

 

 

Mustang Island State Park

  

While we were there, I was looking at these switch boxes and transformers for the campground.

 

They’re mounted well up off the ground; on top of sturdy concrete to protect them from hurricanes and flooding.  That looks smart.

 

But I’m wondering about the amount of electrical power that must go through them.  How does that work?  This is the only wire I can find going in or out of the switch boxes and transformers.  You can see the conduit for it in the photo above.

 

I know the electrical system works because we stayed there in the campground hooked into 50 amp shore power.  The park was full, and everything worked just fine for everyone, but that doesn’t look like a wire that’s going to carry the load for fifty camping spaces.  What am I missing?  Is the real power flow buried underground and this is just enough power coming up to run some switches?  Are those big boxes behind the switchboxes not transformers?

 

If only we knew someone who understood electricity…

 

 

 

 

The mockingbird is such a turd

  

He eats all he can, then he sits on the fence and watches the feeders.  He chases off anyone else that tries to eat; house sparrows, the little orange-crowned warbler, the cardinals, the big golden-fronted woodpecker, the thrasher; and thrashers are badass.  He even chases off the much bigger green jays; and who chases away a jay!

 

We searched for a solution.  How can all the other birds feed in peace?  We watched the mockingbird to see what he was eating, when he stopped long enough to eat.  Suet.  Mostly he was eating suet out of the suet cage, so we moved that fifteen feed away, and closer to the fence the mockingbird perches on.  That did it!  The mockingbird protects the suet and all the other birds feed in peace on the seed feeder.

 

Did we just outsmart a mockingbird?

 

 

 

Jesse is recuperating

  

 

How much fun does this cone look?

Reminds me of the neck brace I had to wear after my surgery, but at least I could still scratch myself!

 

The incision looks fine.  Of course we’re supposed to keep her quiet for a week; no running, jumping or playing with Henry.  We kept them apart all night, but what’s the first thing they do this morning when we open the door between them?  Blastoff!  Tearing through the house as fast as they can go, growling and wrestling at a full run.

 

 

 

Trail mystery

  

 

On a seldom used trail, at an old abandoned water cistern, someone had set out three things.  The rock… I think it’s just a rock.  The bottle… it’s old, but probably just a bottle.  The skull… that’s different.  I don’t recognize it.  That’s an odd-looking skull.  It’s not a rat or rabbit.  It’s not a bird.  Not a dog, cat, fox, or coyote.  I was stumped.

 

I turned the skull over to expose the teeth.

 

Nice row of molars, but still nothing.  I showed the pictures to Judy when I got home, and she named the critter she thought it was right away.  I googled it and came up with this.

 

 

Looks just like it.  9 banded armadillo!  Of course.  There are plenty of armadillos here.

 

 

 

Green Kingfisher

 

Sitting next to the Rio Grande, this little green kingfisher flew in to join me.

 

 

He made his quiet clicking call the whole time.

 

Green Kingfisher

 

 

Then the much larger Ringed Kingfisher performed his aerial ballet over the water.

 

 

 

Watch out minnows!

 

 

I never got to writing about the Alaska Pipeline

  

That was one of our clients when I worked with Pete, Marwick, Mitchell in Seattle in the early seventies.  It was called the Alyeska Pipeline then, and they hadn’t started building it yet.

 

Judy and I learned a little more about the pipeline while we were in Alaska.  We visited the northernmost point of it briefly at Prudhoe Bay, and we got a good view of it from the air, as we flew from Anchorage to Prudhoe Bay, then to Barrow.  We drove alongside the pipeline for much of our drive from Fairbanks to the Arctic Circle one day.  The pipeline goes above ground and below ground, depending on the local soil and permafrost conditions.  It is heated or cooled, depending on requirements, and zig-zagged for stability in earthquake zones.  The southern end of the pipeline is in Valdez the most northerly ice-free port in America.  That’s where the oil is loaded onto tankers, and home of the infamous 1989 Exxon Valdez catastrophe.  There has been a general environmental recovery around Valdez since then, but there are still pockets of contaminated uninhabitable coves along the shoreline all these years later. 

 

The pipeline was completed in 1977.  It was designed to last 35 years.  It’s now been in service for 43 years and they’re not through with it yet.  Even though flow is way down from its peak in the late 80s; it’s about a quarter of that now; they’re still finding and pumping oil on the North Slope and just got an additional 30-year lease for the pipeline route from the Interior Department.  30 more years, 70 total, on a system designed to last 35?  That’s impressive that they could make the pipeline last so much longer than originally designed and scary that they could make the pipeline last so much longer than originally designed.

 

 

 

 

Sandhill Cranes in the Sunset

 

 

 

 

Shave and a haircut

  

 

Henry got the haircut.

 

 

 

Jesse got her first pre-surgery shave.  She gets a hysterectomy on Tuesday.  If we took her to a spay/neuter clinic she’d get spayed.  At the vet, it costs so much more it must be a hysterectomy.  Brings to mind our friend who was building pergolas.  We asked him “What’s the difference between a gazebo and a pergola?”  The answer?  “You can charge more for a pergola.”

 

 

 

It’s getting fragrant on our deck

  

 

 

 

 

 

Judy is seeing blue!

  

Really.  She goes out to walk the dogs, comes back, and says the dogs have blue spots on them; like if you crinkled up blue cellophane and shined light through it onto the dogs and made spots.  How’s that for a mystery?  Wandering blue dots on (mostly) white dogs.

 

Want to think about possible explanations for a minute?  We’ve found the cause, but you don’t need to go straight there.  You can make up your own explanation first.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

The blue spots come and go.  We took photographs of the dogs as Judy was seeing the spots and of course, the dogs weren’t actually blue in the photographs.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

The fact that the spots wandered around made us think of “floaters”; those black dots that are not directly on your line-of-sight, and if you shift your gaze to try to look right at them, they stay just out of reach.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

Judy called the optometrist.  Turns out sometimes when cataracts are developing, they suppress the yellow input which makes the incoming light look blue, but just in spots!  We already knew Judy had cataracts developing (don’t we all), so this is no big deal at all.  In the meantime, Judy can enjoy the blue spots, and when we get around to it, we’ll get cataract surgery on the schedule.

 

 

 

 

 

The morning view

  

 

Looking east into the morning sun across the dunes (and dune grass) between us and the beach.  It rained the day before so we’re a little streaky.

 

On our way home from Corpus, I started to take a picture of the rest stop we like so much, but I do that every time we stop there so decided to spare everyone any more photos of it.

Except for this one.

 

 

 

Port Aransas

  

It was good to drive into Port Aransas and hurricane damage isn’t the first and only thing to see.  There are parts of it that are gone and we’ll never see again, but a lot of it survived and is back up and running.

 

Like gift stores with creative entrances.

 

And dinner at Juan’s.

Juan wasn’t there; he’s more of a morning guy now, but we did find Isaac and got to share family photos back and forth.  And the food was just as good as always.

 

Gulf Coast Taxi is still in service.

 

They are a better option than drinking and driving, but there are rules.

 

On a gentler note, the drive back to the state park.

 

 

 

 

The GBBC Starts Friday!

  

Important announcement:  The Great Backyard Bird Count starts tomorrow!  With or without binoculars, go outside anytime during the next four days and submit your sightings on eBird.  You too can be a citizen scientist and provide data for conservation!

 

From: The Great Backyard Bird Count <gbbc@cornell.edu>
Sent: Wednesday, February 12, 2020 6:03 PM
To: Steve Taylor <spt@thetaylorcompany.net>
Subject: The GBBC Starts Friday!

 

 

 

In this issue: Using your checklists for conservation, getting ready for the GBBC, and how to help build a bird game. Is this email not displaying correctly? View it in your browser.       Great Backyard Bird Count February 2020 The above animation for Barn Swallows is using eBird data to show where the species may be found at any time of the year. Click on the image to learn more.   Citizen Science Transforming Conservation For the first time, animated abundance maps with an unprecedented level of detail have been released for 610 North American bird species, based on eBird data. In the example above, we can watch the ebb and flow of movement in the lives of Barn Swallows. Rather like celebrity profiles, these maps answer the question "Where are they now?," and tell you where a species is most abundant. The data can also help pinpoint the best times and places to take conservation action for a species in trouble. It’s a great example of the power of citizen science to reveal new insights and aid conservation efforts. Check out the new maps—you can pause or advance them to see where your favorite species is hanging out right now.  Read more about this ground-breaking development and how it can power bird conservation. Sandhill Crane by Ruben Marchena, Florida, fifth place in Behavior category, GBBC 2019.     Ready, Set, Count! This Friday, start your Valentine's weekend off by showing you care about birds--count them for science! Here are some last minute resources to help ensure a successful weekend. Retrieve your login name or password if you can't find them by clicking on Forgot Username? and Forgot Password? New participant? Create your GBBC/eBird account by clicking on the blue Create Account button. Print a form to help track your bird observations before you enter them online. Print a list of birds in your area in February. Enter zip code, town, and state or province in the U.S. and Canada. Get ID help with free birding apps to have an "appy" bird-day! You can also check out the GBBC FAQ section and the eBird Help section.   Feel free to share this short GBBC animated video! Click image to play.     GBBC Animation to Share If you're spreading the word about GBBC and hoping to get your bird organization, scout troop, or other community group to participate, try sharing the short animated video above. It explains why we count birds, how to count for the GBBC, and the impact it can have. Click on the image above to get to YouTube. Click on the "share" button for the video, copy the code and send to others. Thank you!   Common Feeder Bird posters showing eastern and western species.     Keep Counting Birds Project FeederWatch is a great introduction to more bird counting projects. For those with yards that are busy with birds (or not--lack of birds is important information, too), you can continue submitting data to researchers through mid-April. Join FeederWatch before the end of February and get the rest of this season plus next season for the price of one! Also, we'll send you a gorgeous poster of common feeder birds to help you identify your feeder visitors. Learn more and sign up for participation in the United States or Canada.   GBBC starts Friday! February 14-17, 2020 BirdCount.org Don't forget to fill out and download your participation certificate from the GBBC website. Certificates are available in English, French, and Spanish. Eliminator tube feeder donated by GBBC sponsor Wild Birds Unlimited.     Show Us Your Birds Another year, another great opportunity to submit your beautiful bird images for the GBBC Photo Contest. Thanks to sponsor Wild Birds Unlimited, we have a great selection of feeders to be won by those who earn the top spot in each of the contest's six categories. Have a look!   GBBC 2019 Honorable Mention in the People category, submitted by the Foundation for Ecological Security, Gujarat, India.     Photo Contest Rules If you're planning to submit photos for the 2020 contest, take a moment to refresh your memory on what we're looking for: Only submit photos taken during the count, February 14 through 17. Submit in the highest resolution possible. Birds only please, not cats, dogs, deer, raccoons, etc. Read the terms of use. Read more   Alert the Media! The official Great Backyard Bird Count news release is now available on the website. Please feel free to copy it and send it to local media, nature centers, libraries, or other outlets that might be interested in being a part of the action.    Image courtesy of Adam Dhalla.     Gaming to Help Birds Adam Dhalla--a British Columbia high school student, birder, and conservationist--has a big idea for helping birds. His goal is to create a game that will inspire more young people to discover and appreciate birds. Read more on the Birds Canada blog about his creative concept and how you can help.     Visit Wild Birds Unlimited, a sponsor of the Great Backyard Bird Count!

The Cornell Lab of Ornithology is a nonprofit membership institution interpreting and conserving the earth’s biological diversity through research, education, and citizen science focused on birds. Visit the Cornell Lab website at www.birds.cornell.edu Audubon is dedicated to protecting birds and other wildlife and the habitat that supports them. Our national network of community-based nature centers and chapters, scientific and educational programs, and advocacy on behalf of areas sustaining important bird populations, engage millions of people of all ages and backgrounds in conservation. www.audubon.org Birds Canada is our country’s leading national charitable organization dedicated to bird research and conservation. Our mission is to conserve wild birds of Canada through sound science, on-the-ground actions, innovative partnerships, public engagement, and science-based advocacy. www.birdscanada.org   Cornell Lab of Ornithology 159 Sapsucker Woods Road Ithaca, NY 14850 Call toll-free (800) 843-2473 National Audubon Society    225 Varick Street New York, NY 10014 Call: 212-979-3196 Birds Canada Box 160 Port Rowan, ON N0E 1M0 Canada Call: (888) 448-2473 or (519) 586-3531 Unsubscribe from the GBBC eNewsletter OR Unsubscribe from all Cornell Lab electronic communications   Unsubscribe from this eNewsletter OR Unsubscribe from all Cornell Lab electronic communications.