Remote roofing

  

We got an unsolicited email promoting a "Remote Roofing Digital Experience".  It caught my eye, because it was funny.  I don't think a roof can be put on remotely.  We're working remotely at the accounting practice.  But at a roofing company?  I don't think so.  I think you actually have to be there to put on a new roof.

 

Reading on, though, this might actually make sense.  They promise to do the roof inspection with a drone and smart phone.  The transaction can be done remotely; no face-to-face meetings required.  And we can pay with a credit card over the phone.  No touching.  It could work!  They never actually say a crew of roofers won't show up to do the work on-site.

 

The process might need to be clarified with the roofing company, but this might not be a spoof.  It might be a clever approach from a local roofing company, trying to survive a difficult time.

 

 

 

 

National Debt

  

I don't understand.  For all my life I've heard about how bad the national debt is and that we're saddling our children with an obligation they can never repay.  Interest payments alone will dominate our future economy.  Entire campaigns and political parties have been built on the premise that we should stop running federal deficits and should pay down the national debt.  We were all horrified when our debt topped a trillion dollars during the Reagan years.  Now we're adding a trillion dollars every few months.

 

But suddenly, with coronavirus, and drastically reduced government revenue, we're creating multiple trillion-dollar relief packages to get ourselves out of the crisis.  Of course, we have to do something to save the economy, but if we can take on apparently unlimited debt now, for a just cause, was national debt ever a bad idea?  Could we have incurred more debt to bolster education, fund infrastructure projects, improve transportation, create a more equitable society; all with no harm?  Could we now?

 

 

 

Operator Error

  

Months ago, we had that problem with gasoline spilling out the bottom of the Jeep when I was filling it, and the tank was only half full.  I tried again, and same result.  The fuel wouldn't go in the tank anymore, it just went on the ground.  I thought something had broken and took the car to the dealer who told us "Good news.  There isn't anything we need to fix on the gasoline fill.  It was operator error."  Sure enough, I went right back out again to put fuel in it, and it worked.

 

That was a less than satisfying explanation though.  We're still trying to figure out what the operator error could have been that I couldn't put a spigot in a hole and turn on the flow, and why the manufacturer would have designed a susceptible system.  Well, I've tried since but have never been able to recreate the problem.  Judy, however, a few days ago, was successful.  She came home frustrated, and with the Jeep almost out of gas.  We needed fuel, but there was nothing she could do to make the gasoline go into the tank instead of on the ground.

 

I took the Jeep back out that afternoon to see if I could recreate the problem.  I couldn't.  The Jeep now has a full tank again and no gasoline went on the ground.  The mystery continues…

 

 

 

Judy

  

Judy is practicing going up and down stairs like an adult.

 

For over a year, since way before her surgery, that knee has been bad.  To go up and down stairs she has had to do one step at a time.  Not one step per step, but both feet on each step before she goes on to the next one.  That has been the easiest on her knee.  Well now, with her new knee, she can go up and down stairs alternating feet; one step per step.  She's pretty smooth going up.  Going down smoothly is still a work in progress.

 

 

 

 

The dogs are so different

  

Henry is polite.  He waits for permission before he jumps up in your lap.  He can often anticipate what we want, and do it before we even ask.  We have to be careful stepping over him when he's lying on the floor.  Right in the middle of the step-over, he's liable to jump up to get out of the way (which creates its own problem of course).

 

Jesse.  She's different.  She does what she wants.  We don't seem to be involved so much in decisions about where she goes and when.  If she is lying on the floor and we need to step over her, that's just fine with her.  The most she'll move is her head while she watches us change our stride or route so as not to disturb her.

 

I think Jesse is a cat.

 

 

 

 

Coronavirus

  

A single story about a coronavirus death; what happens to that person, the people caring for them, and the family, can bring me to tears.

 

How can a person process that times a hundred thousand?

 

 

 

 

 

Citizen of the Week!

  

Judy Taylor.

 

According to the Louisville Times.

 

Eighteen years ago.

 

The week of September 4^th, in the weekly newspaper, 2002.

 

Judy and Annie.

 

 

 

 

 

 

My recipe for a good night’s sleep

  

No caffeine.  No chocolate.  No alcohol.  No dessert.  Nothing to eat after 7pm.

 

Pathetic, isn’t it, but how I sleep now is fully a matter of how I eat.  Any caffeine (after my morning cup of coffee) and I’ll have a “surface” night of sleep.  Not even decaf coffee.  Decaf still has caffeine.  Certainly not a coke at lunch.  Chocolate?  Same problem.  Caffeine.  I’ll be in for a very long night.  Alcohol?  If I have a beer or glass of wine at or after dinner, I’ll fall asleep just fine, but I’ll wake up at three o’clock with an “alcohol rebound” as the stimulant effect kicks in.  There is a greater risk of indigestion as well.  Dessert?  Indigestion, and that burst of sugar makes it harder to fall asleep and stay asleep.  Nothing after 7?  Solid sleep doesn’t happen on a full stomach.  It’s better to go to sleep a little hungry than to succumb to a 10 o’clock snack.

 

I don’t live a life of denial; I can do any of the things I list not to do, but at the same time I recognize that if I want a solid night’s sleep, I need to get every one of these things right!

 

 

 

 

 

There is a man

  

 

In this palm tree.

 

Over there on the left.  In the blue shirt and Levis.

 

 

Hacking.

 

Stuff is falling out.

 

Now he's on the right.

 

Working fast.

 

It's an annual thing.

 

A fine haircut!

 

There will be as much stuff to cut out again next year.

 

 

Each tree only takes a few minutes.  Have to keep it moving.  There are a hundred palm trees like this in the park.

 

 

 

Meanwhile

  

Closer to the ground.

 

In the pygmy date palms beside our house.

 

A volunteer.

 

A prickly pear cactus has found a home.

 

Right on the side of the palm.

 

A happy little cactus.

 

 

 

A question

  

 

Does this Thundershirt make my butt look big?

 

 

 

Stay at home music

  

The Doobie Brothers.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4ZLY2ht9iBM

They're still very good.

 

Steve Martin

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EV6GMFp0Ea0

 

Him too.

 

 

 

 

A big thunderstorm last night

  

And this morning.

 

The dogs rode it out in their Thundershirts!

 

 

 

 

 

 

Hey look!

  

 

Wood pigeons in Romania!

 

 

You can go to the beach in Thailand right now if you want, too.

https://www.webcamtaxi.com/en/thailand/surat-thani/lamai-beach-cam.html

 

 

 

I like birding at home too

  

Good variety.  Good resolution.

 

 

Woodpeckers and orioles both like the oranges.

 

Cardinals, green jays, grackles, and mockingbirds.

 

 

 

 

 

This little bewick's wren about turned himself inside out in the birdbath.

 

 

Not so the olive sparrow.

 

Or the white-winged dove.

 

 

Here is the link to the cockatoo location in Australia, by the way if you want to go look.

https://australianbirdcams.com/goulburn-cam/

It gets light there and the birds get fed about five o'clock in the evening our time.

 

Here is a really good bird cam in Birmingham, Alabama.  Lots of feeders.  Lots of species.  Good resolution.

https://birdwatchinghq.com/live-bird-cams/#alabama

 

 

 

Hanging out

  

Hanging out this evening in Goulburn, New South Wales, Australia, and suddenly the scene is flooded with Sulphur-crested Cockatoos!

 

The resolution isn't all that great, and I couldn't get them all in the frame at the same time, but what a cool sight, a residential yard in a quiet neighborhood filled with cockatoos!

 

 

And along with the big cockatoos, slightly smaller, also white, Little Corella cockatoos on the ground.  (Along with some rock pigeons, just like we have in the States.)

 

 

 

 

 

My cellphone

  

My cellphone automatically lights up every time I pick it up and look at it.  I thought it was triggered by the motion of picking it up, but then I realized I don't have to move the phone at all; if I wave my hand in front of it, not just anywhere but up by the camera, the face of the phone lights up.  A convenient feature because any time I pick it up, it's ready to use.

 

That suggests that the phone camera is on though, even when it's not on, so it can recognize when I have a need for the phone.  I guess the phone camera only works when I tell it to, or when the programmer tells it to.

 

There is nothing left to hide.

 

 

 

Judy’s front patio project

  

 

 

Here is how it came out.

A nice rock garden.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Happy Mother’s Day

  

Via Zoom.

 

Good videoconferencing.  We’ve come a long way from early Skype.  (The empty chair is where Judy was before she joined me in front of my computer in the other room.)  There were more grandkids involved.  People came and went.

 

A nice Mother’s Day treat.

 

 

 

Where we’ve been birding since the lockdown

  

 

United States

Spain

Panama

Australia

Canada

Czech Republic

Germany

Japan

United Kingdom

Caribbean Netherlands

Netherlands

Finland

Brazil

South Africa

Latvia

Israel

Kenya

New Zealand

Bermuda

 

A brutal virtual travel schedule, but we’re up to the task.