Here’s how it works

 

 

Duolingo is a language tool.  It’s also a game.  It is meant to keep you engaged so while playing the game for points and rewards, one also learns a bit of language.  Each Monday, people are grouped into batches of 30 by the order they log on and do their first lesson.  That’s the competition for the week.  Finish in the top five and advance to the next level.  Finish in the bottom five and get demoted one level.  Get promoted enough times and end up in the top level, the Diamond League.  From there, you can’t get promoted any higher, so they offer recognition for finishing in the top three.  Duolingo tells everyone you know that you finished in the top three and they send back congratulations.

 

So every week, I do my Spanish each day, and near the end of the week I pay attention to where I am and if there is a shot at finishing in the top three.  If I think there is a chance, I wait until just one hour, or maybe two, before the end of the week’s count on Sunday, and I blast out as many points as I can, as fast as I can, to finish top three.  Recognition.

 

Last week, it was there.  I was about number 7, lurking.  Number one and number two were well out of reach, but if the other ones in front of me weren’t paying attention, I had a shot.  I was well back, so two hours before closing, I went for it.  I cruised past everyone else in front of me, but number three was watching and started accumulating points as well.  After an hour I checked the scores.  I was still behind number three, but number three wasn’t accumulating points as fast as I was, so I kept on.  I closed and closed, hunted down number three, and with four minutes to go I passed him and finished with that number three spot.  Success!

 

Then I started to wonder what I had done.  Somebody worked as hard as they could for two hours, trying to stay ahead but watching me get closer and closer, nothing more they could do, and losing out right at the finish.  Who was I playing against?  Whose heart did I just take?  It could have been anyone.  Duolingo is kind of structured as a kid’s game.  Oh no.  Did I just hunt down and crush some thirteen-year-old kid, dashing her hopes of being Spanish queen for the day?  Am I relishing my victory over a bunch of schoolkids?  I looked up the name of the person I passed.  Looks like a dude.  Carlos.  I checked out his status.  He’s been doing this for a couple years.  He’s got a lot of points.  Nevermind.  He can take it.

 

Sometimes we’re lucky enough to see an indigo bunting

 

 

 

 

 

 

Sometimes we get this.

 

A veritable plethora of buntings!

 

Henry update

 

 

It has been quite the ride.

 

Henry is currently acting like a comfortable older dog again.  It hasn’t always been so.  Remember back to where he had quit eating and was losing weight, but every few days we were able to come up with some different food to tempt him with.  That always only worked for a few days for each effort.  Cycling through all the food alternatives continued for a couple weeks, then it got worse.  He quit eating entirely.  Down to skin and bones, he was out of energy.  Nothing was working.  On a Friday afternoon, we were texting the veterinarian, who works so hard with us to take good care of him, saying we didn’t think he was going to make it through the weekend.  He seemed restless though, and maybe that meant he was uncomfortable, so the doctor prescribed a pain pill for him.  I was sitting at the keyboard crying, knowing I was going to have to say something about his passing.

 

We gave Henry the pain pill.  He settled down and slept for a few hours and woke up hungry.  He ate a little bit.  He ate more the next day, and more the day after.  Judy found a kind canned dog food he used to eat and he’s eating that every day now.  He wakes up every morning happy and wagging, getting pets and inviting Jess to play and make a few runs back and forth though the house with him.  He has gained back a pound.

 

Now he’s just a comfortable old fourteen-year-old dog hanging around the house, waking up for anything interesting, and sleeping away the rest of each day.  We all went for a driveabout last weekend and he rode with his head out the window savoring the sights, sounds, smells, and flavors.  He walked in a park with Jesse and Judy for several hundred yards.  Whenever he seems a little restless, every few days or so, we give him a pain pill and he gets comfortable again.  No way to know what issues he might be dealing with that the pain pill eases, but it’s so good to have him back enjoying each day again, as long as possible.

 

 

Any little bump

 

 

 

Could be a face.

 

 

Confusion?

 

 

 

Attitude?

 

 

 

How about

 

 

Are you looking at me?

 

I SAID ARE YOU LOOKING AT ME???

 

 

 

Oh Yeah???

 

 

 

Just because

 

 

 

Pride of Barbados.  (Right here in the Valley.)

 

Whistling Ducks

 

 

Some whistling ducks are conspicuous; like this Black-bellied Whistling Duck.

 

Hard to miss.

 

Slightly more elusive are the Fulvous Whistling Ducks, but I was lucky enough to spot a small flock of them passing a quiet afternoon amongst an assortment of other birds on the bank of a pond.

 

 

 

 

 

Nature

 

 

It can be so messy!

 

 

My laptop

 

 

…has wings.

 

We mean to travel in the van this summer and I want to be able to work comfortably when we’re on the road.  When I’m working, I have multiple files open at the same time, one or more usually providing information for the one I’m working on.  That single laptop screen just doesn’t get it.  This winged-screen attachment feels like a winner.  I’ve been test-driving it on the dining room table.  I’ll try pairing that with a real keyboard that has a number keypad and that could do it.

 

Progress report

 

 

Los tres amigos.

 

The Firebush

 

The Lantana

 

And the Esperanza.

 

All recovering nicely from their winter stress.

 

 

Northern Parula

 

 

 

 

Range map.  Where it winters.  Where it summers.  I forgot to include it.

 

 

An eastern bird.  We’re westerners, so we never saw it before we got here into this eastern tip of Texas.

 

 

Here is one for the summer tanager too.

 

A southern bird.  It doesn’t make it to Colorado or the west coast, so we never saw it before either.

 

 

 

 

Jury Selection

 

 

It is reported from inside the courtroom that Trump may have dozed off a little during jury selection today.  The chin may have hit the chest a time or two.  That’s unfortunate for someone who refers to his opponent as Sleepy Joe, but here’s the deal.  Having sat through oh so many in-person afternoon continuing education classes, while a presenter stood at the head of the room, reading tax code or government regulations to us in a monotone without ever looking up to make eye contact, I too have been the victim of the afternoon slump.  In that regard, I understand the pain of the ex-president.  Mandatory attendance for an excruciatingly slow process, in the afternoon.

 

 

There is a northern parula in the center of this photo

 

 

 

It’s a tiny little migrant.  Kind of blue-gray, yellow throat, green back, wing-bars.

 

 

 

Northern Parula.

 

Can you spot the

 

 

Puppy in the bedding?

 

 

It’s Henry!

 

He’s still a goofball.

 

Summer Tanager

 

 

 

 

A migrant; just passing through.

 

Never giving up!

 

 

 

 

Just think

 

 

 

What a good flying spoonbill shot I could have gotten if that tree hadn’t photobombed the flight!

 

 

It probably looks easy and safe doing what I do

 

 

Taking pictures of birds.

 

But there are action shots.

 

And you never know how those are going to turn out.

 

Sometimes I have to duck and brace for impact!

 

Solar Eclipse

 

 

We didn’t travel to watch today’s total eclipse.  We were in Oregon in 2017 and watched that one with some friends.  That was a fun celebration.

 

This time we watched a 92% eclipse from our yard.  It was mostly cloudy.  It got a little darker and cooler during the peak.  The birds got more active.  We got to see the crescent through the clouds a few times.  We took some cellphone snaps through the eclipse glasses, but they came out like this.

 

A blurry crescent.

 

We know now that if we look directly at the sun without eclipse glasses, the light will burn through our retinas and our brains will burst into flames, but when we were kids, when we were 10, didn’t we have contests to see who could stare at the sun the longest?  We didn’t spend any time looking at the sun today without eclipse glasses, but even so, I don’t really like the way my eyes feel afterward.  I still feel a little snow blind.  I think I like lunar eclipses better.

 

Passages

 

 

Long-time friend Joann.

 

We’ve logged a lot of hours together on the deck.

 

We see her here every winter.  She’s back east with her family in the summer.  Lately she’s been spending more time there than here.  Her family is here for a few days to help her pack up her things and move back there with them full-time.  There was a big farewell party for her at the park tonight.  It’s fun to meet her family and we’re enjoying them as much as we enjoy Joann, but they’re all leaving tomorrow. 

 

 

We have those different times in our lives.  Things change.  It’s time for the next phase for Joann.  We’ll still be in touch.  We can visit them if we’re along the eastern seaboard, but that doesn’t happen much.  We’ll miss seeing Joann here.

 

Look

 

 

It’s Henry.

 

And he’s awake.

 

Oh.  Nevermind.

 

He’s old now.  He gets to do whatever he wants.  He is playful and active every morning, then spends most of the rest of the day sleeping.  He’s given up on dog food.  No more kibble.  No more Fresh Pet.  No more canned dog food.  He used to love cheese, but that’s off the menu.  No more dog treats.  He just turns up his nose.  Hot dogs, he’ll eat.  Cooked ground meat, that works.  Scrambled eggs.  We’ve always been pretty careful about not giving dogs people food, but we’ve given up on deciding what we think is best for him and just let him have whatever he wants now.  Whatever he will eat for as long as he will eat.

 

 

Of course, Jesse, she pretty much gets to do whatever she wants too. 

 

Except eat people food.  She can’t do that.  She’ll still eat kibble.