Saturday

 

My arms are better, by the way.  Blister/bumps all gone, my face doesn’t hurt any more, and I’ve lost my supersensitivity to the sun.  I can go outside normally again.  The hole in my leg is the same size it has been this whole time, it’s just not as deep.  At its worst, it was 8 millimeters deep.  Now it’s only about 1 millimeter deep.  When it’s through filling in, skin is supposed to grow back across the top.

 

A housewarming for a friend of ours this afternoon (just a “girls” thing), I drove Judy over to Ingleside, then had to occupy myself watching birds at Blucher and Indian Point Park.

 

After dropping Judy off, on my way to go birding, I got passed by a brilliant yellow Yamaha R6 crotch rocket.  Four lane highway.  Fifty five mile per hour speed limit.  No traffic to speak of, just me and the pickup truck and the motorcycle.  Two bends in the road to get past, then open road.  The motorcycle was just a little faster than us through the right hand curve, but he got on it a little too soon for the left hand curve.  He couldn’t hold the inside lane.  Then he couldn’t hold the outside lane.  He started wobbling when he hit the sand on the shoulder.  He was doing about seventy when he left the road.  He kept it together for a really long time after he hit the grass and sand before the end-over-end tumble began.  Pieces flying everywhere, twenty feet high maybe thirty, one of the pieces being the rider.  I was rolling along right behind him, so I was arriving as everything was still bouncing.  To my great relief, as soon as everything stopped, the rider popped right up, swearing and throwing his helmet.  Young guy, terribly pissed off, but only at himself for being stupid.  The bike was a total wreck, but the grass and sand was forgiving.  He was okay.

 

Highlights of the birdwatching: Ovenbird, and a great big night bird; a Chuck-Wills-Widow.

 

All packed up today.  We’re leaving tomorrow morning for Brazos Bend again.  One more thing to do on the internet dish.  We lost a skew motor (now our dish is all skewed up).  The dish repair guy will meet us there and should take care of it in one day.

 

 

Friday

 

 

It’s slow going, adding to the life-list, only birding occasionally.  Meanwhile, our friend Jon continues his birding compulsion, a Texas year-list.  We’re at 491 on our life-list, trying to get to 500.  Jon is at 338 on his year-list on his way to….

 

Said goodbye to Chris and the kids tonight.  They’re off at the crack of dawn tomorrow for the airport.  The visiting, boogie boarding, birding, and turtle feeding is done.

 

It was crowded at jetty beach.

 

 

#491

 

Prairie Warbler

 

 

Family

 

We picked up Niece Christie and Tony, Kyle, and Cameron at the airport.  They flew in from Seattle to visit us (and the beach) for a few days.

 

 

I'll do anything

 

I'll do anything for attention.  The leg continues to heal, but yesterday both my forearms broke out in tiny itchy bumps (blisters), and my face hurts.  We went back to the leg mechanic for a follow-up this morning.  He let me discontinue the antibiotic, at least for a few days, and gave us some hydrocortisone cream to see if that would ease the issue.  I suspect the problem might be a combination of antibiotic and sun exposure.  I’ll try to avoid both for a few days.

 

Meanwhile, we continue to change the packing and dressing on the leg as prescribed.  The ripping continues.  Twice a day, every day, Mistress Judy approaches to administer the pain.  I don’t want anyone to worry about me, though.  I embrace the pain.  I’ve learned to love it.  Now I crave it.

 

 

How hot was it today?

 

It was soo hot, we had to close the windows and turn on the air conditioning.  Cold front roaring through tonight.  Back down into the seventies tomorrow.  Meanwhile, all the highways in Denver were closed by the blizzard yesterday.

 

We had a pack of dowitchers feeding along the end of the pond this morning, then a spoonbill flew over, then a kingfisher, then a merlin.  We decided to make a day list for Gulf Waters; what we could see from inside our park, including the end of the boardwalk.  A pied billed grebe showed up.  A pair of mottled ducks.  Piping plover.  Dunlin.  Laughing gulls circled, calling.  Forster’s tern circled, then crashed into the pond in front of us, after minnows.  26 birds in all.

 

A half hour at Paradise Pond tonight yielded couch’s kingbird, scissortail flycatcher, orange crowned, yellow rumped, and nashville warblers, northern parula, and yellow throated warbler (our first there of the season).

 

 

FW: Weather report

I mean grosbeaks.  We saw blue grosbeaks today, not buntings.

 

 

---

From: Steve Taylor [mailto:spt@thetaylorcompany.net]
Sent: Thursday, March 26, 2009 9:19 PM
To: Bill Taylor (Bill Taylor); David Taylor (David Taylor); Tom Taylor (Tom Taylor)
Subject: Weather report

 

 

There is a blizzard in Denver.  Severe weather here too.  Thunderstorm alert.  Possibility of a tornado.  Only got a little rain.  It cooled off ten degrees.  But then we were at eighty before the storm.

 

Lincoln’s sparrows and blue buntings today.