okay, sheesh. I've been making a mess of the blog again, so I'm going to do some random updates again.

New entries and photos start at:

∞ 24 Dec, Merry Christmas Eve
(and scroll up from there!)

There's a couple numbers missing from the New Year post, I'll fill them in when I get a chance.

And if I can get past my writer's block, and my poor broken hand (sighs), I'll be uploading more soon.

Happy New Year!

Oh where to begin.

Through 2020, I extended my temporary retirement and I'm still a jobless bum from being laid off in 2019. There was covid in the world and more covid in the US. But with all the time I had, I accomplished a few things.

Walking in 2020
I figure I walked about 1,000 miles! *laughs* that's a guess-timate, but a realistic one... Walking most every day between 2 and 5.5miles, usually more than 2.

I discovered the Hidden Trail last January and added it to my limited walking places. Besides the neighborhood and the nearby bike path, I've walked most of the Ruth Bascom Riverbank trail and all of the Ridgeline at Hendrick's Park.

I blew out my knee in Aug, and I got tendonitis in my heel in Dec. And so the bike got dusted off and I happily headed west to the end of the bike trail. Along the way is a tiny park, Tsanchiifin Walk, with a few new birds!

Photography in 2020
in 2018... 11,570 pics, avg 964/month
in 2019... 15,124 pics, avg 1,260/month
in 2020... xxx pics, avg xxx/month

In the past I've been extremely bad about going thru my photos to pull out the good ones (or the interesting ones!) for the web site and the great ones for printing. But thru much of 2020, I've been sitting down and sifting thru the days photos. It's pretty tedious, and I don't particularly enjoy the process. but it's nice to have pics ready to go for a blog entry.

Mailing and Postcards in 2020
in 2018... averaged 104 bits of mail every month
in 2019... averaged 76 bits of mail every month
in 2020... I sent out xxx total and averaged xx bits of mail every month.

I kept up with the monthly postcard exchange that I host at GoodReads. I sent 43 PostCrossing pcs. I joined 101 swaps at Swap-Bot and hosted 50 TGIF swaps and 2 Photo and a Note swaps. I completed another round of the postcard project I started in 2019... I might chat about that another time.

The Epson SuperTank Printer that I got in 2019 is still printing. And I'm much happier with it, now that I've figured out how to deal with it's issues.

Community Garden 2020
I guess I continue to be a terrible gardener...

Because of covid, I tried planting seeds last spring. That has NEVER worked, but I had such hope! A couple Sugar Snap Peas came up, but nothing else did. sighs.

Also, I couldn't even get the zucchini, or ANY summer squash to do their usual excessive thing. sighs some more.

But I did have lots of Lemon Cucumbers for a while, so that made everything good! :)

Experimented with a couple different types of tomatoes... The Santiam set a ton of fruit, very early, which then ripened all at the same time. It was good, but too much, all at once and eventually I got tired of it. And the Garden Peach Tomato... yuck. heh.

Brandywines are my all time favorite, and I actually grew my own from seeds in pots! They did well in the garden, after a long time under row covers... but I started them too late and not all the fruits ripened before a couple chilly nights. Will need to time that better, this year!

Writing and Drawing in 2020
I wrote at the blog a good deal more than I usually do! Yay! But I quickly get frustrated with writer's block, and I wish I could be more consistent with posting.

I have continued with almost daily ATC sketches and I've filled up a 3 ring binder with 9-pocket sheets! Can't really say that I've improved, tho, *laughs*! But it is nice to look thru my pages.

I accomplished most of my intentions in 2020... I'm better about keeping up with my Mail Log, I blogged more, I kept up with drawing and of course, I made and sent mail most every day!

The one thing I didn't manage: keeping up with my GoodReads book reviews. I only posted 19 of the more than 50 books that I read. Which is better than the 7 books I posted in 2019. But I really need to have all my books listed there!

So... 2021 intentions: GR book reviews! Keep writing at the web site! Keep drawing! Keep up with the Mail Log! And keep going thru the photos!

My one major resolution for 2021 is to get more tidy. I am still thinking about how to implement this, tho, so I will talk about that later!

Tag: january

Today's forecast said it was going to be warm enough for a bike ride, and just a tiny chance of rain. So I was thinking a ride out to Tsan to see the birds there would be a wonderful close to the year.

haha! It started misting right before I got out the door! And it continued misting or sprinkling for most of my ride. Not exactly fun, not being able to see because the eye glasses are beaded up with wet.

*laughs* oh well. I tried to get good exercise, but it's been a while since I've been out on the bike. hard going! and I finally decided to bump it down a gear to make it a little easier. I know: such a wimp! :)

But I did stop at the Tsanchiifin Walk... oh weird, someone had dumped a little pile of bird food at the viewing area path. Golden Crowned Sparrows and a pair of Towhees were chowing down!

Tag: december

The US racked up 1.2 million cases of covid in the last week, averaging 183,449 new cases every day. (Not as much testing during the holidays means cases are under-reported.) 2,215 people died every day.

Florida hit 6,000 people currently hospitalized today, and still climbing. 95 people die in Florida every day.

Texas has 11,775 people hospitalize and 165 people die there every day.

Of course California takes the cake with 21,240 current hospitalizations. 229 people die every day. They don't have enough nurses, and are beginning to ration care.

And still nothing from the federal government... that impeached monster is moping on the golf course. (haha, remember the stupid old days when monster was annoyed that Obama golfed ... Trump Golf Count. jerk.)

But in better news, the active case count might finally be coming down in my town!! This wave of covid hit 200 active cases after the 2nd week of Nov, peaked on 25 Nov with 473 and peaked again on 17 Dec with 526. We're now down to 250 active cases... but I'll assume it's a temporary lull before it gets really bad from Christmas travel and parties. sighs.

∞ Toxic Individualism: Pandemic Politics Driving Health Care Workers From Small Towns
Yeah, good job people. Let's harass and threaten our health care workers and then be surprised when they quit and you've got no one to take care of the entire community. GAH!

Which reminds me... our local newspaper had an article about pandemic fatigue and our amazing health care workers... And it included addresses to our local hospitals where your can send happy cards of support and encouragement! How cool is that?! Beginning the postcard proliferation! :D

Tag: december

Tag: december

Been a while since I've had a wildlife photo to show... I tried another walk today, even tho I've still got a tendonitis ache in my heel. I'm still pretty slow, I can't take a full stride yet.

Tag: december

The USA added over 1.6 million cases of covid this week, with an average of 239,711 new cases every day.
2,905 people died every day.

And still the federal government does nothing... because that impeached monster is still -- Still! -- trying to overturn the election that he lost. Seditious is a good word, and hopefully someone will follow up with that.

Texas hit 10,000 hospitalizations yesterday. 209 people are dying there every day.

New York hald the record for most hospitalizations... 18,825 on 13 April. Bad times. but now California has broken that record, beginning yesterday, and continuing to add 100s more people to the hospital every day.

Active cases in my town hit a new high of 526 on 17 Dec. It's come down since then, but still hovering in the 400s.

Oh, and this...

∞ Travel From U.K. Shut Down As Nations Assess Threat Of New Coronavirus Strain
U.K. officials warn the new variant of the virus could be as high as 70% more contagious than the various strains already circulating. However, there's no evidence so far suggesting the new variant is more deadly.

Um. Yeah. There's this thing called Math. Here's how it works. 70% more people getting covid, means more people are going to die of covid.

Tag: december

The tendonitis is letting up a little bit... instead of the shooting pain, there's just an ache. So I decided to experiment with a walk today.

Our Little Free Pantry is about a block away and I check on it every time I walk that way. There's usually some kind of bread, a couple cans of stuff, potatoes, fruit like oranges and apples (grapes and dried fruit today!), pasta, dried beans. (not sure what's in today's tupperware!)

The things in there that warm my heart... Dog food that has been packaged in zip locks. And wrapped servings of homemade cookies, or made up sandwiches. ♥!

So far, I've not met anyone else who fills the Pantry.

I dropped off another package of menstrual pads, today.

I'm never sure if I should open the package, to make the individual pads available, or keep it sealed. Either way, they are gone in 24 hours, so I know someone is appreciative!

And by the way, Scotland is awesome!

∞ Scotland first in world to make period products free

<sing song> Awe-Some!!!

Tag: december

Yep, Wednesday night I started feeling tendonitis pain in my left heel. fah.

I've never had tendonitis in my heel before, but even with that first little twinge, I recognized it and knew I would not be able to walk. So I knew I'd need a plan to help me get thru the usual 2hours I spend walking every day for the next... few days? week? more? who knows.

That's kind of the thing. Tendonitis is one of those things where medical science has little to say.

You can take drugs, or you can avoid drugs.

You can do physical therapy, or not.

You can ice it, heat pad it, both, or neither.

And the tendonitis either goes away or it doesn't. There is no real treatment, except rest. And, let's get real here. You want to avoid those spikes of pain at ALL costs! No doctor type has to tell you that.

So anyway. No walking means I've got an extra 2 hours every day. And without the exercise, it's really important to do something ... meaningful and happy.

I decided to dust off my CSS skills and work on some back-end stuff here at the web site.

Last year I had taken a couple HTML and CSS classes, with the goal of cleaning up my web site and upgrading from HTML Transitional to HTML 5. I learned good stuff, and I finished my classes. But then I didn't actually work on the web site.

Yesterday, I re-familiarized myself with the codes. And put the finishing touches on an archive template that I had started last year, with my class.

I had trouble figuring out how to place images, those darn floats. But it turned out I was screwing up the requirements for the Width attribute! ha, a simple thing I was ignorant of! Being sloppy was okay in HTML Transitional, not so much in HTML 5!

And today, I started clearing out some of the entries on this main page. It took a while, for a relatively small chunk I tackled... There's the physical cut and paste, and then all those random Transitional codes to repair!

And again, I am learning good stuff! This project def keeps me occupied for a couple hours at a time. And there's plenty to do...

Once I get all the super old journal entries moved to the archives, in theory I'll be able to clean up this front page: Moving to HTML 5 and giving it a new design!

I don't know how many millions of years I've had this sunflower thing. But it would be nice to move on!

A new design is, of course, a lot more involved than just archiving stuff. So, we'll see what happens...

(and if you scroll to the bottom of this page, you can see the changes!!)

Tag: december

The US added almost 1.5 million new covid cases this week and averaged 210,374 new cases every day. 2,402 people died every day. And we hit 300,000 total deaths yesterday, according to the Johns Hopkins web site.

Florida hit 4,000 hospitalizations at the end of Nov, has now hit 5,000 hospitalizations. And just over 100 people die in Florida every day.

∞ Iowa Is What Happens When Government Does Nothing

oh poor, stupid Iowa. The hospitalizations there have been coming down... but case count and deaths are starting to look more like Colorado, a state with almost twice the population of Iowa.

And the covid in my town has just been hovering around 450 active cases, altho we did hit a high of 500 last Thursday. We have 55 people hospitalized, which is a current record high.

Okay, this is kind of funny. My order has been on a Merry Go Round for a week, coming and going from the Kansas City Distribution Center! making me laugh!

Except... I kinda need my stuff!

Tag: december

Wow!

Walking along the creek, I saw this mink swim across to my side! She or he was nosing around so quickly, I knew the camera didn't have a chance. ha, I just pointed down and clicked as fast as I could, hoping for the best.

Of course the best obviously did not happen, laughs, but that's okay!

Tag: december

∞ <Not a link> Is There a Doctor in the White House? Not if You Need an M.D. Jill Biden should think about dropping the honorific, which feels fraudulent, even comic. by Joseph Epstein (nope, not dignifying this with a link)

I am fuming over this. Dr Biden has two masters and a doctorate in education, EdD.

Sexist jerk, JE has a Bachelor of Arts. Because he's a white man in a position of authority, he occasionally gets called Dr Epstein. And he apparently can't be bothered to correct the mistake, instead he revels in it.

But Dr Biden shouldn't claim the Dr title for the doctorate that she actually earned ... because it sounds and feels fraudulent?

WTF? GAH!

Just a comparison... A Bachelor of Arts takes 4 years of collage. After that, it takes 1.5 to 2 years to get a Masters. (A Masters. as in, ONE Masters Degree.) and then it takes another 3 years to get a Doctorate in Education.

And yes. Everyone is entitled to their opinion. Bigots can have an opinion. Racists can have an opinion. Sexist jerks can have an opinion.

But bigots should not have a platform to spew their opinions. This should never have been published! And it def should not have been defended by the responsible editor. (Yeah, another article I will not dignify with a URL.) (But Wall Street Journal? You Suck!)

The editor says: Northwestern University, where Mr. Epstein taught for many years, did its part by denouncing him in a statement and appearing to purge his emeritus listing from its website. This is how cancel culture works.

Um. Yeah. Do I have to tell you? Misogyny is NOT a culture. It's a blight on civilization.

Tag: december

Okay. This is pretty awesome. I was walking at the river today, and on the way back to the car, I realized I hadn't taken pics of any herons, for whatever reason.

So, here's a heron, in the last side pond. And I decide to take a moment to breathe.

And the Heron decides to breathe with me and do some stretching exercises! We start with the left wing and leg...

and then our neck...

and then the other wing and leg...

Wow! I am so pleased to be invited to the Heron Yoga session!!

Tag: december

So. funny story. (um?)

Remember how I mis-identified the hawk to the mail man the other day? Yeah. Well, I did it again!

I saw the flash of yellow, and made my assumptions.

And a person walking on the bike path behind me, asks what's up. And I'm all, "Oh, I'm just looking at some Goldfinches!"

And, again, at home, I'm looking at the photos on the computer. And again, "What the Heck is This??!"

bahaha!!

Nobody I know has stripes like that! So I def have to go searching.

Pine Siskin!

And the flower head that they apparently love to snack on is Teasle, invasive from Europe and Asia. But very pretty and useful when it's not taking over everything!

Tag: december

Tag: december

Walking along the creek today, and found a heron. For some reason, I pulled out the camera, even tho it was a terrible angle, looking almost straight down.

And just as I was getting a couple pics... the hunter strikes!

They caught a minnow! how cool is that?!

Tag: december

Again, well over 1 million new covid cases added this week, at 168,808 new cases every day on average. and 1,476 people died every day.

Oregon has been in a "freeze" shut down for the past two weeks, and today we are transitioning to a county by county shut down based on risk levels.

My town, Eugene is still in the midst of a covid breakout that started at the end of Sept, so we will continue in the Extreme risk level... Outdoor entertainment will open up a little bit, but stores go from 75% occupancy down to 50%. Socializing remains capped at 6 people from 2 households. It goes without saying: Masks are mandated everywhere. Several businesses have been fined for not following the rules!

The outbreak in Eugene, which topped on 8 Oct with 288 active cases, and then again on 25 Nov with 473 active cases. Today our active cases have come down to 217... however we have a record number of hospitalizations, 39. I wonder if they've expanded the covid wing at the hospital.

And I'm shocked to see the testing positivity rate in Oregon is 40%. What the heck? This is terrible. What will it take to get some extra testing in here?!

Texas hit 9,000 hospitalized today. The daily deaths there are extremely variable -- in the past week it's gone from 22 on one day to 170 the next -- so it's difficult to see what's going on, except the big numbers are def getting bigger. And obviously it'll be easier to die with the hospitals full.

Florida looks ready to hit a million cases here, very soon. They've got over 4,200 hospitalized and that number has been steadily rising for a long time.

And back to Oregon... this is utterly shameful:

∞ An Oregon nurse bragged on TikTok about not wearing a mask outside of work. Shes now on administrative leave.
Oncology nurse... Salem Health has the highest employee-related [covid] count of any hospital in the state. And this lady was contributing.

Found this next to the trail, yesterday! *happy!*

Tag: december

Tag: december

So I was staring up at this beautiful hawk... and trying to figure out what was up with the tail, because from my angle, it seemed to be missing...

Everything's perfectly fine! There was just a stick behind her/him, and they were resting their tail feathers up on that!

The mail man was walking on the bike path behind me. Well! he says. What do we have here?

A Cooper Hawk! I replied.

Wow. That's cool. Yes, it is!

Except, no. No, it's not!

*Laughs*

At home, I was going thru the photos, and I zoomed in and saw the colour of the head... oh shoot. That is def not a Cooper Hawk!

Cooper Hawks have a dark grey hood over their head. And this one has a stripy brown and red head.

Ah ha. Red Shouldered Hawk, just beyond the very northern edge of their accepted range!

But dang it! Hawks are so difficult to figure out, even when you think you know what you're doing!!

Tag: november

Golden Crowned Sparrows are another winter visitor in our area.

Every single year, I am surprised at how human friendly these sparrows are. I can get within 4 or 5 feet, and they give me one "over the shoulder" glance like this... and then they pay me no mind! :D

Tag: november

A trip out to the river today, and I was glad to see some of our winter visitors. There are lots of birds who migrate down from Canada and Alaska, to spend the winter in our ponds...

Today I saw Cormorants, Hooded Mergansers, Green Wing Teals...

Northern Shovelers:

And some American Wigeons:

I just love the squiggles that the feathers make... so artsy! :)

I tried to stand in the approximate same place to get this pic of my favorite spot on the river. I should collect these pics into a single post so you can see the seasons and the weather! :)

Tag: november

These two Northern Flickers were on the other side of the creek, so I wasn't really sure what was going on at the time. But they were talking to each other, and dancing around...

Looking at the photos, I realized they were two males (they both have a red mustache, which females lack) ... They are showing off to each other! It's just practice, at this time of year. But..

May the fittest for survival, win! :)

Tag: november

Some happy Turkeys who didn't get murdered for a crappy holiday.

Tag: november

Sighs. The US added more than 1.2 million cases in the past week... 177,541 new cases on average every day, here in the US. and 1,646 people dying every day.

Oregon has been in freeze for a week now, but today we have over 500 people hospitalized for the first time, and a record 21 people died yesterday.

Eugene has broken records for active covid cases on last wed (307), thurs (375), friday (420), saturday (450), sunday (456), monday (469), and we skipped tuesday because it was the same, and today with 473 active cases.

Tag: november

Well, the US hit 11 million covid cases this past weekend. And it seems like just a couple days ago we hit 10 million. oh. yeah. That's 'cause it was...

∞ US Hits 11 Million Coronavirus Cases, Adding 1 Million In A Week

And Texas hit 1 million cases on the 13th. That's Friday the 13th. And California followed suit on the 14th.

New York has the most deaths of all the states, with 26,189. A lot of people died in the first wave this spring because the hospitals were full -- 18,825 people hospitalized in New York on 13 April 2020 -- and they didn't have treatment options yet. But it looks like Texas wants to challenge all this... 7,841 currently hospitalized and 19,696 people dead.

Poor, stupid Iowa has a 51% positivity rate and they hit 1,000 people currently hospitalized a week ago, on the 10th. And 1,500 currently hospitalized today. And they are Finally doing something about it...

∞ Iowa Governor Reverses Course, Issues Mask Mandate As COVID-19 Cases Rise

Oregon ranked No. 45 among the states where coronavirus was spreading the fastest. But the state has 13.7% positivity rate and increasing hospitalizations: 445 currently hospitalized, 100 more than last week.

And we are doing something about it! You know, something a bit more serious than a mask madate, which we've had in place for a while now. We've gone back to a partial shut down starting today! A Freeze...

Social gatherings are capped at 6 and limited to two households. Restaurants are take-out only. Indoor and outdoor entertainment and recreational facilities (gyms and more) must close. Etc, Etc. There's a good list, and there's a fine or arrest for those who aren't on board!

And the little outbreak in my own town continues on it's merry way. Active cases broke the old record of 288 on Sunday the 15th with 306 active cases. And again today with 307 active cases.

We'll see how long it takes for the shut down to have an effect.

The 7-day average for the US... 159,691 new cases every day and 1,291 people died every day last week.

The current record stands at 187,957 new cases on 13 Nov, according to WoM. Or on the Covid Tracking site, it was 171,376 new cases.

A few states are returning to partial shut downs, but there's no reason why we won't be breaking all the records a few more times!

Tag: november

After the rain and wind of Thursday night, I woke up and the trees outside my window were denuded. Poor naked trees. All the leaves were down in the parking lot.

You know, autumn is my favorite season... But I'm missing the summer already. The tomatoes from the garden are long gone and the house is all closed up and it's too chilly for an early morning walk.

But then I came home from my late-morning walk... and found a baby squirrel lookin' at me!

*laughs* okay, Not a baby... a Youngster, and out on her own. But how cute can you be?

Tag: november

Nothing scary today for Friday the 13th! oh well. :)

Steller Jays are our other blue-coloured jay, here in western Oregon. Scrub Jays: blue and white... are a common theme on my postcards, tho I don't post pics here very often for some reason.

But the Stellers? They are so beautiful with their black fading down to blue, with a few decorated bits on their wings.

And they are shy and bouncy. So the few times I do get to see them... they jump too fast for the camera to focus.

But today...

*laughs* What a cheeky look! Ima gettin the side eye!

of course, that look could only come from a teenager! :) You can tell this is a young one because they've still got a little bit of gape left at the corner of their mouth.

I fell in love immediately. And then they flew away.

Tag: november

There's a 100% chance of rain, starting tonight and going thru tomorrow! So I wanted to get another patch of the garden forked and weeded and seeded with cover crop.

Yes, I'm still working on that. (Started 20 Sept!) Did I mention our garden plot is 600sqft? Maybe next year I'll rent a tiller or something!!

Anyway. There's little baby clovers coming up in patches here and there. There was also a patch of Nasturtium seedlings, but they died off on the first cold night. It's not quite cold enough to kill off the Borage seedlings, yet. There's also some Love-in-a-Mist seedlings coming up, I think. Not sure what they will do in the cold.

There's another plant coming up in droves that I feel like I should recognize...

I just couldn't place the leaves at all. But today I touched it.

oh, haha! There's no mistaking that wonderfully velvet softness! Dead Nettle!

Purple Dead Nettle is an invasive from Europe, but they are easily chopped down and I don't think they present much of a problem in gardens. And, since it can survive cool temperatures, it can act as a cover crop! Yay!

It's quite pretty, I think, with it's greens and purples and it's little purplish-pink flowers. And if you ever get a chance to run your hand thru a patch of Dead Nettle... Oh, it's totally luxurious! :)

Tag: november

Hospitals are filling up across the country and WoM reports records set for new cases of covid on...

∞ Thursday 5 Nov with 123,952

∞ Friday 6 Nov with 132,836

∞ Tues 10 Nov with 144,807

sighs.

We are adding 123,371 new cases every day on average. 1,018 people died every day.

The covid outbreak in my town is getting worse again. After dropping to 126 active cases last Thursday, we've been climing again. Today there are 251 active cases.

Our record is 288 active cases, I suppose that will be broken soon.

sighs.

My brain is producing some serious snark when I am out and see people without masks. It's starting to affect my well-being, so I need to think nicer thoughts. After all, if you're too stupid to believe in science (or apply that science)... well, that's karma that'll catch up with you eventually.

And that's sad. So my brain shouldn't be so harsh. There should be some pity. And that's it.

∞ From Obscure To Sold Out: The Story Of Four Seasons Total Landscaping In Just 4 Days
Apparently Four Seasons has an amazing marketing team!! *laughs*

∞ 3 Ways To Get Your Point Across While Wearing a Mask
Good Stuff!

∞ Veterans And Gold Star Families Granted Lifetime Passes To National Parks
What?! This is awesome! Great idea!

Tag: november

My anxiety about the election kept me from forming coherent thoughts. (laughs) But, now I'm back at it.

I couldn't find an office address for Joe Biden, and I couldn't get his exact home address. So I put down what I knew and I'll trust that the US Postal Service will get my note to where it needs to go.

Because USPS is AWESOME!

Text reads:

Dear Mr Biden,
Congratulations!
I know you're going to be busy once you get to the White House ;) But here's something you don't need to do... Please do NOT pardon Donald Trump. I'm sure he'll try to pardon himself - Don't let that happen either. That guy needs to face the music for all the evil he's done.
Thanks and Happy Day,
rift :)

Tag: november

So, as predicted a new record was set for new daily cases. Saturday 31 Oct we had 101,461 new cases in the US, according to WOM. and the next record day... coming soon.

87,492 new cases added every day on average in the US. 874 people died every day on average. New cases exploding, hospitals filling up, and the death toll will continue to rise again.

Still coming down from our covid outbreak here in town, but it's a very slow process... 8 Oct was our highest count, with 288 active cases. Right now, we've got 142 active cases with 18 hospitalized.

And the results of the election are still pending, but it looks like Biden will probably win. But why is it so close? Why are people so loyal to that impeached monster? I just cannot understand.

Haha, this Cooper Hawk has a close audience!

(11.30 oops! I think this is a Red Shouldered Hawk! ha. see my 30 Nov, Hawks are Hard entry!)

Crows mob hawks, but the crows aren't so worried about it right now since they don't have nestlings to protect. But they are keeping an eye on the situation.

Funny how close they are. But great for size comparison!!

Tag: november

Today is the day. And I've got some major anxiety about this evening. AND the next couple of months, because that lame duck is dangerous.

So I went out to the river for a good walk. :)

pics!

Tag: november

Please DONT Say Youre Welcome! Better responses to THANK YOU

The other month, I happened to run into the generous human who was re-filling their sidewalk food pantry. I gave them a very enthusiastic Thank you for doing this!

And they replied, Of Course!

I'd not heard that response to thank you before, and I really liked it. It acknowledged that they weren't doing this for me, even tho I was the one thanking them. And it implied that their action was inevitable!

Tag: october

I've been going to the garden every day this week to water. We've not had any rain, and I'm trying to give my little clover seeds the best start on life... I think they turn the water off on 1 nov.

The lack of rain is distressing because our rainy season starts in October. And we've had nothing but dew and high humidity. Which is something, but not really... the dry cracks in the dirt that I don't water are about 2inches wide!

That damn cat is still hanging out at the Garden, scaring the birds away, and I am very annoyed at his human family for letting him out. I like to listen to the Goldfinches twitter while I fork, and it makes me sad when they aren't around.

Tag: october

Looks like TX and CA are competing to get the first 1 million covid cases. sighs.

So, yep. Covid cases still rising, rising in the US. And, yes, WorldOMeter says we got a new record of 81,422 new cases in a day last friday, 23 Oct. (The old high of 79,024 happened 24 July.) All the websites have different numbers, of course, but I think they all hit a high within a day or so. For instance, NPR just says more than 83,000 new cases, they got their numbers from the Johns Hopkins site.

And these numbers aren't leveling off, they continue to rise. So will be hitting new records for the next, what? few weeks?

So anyway. There are 74,299 new cases added every day, on average, in the US. 844 people died on average every day in the US.

My town is slowly coming down from its outbreak... we had almost 300 active cases on 8 Oct, and now we're down to 175.

Tag: october

Last night, I pulled out my atlas to do some reviewing. You remember I've made it my quest to memorize all the countries in the world.

I'm almost done... I'm currently committing the South Pacific Islands to memory. Several of those I had to look up pronunciation, so I'm taking my time to learn them correctly! But, not all of the islands are actual countries, so it's a little bit easier than it looks, at first glance.

And then I need to go back and catch all the island countries in the Caribbean. And then I'm done!

Anyway, back to my atlas review. I thought I was mixing up Sierra Leone, in West Africa and Sri Lanka off the coast of India. But I had that right.

I was def mixing up a couple countries in Eastern Europe, tho... Belarus is in the north, and Bulgaria is in the south.

Yeah, one of my memory tricks is to think about groups of countries by their first letter. GINS is a good one: Greenland (okay not a country!), Iceland, Norway, Sweden, and then Finland and Russia are easy to tack on to the end!

So you can see how I might confuse the SLs of Sierra Leone and Sri Lanka. And the B countries in eastern Europe!

But I think I got it, now! :)

∞ WorldOMeter, 195 countries in the world

Very close to having all those in my head!

Tag: october

This one has been stalking in the Community Garden, this past week...

He is very beautiful, and there's def some mice to catch in the Garden. But the birds have been avoiding the place because of him.

We had our first below freezing night on Wednesday, and the Nasturtium and remaining summer squashes promptly died. Hopefully the Nasturtium didn't crowd out my baby clovers too bad... I need those clovers to live!

The tomato plants are mostly dead now, as well. But look how lovely these last few Brandywines look!

I had 4 different tomato plants this year... two that I always love: Sungolds and Brandywines. And two new ones: Garden Peach and Santiam.

The Garden Peach was... okay. but the "delicate" flavor bored me quickly and I stopped eating it after the first couple batches. Insipid is a word to use with this one.

The Santiam, on the other hand... set a ton of fruits when it was still chilly in the spring! That was exciting to see and I looked forward to them ripening. And I loved, loved them at the beginning. But, I did get tired of eating them, at some point.

There was a break before the Brandywine tomatoes started ripening. The Brandywines are my favorite, and I wondered if I would get sick of them like the others.

But I did not get tired of eating those Brandywines, once they started happening. In fact, I could eat more, and I miss them even tho I've got a couple ripening in the kitchen!

https://www.gardenrant.com/2020/10/between-the-covers-what-goes-into-writing-a-gardening-book.html

Tag: october

736 people died every day this past week, in the US.
And we are adding 60,016 new cases every day... that number is still jumping up from last week's 51,761 new cases.

The covid outbreak in my town has plateaued, and is not getting better. We currently have 209 active cases and a couple more people have died, bringing our total to 26. On monday we had a high of 19 people hospitalized.

I am watching the numbers for several states, and they've all been going up... more cases, more hospitalizations. And what are we doing about it? As far as I can tell: nothing.

Even in my town, after hitting a high of almost 300 infectuous people on 8 October, then hovering around 220 active cases for a couple weeks since then... nothing. We've been put on a "Watch List" by the governor, and they tell us to wear our stupid masks. But no actual action has taken place to do anything about the problem!

Ridiculous! Worldometers says the US hit a high on 24 July, with 78,971 new cases. It looks like we are trying to break that record.

Propublica published an article about how the CDC has become corrupt...

∞ Inside the Fall of the CDC

It's long and it's depressing. and it just makes me cry for the USA. It is despicable that this happened!

Of course, that impeached monster has corrupted every agency of government... from Betsy DeVos destroying public schools as Secretary of Education to Louis DeJoy destroying the Postal Service. And soon the Supreme Court will be added to the list.

Oregon Junco at the community garden.

Tag: october

Walking home from the garden today...

A Mom with three children. Not the most flattering pic... Mom's got her tongue out, and poor human is messing up my shot. ha. But it's the only pic I got with all four of them together!

I immediately wondered if Mom had adopted one of the kids. Because 3 seems like a lot to carry to term with crappy urban nutrition.

Tag: october

Walking out by the river today...

This is one of my favorite places to stop and listen to the river. The water is tripping over some rocks, and it just sounds so lovely.

I took a pic here, last month as well. The little oak tree in the front was a bit more green back then. :) Thurs 24 Sept, River

American Wigeons are winter visitors in our area, and this was my first sighting of the season.

Tag: october

Tag: october

Ha... This one has been greeting me as I walk out the front door, this week. Not every day, but it's so surprising when she's there! We are about three feet apart in this pic.

I've encountered her so often, I decided to name her. Grace... courteous goodwill or as the verb do honor or credit to (someone or something) by one's presence I am def honored by her presence! :)

Tag: october

I just kinda like this pic... it's a bit more Landscape-y than my usual! The bridge in the background is for train tracks.

Tag: october

51,761 new cases of covid added every day in the US this past week.
and 738 people died of covid every day

The new daily cases have sky rocketted this week...

And maybe this time the covid breakout in my town has leveled off? We had a high last Thurs 8 Oct with 288 active cases and 15 people hospitalized.

Today we're at 210 infectious people, and it's been steadily dropping. But there are 14 people hospitalized. Our testing postitivity is down from last weeks 8.6%... now at 7.6%. Still higher than the state of Oregon at 5.9%.

a pair of sweet Lesser Goldfinches! awww!

(yep, that guy on the left might be familiar if you're on my postcard list!!)

Tag: october

It is not generally known that I am a bad speller, but I don't try to hide it. Since I'm a reader, I know when I've mis-spelled something. Between the spell-check and the dictionary I keep next to my bed, I can usually get things right.

Spelling has always been a problem for me. Some of my not-so-fondest memories from childhood are of me struggling with this problem... I must have been 7 or 8 years old? Studying for spelling tests with my Mom, and then getting so many words wrong, despite all the studying.

I am frustrated with myself, even now, 40 years later!

There are words that I consistently mis-spell... Like consistently!! *laughs* I spell it with an ANT instead of an ENT. Also label usually comes out first as lable, I have to look it up every. single. god. damned. time. (yep, even this time!)

Another good one is accidentally. I pronounce it without the Tally, it's accidently and that's not a word and it's never going to be a word, despite all the stupid people spelling it that way on the internets.

But, yeah, I still think it should be a word!

∞ Accidently or Accidentally
Oh, wow! this looks like an awesome website... just look at all those Confusing Words in the right sidebar! Nice! A good rabbit hole to fall down!

Tag: october

Schadenfreude is the word of the day when it comes to that impeached monster getting covid. He spent three days in hospital, where the doctors apparently threw every experimental treatment at him...

And then that piece of shit says Don't be afraid of Covid. Don't let it dominate your life.

(I am angry beyond words about this.)

44,822 new cases of covid added every day this past week... still steadily going up, up, up.
698 people have died every day of covid this past week.

And the covid problem in my town hasn't gotten any better... We currently have 262 active cases, a new high. But we hit a new high every couple of days. And our Test Positivity rate is up to 8.6%, horrible!

∞ I Can See Clearly Now, Singer Johnny Nash Has Died At 80

Aww. :( this is another Rain song that I love and know most of the words to. There's a video embedded on the NPR page, if you care to listen. RIP Mr. Nash.

Tag: october

∞ How to Start Drawing

This Pocket Worthy article caught my attention, the other day! But I don't really follow any of the tips, except the "Start Small" one.

I have been drawing ATC or baseball card size, for about a year. I'm keeping the drawings in 9-pocket pages. My first three-ring binder is mostly full, with 30 pages!

Yep, I draw humans sometimes. I'm not very good, obviously. But I think I'm getting better. or at least most of the drawings aren't hideous. heh.

And the Grosbeak was giving me trouble... I just can't get that big beak right!

Anyway. I usually draw from photos, sometimes my own, sometimes pics out of calendars, magazines, newspaper. I probably should branch out and Draw from life every once in a while, like the article says.

Tag: october

The Johns Hopkins website shows that the world hit 1 million deaths from covid yesterday. sighs.

Here in the US, we've been adding 43,845 cases every day, and 775 people are dying every day.

And it looks as tho our little problem with covid here in town has topped off. Monday we had 202 active cases and it's fallen to 179 today.

Unfortunately, the test positivity rate has jumped from 1 and 2% that we had thru the end of August, to 7.1%... this is bad! and This is the first time that our percent positivity has been greater than the state [Oregon], which is at 6.3%

And we've had steady containment on the Holiday Farm Fire... they've got it 65% contained, and report only 6 minor injuries!

I can't remember if I've mentioned, but they did find all of the 250 people who were unaccounted for. Just one person died in the fire. Which amazes me, since the fire blew up so incredibly quickly the first night, which was Monday 7 Sept 8:20pm.

As far as I know, they don't know the cause of this fire yet. But I would assume that it was downed power lines, from the terrible wind storm that happened at the time. It is standing at 173,094 Acres and has destroyed over 700 buildings, including around 430 homes.

Tag: september

Let me just say, I hate buying new shoes. I like my old shoes. I don't want to get used to new shoes. I don't want to spend 60$ on new shoes. I don't want to lace up new shoes.

Unfortunately, with the amount of walking I do... well, the comfortable old shoes eventually fall apart. sighs.

These were sooo comfortable! Yeah, they had holes in the bottoms. Walk thru a puddle and my socks were wet. I didn't even care! Yeah, dirt got in thru the holes in the sides. Still didn't even care!

But last monday, the right heel lost it's attachment. It dragged all the way home. Okay. That's one insult too far. It's time to retire these.

I pulled out another old pair of shoes while I looked to order a new pair. These were not so comfortable. A bit tight, and they gave me a blister on my toe.

And I didn't realize how close to falling apart...

Yesterday, as I was leaving the garden, the tread fell off the left shoe.

*laughs* Well, this is ridiculous! I had to walk on my tippy toes in order to keep the inner lining in place!

Tag: september

After working very hard at the Community Garden plot for three days, trying to break up the concrete which is the dirt... there was actual sweat involved and a pulled muscle and everything! After all that, it rained on the tiny section of cover crop seeds and I rewarded myself with a trip out to the river.

I was actually giddy that I was walking in a beautiful setting, and not forking myself to frustration!!

Unfortunately I didn't really get any good photos. Sometimes it happens like that, just gotta go out again another day! No problem, that! :)

There were Red Wing Blackbirds bouncing around all over the place.

and a favorite place to stop and listen to the river!

Tag: september

Deaths in the US have gone down, but cases have gone up... 731 people died every day, and we've been adding 42,923 new cases every day.

And the Johns Hopkins Covid Dashboard reports 200,000 dead in the US, as of this morning.

Serious issues in my town... our active case count is 125, we've been bouncing up steadily with no end in sight. Newspaper says small gatherings are to blame and there are now three assisted living facilities involved. We hit 1,000 total cases yesterday.

White Crowned Sparrows are winter visitors in our area... and this is the first sighting of one this season!

Tag: september

The food coming from the garden is def starting to slow down. The Cucumbers gave up the ghost ages ago. A couple of tomato plants died in the cool and smoky weather. Still some Brandywines ripening, tho. And a couple of Crooknecks are still on the vine, and some tiny Patty Pans, too.

I've got my cover crop seeds, and a promise of rain on wednesday night... Let's see how much of the garden I can clear, till and seed!

I started in the back corner, where I know the dirt needs some serious help. Letting the cover crop grow the longest there, will do it good!

I cleared the weeds with no trouble. Grass goes to the community compost, as does the bind weed and the other creeping vine that makes a bajillion seeds that I've not identified yet. And borage stays since it will break down quickly and return nutrients to the dirt.

But when I tried to fork the soil... haha, it was like concrete! Even tho we had gotten good rain before the weekend, the dirt was hard as a brick. sighs. But this is exactly what I meant: this dirt needs Help!

Well, I finished and seeded a tiny 2 square feet and then had to call it quits for the day! *laughs*

It's a start. I don't remember how long it took me to complete the cover crop last year... 3weeks? a month? I'll have to look it up!

Tag: september

I was shocked and devastated to hear of the death of Ruth Bader Ginsburg, last night.

Our world has lost an amazing woman. And the US has lost a significant power for good.

I am terrified about her replacement in the court.

Tag: september

Tag: september

There's a 100% chance of rain tonight. So this might be the last of the wildfire smog photography.

When I headed out this morning, the visibility was so much better and the air quality was at 260. Still "Very Unhealthy" but not "Hazardous"!

I was happy to see a little group of Bushtits. They are too bouncy for my camera... I can't focus before they are several branches away!

But then a little breeze kicked up. And suddenly the air is smoky and yucky again. Probably up in the 400 range again...

The smoggy tree near the center of the photo is my Leaning Tree. A White Oak, almost 2 miles from home, at the end of the bike path, going east. One of it's branches swoops down and is horizontal right at a good writing desk level. :) Yep, I've been known to pull out my little "Idea Journal" that I carry in my jacket, to write there for a few!

Tag: september

6,735,588 USA cases of covid, adding 39,309 new cases every day.

199,561 people have died, 913 every day this past week.

(Numbers are from the 1pt3acr site, and are slightly higher than the numbers from the Johns Hopkins site, which were 6,609,770 USA cases and 195,962 USA dead.)

And my town has a bit of a problem... we've got 65 active cases right now. And 14 people have died, half of whom have died in the last couple of weeks! Yikes! What the heck is going on??!

And my state hit 500 dead on Saturday. :(

∞ HHS Official Michael Caputo Admits Warning Of 'Sedition' At CDC, Riots If Trump Wins

So, this guy is obviously not right in the head. Like, maybe we need some Mental Health time. And maybe we need to not be in charge of millions of dollars of advertising money for an agency that needs to be saturated with science!

Okay, this got my goat...

∞ Trump administration has not paid USPS for COVID-19 postcards featuring Trump's name

uh huh. I remember that postcard. In fact, I scanned it in at the time. The file name I gave it...

20200327_AreYouFuckingKiddingMe.jpg *laughs*

Looks like I might need to subscribe to a new magazine...

∞ Scientific American Endorses Joe Biden

ha!

Back to local news, the Holiday Farm fire, just east of town is now 6% contained. It covers 166,503 Acres and we now have a whopping 767 fire fighters!

Aww! Sweet girl at the Community Garden! :) Plus you don't hardly notice the wildfire smog in this photo. The air quality was at 320 when I took this pic!

Tag: september

Web site update

It occurred to me that having separate current pages for the newest blog posts was stupid. *laughs* It was fine when I was actually catching up with the older posts. But I quit doing that. And it's dumb to maintain all those separate pages.

So! This is the place! if I bother with filling in some older posts, I'll be sure to let you know! :)

The Knee

I am starting to walk more... further and more often. Did I tell you? I walked 4.5 miles on Saturday!! Yay!

Since I've gotten used to riding my bike down the bike path, I really enjoy going out to the Tsanchiifin Walk. I'm still finding different birds there!

And then I ride the bike a bit further out! The bike path ends about 5.5 miles away from home... I've not quite gotten to the end, yet, but got to around 5 miles today!

There's more prairie, and not as many trees. But I can hear Red Wing Blackbirds singing, so that's something new and different. :)

Smog Photography

Well, let's see... today the air quality is at 330. Still in the Hazardous category. But still looks better than it has been.

Tag: september

Okay, this is just a fun photo...

I count 12 Goldfinches! I've made this pic a bit bigger than usual so you can see them all. (Right-Click for "View Image". Then hit the back button to return.)

And I think they are eating the seeds of Basil! I had no idea it was such a popular meal!! I'm not a huge fan, but apparently I need to have a good patch of basil next year!! :)

This morning's Air Quality is 475 (Hazardous is 300 to 500), but it actually looks a lot better than it's been.

Tag: september

Yep, this is the air I'm going out into. Air Quality is 423 this morning.
Hazardous is 300 to 500.

Tag: september

Okay, this Smog Sun didn't turn out as well as the one the other day with the tree leaves... But this is a new endeavor, so you have to cut me some slack!

Here's a cute smog squirrel for ya...

Tag: september

752 people died every day this week in the US and we're adding 36,808 new cases of covid daily.

My town has 57 active cases, bringing our total count to 803. Three people died recently, unprecedented, bringing a total of 10 people who have died.

And the wind storm of Monday night has kicked up a horrific wildfire, east of town. It's huge and completely uncontained, so they're evacuating the eastern edge of town. They don't have enough fire fighters, since they're spread all across the state, and helping California.

Scary stuff. I live on the western side of town, so I can't imagine that I'd be in danger. But so many hundreds of people escaping the fire... :~(

Tag: september

There was a good wind storm last night. That was exciting. And this morning we woke up to a dark red sky and ash covering everything.

The responsible wildfires aren't new, but the wind direction is. Up until now, we've been very lucky about avoiding the wildfire smog. But now we've got it in droves.

I walked 3½ miles today!

I blew out my knee at the beginning of August. After two weeks of trying to take it easy, it felt better and I started walking again.

But after a 4 mile hike up the hill, the knee was inflamed again. Back to square one.

So when the knee started feeling better again last week, I didn't take the bait! I continued biking and only walking short distances.

I started walking a bit over the weekend. Oh, it's nice to walk without having to think about pain! But I'll try not to push it. Tomorrow I'll bike, instead of walk, and hopefully I'll keep the knee in one piece.

Tag: september

The USA hit 6 million covid cases yesterday, according to the Johns Hopkins website. Some of those people have gotten well, of course... but how many have to deal with serious complications? How many Long Haulers will there be?

And in my hometown, cases are peaking again, with 46 active right now. There is an outbreak at an assisted living center.

And in personal news, my partner just got his first covid test today. So exciting. He's negative.

What the hell?

∞ U.S. says it won't join WHO-linked effort to develop, distribute coronavirus vaccine

Tag: september

Tag: august

https://www.gocomics.com/pearlsbeforeswine/2020/08/30

Tag: august

Yep, I biked out to Tsanchiifin Walk yet again today... hoping to meet some new birds.

Yes! There were some! Strange new song, strange new bouncing around in the tree. And suddenly flying away, before the camera can focus. heh. oh well. maybe next time.

Far away I hear another new bird: "La La La, Chew Chew Chew". huh, that's interesting! I hope I get to meet them soon!

A Spotted Towhee was calling their rusty door, "creeeeaak". Several Goldfinches twittering, along with some Chickadees "dee dee dee"ing.

And this scruffy one...

I knew the species when I was taking the pics, but I'd forgotten when I was going thru my photos. Separate from my experience, I couldn't figure out what this bird was!

Female House Finch? hum, doesn't really match up. So, not female... is juvenile! Ahhh! The stripes on the face are so faint, that's what tricked me!

A juvenile Song Sparrow. And then I remembered what this one was saying as I took her/his portrait, "jeep. jeep."

Birds say so much! Sure, it's fun to learn their spring time songs. But knowing their communication words is much more important!

Tag: august

Yay! Wildlife success at my new Tsanchiifin Walk, on the 2nd day I've been...

Oh my gosh, so tiny! This Pacific Chorus Frog was teeny tiny!! Around ½ inch! (Adults are normally almost 2 inches.) I can't say she was a baby because of course baby frogs are actually tadpoles! *laughs* But dang. So cute.

Plus she let me walk around so I could have the sun behind me. So patient and kind! :D

So, she's a girl... you can't see it in this pic, but males have a dark vocal sac on their throat. My other photos show that her throat is entirely creamy white.

And it looks like she's starting to change into her autumn brown colours! Summer frogs are bright green, Winter frogs are grey and brown.

Tag: august

At the beginning of the month, I blew out my knee. I took it easy and after two weeks, it was cured.

Getting back to my usual walking, I started out slow: I walked less than a mile, for a couple days. I walked 2 miles, no problem. A couple of 3 mile days.

And then I walked up to the Hidden Trail. It's a four mile walk and the trail is short but steep. And it killed the knee.

So, I'm back where I was. Except now I don't have any hope: as soon as the knee gets better, I will still have to take it easy. And for how long should that be? *shrugs*

At some point in this saga, my partner fixed up my bike. I've been biking to the garden every other day... to water and bring home veges.

Biking doesn't bother the knee at all! There's no pain, other than the usual ache, when I'm riding. And I don't think there's any extra pain in the afternoon, either.

So I've decided to experiment with a longer bike trip... Yesterday, I headed out with the bike to a park on the bike path about 3 miles away.

oh it was good to see different things!

But the park itself, Tsanchiifin Walk, was rather boring. *laughs* This is to be expected...

The park is a wet prairie, which means it's a shallow pond in the winter and a grassy prairie in the summer. I much prefer to walk in forest or along water. And since I am familiar with those ecosystems, I also know what kind of wildlife I'll encounter, and their behavior!

I am not familiar with the prairie. I don't know who I will come across, and I don't know what signals to look for if someone is nearby!

This is fine. And good. I can learn.

Tag: august

USA has had 5,907,397 covid cases as of this morning, we've been adding 43,095 new cases every day this week.

181,468 people have died so far, our current rate is 1,000 people every day.

My town has dropped down to 14 active cases, after hovering at 35 to 40 for several weeks!

That impeached monster is touting his latest miracle treatment, and has forced the FDA to push blood plasma.

*rolls eyes*

∞ 97,000 People Got Convalescent Plasma. Who Knows if It Works? treating 98,000 people with plasma and not having conclusive data if it worked is problematic, and we should have a more robust data set before we give 98,000 people a product Yeah, no studies, no science. :/

Oh, and the CDC and HHS have also become compromised and corrupt...

∞ Officials change virus testing advice, bewildering experts
Good idea! Let's NOT test people who have been exposed to covid! Yeah!

??? um. GAH!

Tag: august

Tag: august

The park behind our apartment complex got a Little Free Pantry installed recently!!

At the beginning of July, I learned that we were getting a Little Free Pantry. And at first I was excited because the boxes had some amazing art on them.

But then I discovered that the group who is working to get these food boxes set up... is Vegan!!

∞ Burrito Brigade
providing nutritious vegan meals to hungry individuals in Eugene and Springfield, and has since expanded to Portland.

Yay! This is just all kinds of awesome, all the way around!

Our Little Free Pantry is #23 in Eugene. And our artist is Wendi Kai...

∞ Moon Maiden Tattoo: Wendi Kai's paintings
Aww! she's arted a vulture!! All her art is beautiful!

Anyway. When I first learned about the Little Free Pantries back in July, I had just finished re-reading Invisible Women: Data Bias in a World Designed for Men.

There is a ton of info in that book, including the hardship of not including menstruation products in any services for the homeless, refugees, people in jail, and kids in school! You'd be hard pressed to find free products even in specifically womens' spaces like domestic violence shelters or Planned Parenthood.

It's crazy! Like crazy-crazy, not just plain crazy!

And when I learned about the Little Free Pantry, I knew exactly what I wanted to contribute to it! :D

Tag: august

I have been sending weekly postcards to Moscow Mitch ever since Representative John Lewis died. I've been requesting that he get the Voting Rights Advancement Act passed in John Lewis' name.

He's not responded, or done anything. so I keep sending postcards to him.

I try... I try my best. To be respectful in my writing. I do not call him Moscow Mitch. I use cheerful language. I say please.

But, I must admit, some snark has wiggled into my writing.

After I wrote this week's postcard to MM...

(heh.) I decided to have some words with the Postmaster General...

Begone, DeJoy!

Update (Tue, 18 Aug 2020)...

∞ Post Office Chief Suspends Controversial Changes Until After Election

I assume this is a good thing. But I also assume that guy is a lying sack of shit... so who knows.

Oh, was that out loud? I'm sorry. but...
(Updated Thu, 20 Aug 2020)...

There have been several reports of mail sorting machines being broken down and tossed. Wai! How much money is he just throwing away? How much efficency is lost without those machines? why, why, why?!

Tag: august

So it's been a week and a half since my knee started hurting.

I've TRIED to rest it by staying home and not walking... but it kills my soul. So I've been walking a little, not every day, and less than a mile.

It is getting better. I'm still taking aspirin and ibuprofen constantly, but it's easier to get around the house. And the walking pain is no longer "oh no I'm going to die." It's more like "well this sucks." heh.

And you'd think, oh, not walking 3 or 4 miles in a day means I get an extra two hours to do stuff! So what have I been up to?

Napping.

Yeah, like I said, my soul is dying here!

But, my little walk around the neighborhood today lifted my spirits...

pic!

Tag: august

The USA has 5,262,241 covid cases as of this morning and we've been adding about 54,692 new cases every day.

167,028 people have died of covid, at a rate of 1,064 every day.

And my town is still hovering at 35 active cases, a level we've been at for a couple weeks now.

giggles...

∞ Florida Sheriff Orders Deputies And Staff Not To Wear Face Masks any individual walking in to any one of our lobbies ... that is wearing a mask will be asked to remove it.

Because? ...

We can debate and argue all day of why and why not, Woods added. The fact is, the amount of professionals that give the reason why we should, I can find the exact same amount of professionals that say why we shouldn't.

Oh, Florida. There's this thing called Science.

And from the other end of the emotional spectrum...

oh thank goodness. That impeached monster had rolled back the protections of the Migratory Bird Treaty Act back in Dec 2017...

Yesterday a judge upheld the intent of the MBTA... a law which protects more than 1000 species of birds and has been on the books since 1918!!

∞ Victory! Federal Judge Rules Administration's Bird-Killing Policy is Illegal

The process of suing to get the government to follow the laws -- or not change laws randomly -- is tedious and time consuming. And why should we need to?? But the monster has a scorched earth policy... so I'm sure this scenario will play out again.

And, finally...

Yay, Kamala Harris!

We need more than a victory on Nov. 3; we need a mandate that proves the past few years do not represent who we are or who we aspire to be

Tag: august

A project that I started this year is memorizing all of the countries of the world and knowing where they are on a map! I started with Central and South America, then got Africa, Europe, the Middle East, and now I'm into the rest of Asia.

It's kinda funny to say, but I love doing this! Sure, it makes me feel smart. And also, when something happens in the news, in some random country most Americans have never heard of, I'm all, Oh! I know exactly where that is!

*laughs* okay, that might just be me being smug! But, seriously, having this knowlege really does make me feel good that my brain is still working!

Another game that I play, now that I've got over half the world memorized, is naming countries alphabetically! The distribution across the alphabet is a little bit surprising to me.

For instance, there are a bunch of countries that start with the letter E -- Egypt, El Salvador, Eritrea, there are 8 altogether. I is another surprising letter, also with 8 countries.

There are 3 F countries -- Finland, France, Fiji.

And 3 J countries -- Japan, Jamaica, Jordon.

And 3 R countries -- Rawanda, Romania, Russia. This one seems odd to me, you'd think there'd be more Rs!

There's one Q -- Qatar. And one O -- Oman. A couple Ys, and a couple Zs.

And there are zero Ws!!

Technically, there's Western Sahara, which is disputed territory mostly controlled by Morocco. And there's Wales, but that is part of the UK. (And of course, there are probably other places like this that I don't know about!)

And, yeah. Since I'm well into Asia, I realize it won't be long until I run out of countries!! ack!

But there's a bunch of islands in Southeast Asia.

And it turns out I was pretty sloppy when I only memorized the bigger islands in the Caribbean.

So there's still stuff to keep me busy with this for a bit longer!!

Tag: august

Our left side neighbor, at the Community Garden, has been a no-show this year. But she did plant a winter cover crop which has done well. The Fava got nice and tall, went to seed and is now dying back.

In the back of her plot, I am interested to see some Jerusalem Artichokes or Sunchoke. I've never grown or eaten them... so I was excited when I saw one of the tall plants had fallen over into our plot!

Yep, I took it. There were a couple, small tubers that I nabbed, and asked google what to do with them.

You can eat them raw or treat them like potatoes with roasting, steaming or boiling. Many people love them and after the first frost they will have a sweet nutty flavor.

Also thrilled to learn that this plant, a species of sunflower, is native to North America and was cultivated by the Native Americans.

I cooked up the smallest ones with my pasta. Literally, three bites... I have learned my lesson about trying new veges! ie Fennel Root, meh. Dandelion Blooms, yuck. *laughs*

I liked the texture of the Sunchoke, but they didn't have much of a taste. I guess you have to wait for the frost. And they don't store well, so I'll have to eat the other one soon!

They do store perfectly in the ground tho... so I'm really interested in growing them in my own plot, next year. Stealing from my neighbor, wasn't very nice of me, after all!!

Pic!

Tag: august

The USA has 4,879,399 reported cases of covid, and we've been adding 60,088 every day. (Yay, We're Number One!)

159,582 people have died of Covid in the US, 1105 every day.

My town has 40 active cases today, we've kind of leveled here for a week or so.

This opinion article kind of struck a chord with me...

∞ The Cult of Selfishness Is Killing America By Paul Krugman

What they call freedom is actually absence of responsibility.

With great freedom, comes great responsibility.

Wear your mask!

Tag: august

I have somehow managed to blow out my right knee.

Sighs.

I don't think I specifically injured it. But when I walked to the garden, yesterday, it was a bit annoying at the beginning, tho I was able to ignore it after a half mile or so.

And today, every single step was painful.

Contemplating a life without walking in nature, terrified me. But even taking a few days off, frustrates me to no end!

I guess I'll do it... I'm taking aspirin and I'm set up with cold packs... but, gah!

Tag: august

This Goldfinch in the Cosmo flowers is so close to being a good photo. This is the kind of thing that makes me really really wish I could draw and paint!!

So close. *shakes head*

Tag: july

I've been so happy to see Bluebirds using one of the nesting boxes provided at the Community Garden this year!

Funny thing is... they were not using this box. But because it was so close to the nesting box they were using, the male thought it his duty to keep anyone else from getting into this box! The Violet Green Swallows were very interested in looking at this box... and oh the screeching battles!

The Bluebird won... nobody got to nest in this box.

(Well. Okay. Screeching is a bit of an exaggeration. and yeah, battles is def an exaggeration! heh.) (But still... the Bluebird won!)

But on the other side of the Garden, arguably closer to the active Bluebird box...

*laughs* a pair of Violet Green Swallows were quietly using another nesting box! Apparently in peace, without the screeching. :)

Tag: may

Four Black Tail Deers on a hill...

Right-Click and View Image to see the 4th. :)

Tag: may

I have been having ongoing problems with the printer, and I finally decided to do something about it today!

I bought this Epson SuperTank printer May 2019. It was $650, pretty spendy, but I really wanted to continue printing 11x17 papers like I did on my old decrepit Canon printer.

The Epson has worked great and I'm thrilled that I don't have to give it new ink cartridges every month! It comes with bottles of ink, which you use to refill the reservoirs. A bottle of ink is supposed to last about a year with "normal" business use. Mine have lasted around um, 8 months, I think? Yeah, I am definitely not "normal"!! :D

I went on holiday during December, and I didn't print anything for about a month. When I came back, the printer had multiple issues.

The print heads would clog up randomly. Mostly it was the magenta, occasionally the cyan or yellow. Somehow, the printer knew about the clogging and would substitute with black.

It wasn't a huge deal at first because it only happened once or twice a week and it would fix itself after one or two prints. Or I would run the print head cleaning routine. Occasionally the "deep" cleaning, but I know this is a terrible waste of ink.

Over the last few months it's gotten progressively worse, and now I am running a large "unclogging" printout every single day before I print the things I actually want to print.

Printing is not fun anymore! Wai!

The other problem is that once I do get going with good printouts, occasionally there would be a huge blob of black ink streaking across one area of the printouts. It was so much ink, it was 3 dimensional. Now that I have worked on it, I know this was ink from the print head cleanings I was doing...

So, yeah, I worked on it today. I'd been procrastinating this for a long time. The printer is barely a year old and I was sure I would break something.

But I got in there and cleaned out a LOT of ink. Lordy, there was ink everywhere. So that's where the blobs were coming from.

Cleaning the print head is tricky. It's permanently attached, you can't just pull it out and run it under the faucet like a normal printer.

That's what I want to do, and I study hard to see if I can unscrew something to pull it out. I unscrew a lot of things, and yank hard on some other things. nope.

(and somehow none of the plastic bits broke, and I got it all back together!) (and yes, this is my nature and this is exactly why I was worried that I would break the thing, once I got into it!!) :)

You have to gently run a paper towel under the print head and then just rub it back and forth to get as much ink off as possible. repeat, repeat, repeat!

And that seems to have done the trick. I am back to printing whenever I feel like it! And the prints come out with all the colours needed and none of the black blobs!

And I love to print things again! Yay!

Tag: may

huh, I've not seen a Lady Bug like this one before...

oh, haha... the Convergent Lady Beetle is among the most common lady beetle species throughout North America. Not around here, obviously!

The Convergent is native to North America... while the most common lady bug around here, the Seven-Spot Ladybird, is native to Europe and Northern Africa. how crazy is that.

Here's a not great pic of a Seven Spot...

Tag: may

Oh, Wow!

I always called these interesting creatures Skeeter Eaters, but that's wrong! They are Crane Flies...

∞ Mosquito Hawk? Skeeter Eater? Giant Mosquito? No, No, and No

From the above link, apparently, scientists think Crane Flies are interesting creatures, too, but there's so many species of them, they haven't all been studied! There are over 15,000 species and hundreds of subspecies! There's interesting behavior, there's interesting larvae, pretty much interesting everything!

Ha! Bugs are so cool!

(but I think Skeeter Eater is a much better name than Crane Fly, even if they don't eat anybody!!) :)

Tag: may

So, Monday morning, we hit 90,000 people dead from covid in the US, and it looks like we are on track to hit 100,000 before the end of the month.

ugh.

1,330 people in the US died every day, on average, this week. (a little bit less than last week.)

It may not be obvious from my weekly rantings, but I am utterly ashamed of how the US has handled the pandemic. We had programs and people in place that would have kept people alive. We could have come out in a much better position, and then we would have been helping other countries in the world.

Instead, we have that idiot impeached monster. Who dismantled the programs and fired the important people. Who ignored science and refused to do anything.

And, Dear World, I am so so sorry that it happened like this.

Tag: may

We have had some of the best clouds this year!

And that is a vulture. heh, being mistakenly mobbed by a couple of crows.

Vultures are neither predator nor prey. They are kind of outside the food web, but such an incredibly important part of ecosystems!

Tag: may

More wildlife from the RiverBank trail... a turtle!!!

Her shell is beautiful!

Unfortunately, she's an invasive Red Eared Slider. They are native to the South in the US and Northern Mexico. They are popular pets which means they get released into the wild when their caretakers get overwhelmed.

In our area, they displace our native Western Pond Turtles. And I haven't seen any of these, lately. sighs.

Tag: may

The Rose Garden here in town was closed yesterday. They are replacing the gravel pathway with a more accessible paved path, which is awesome.

But it's a crime to close the Rose Garden at the very beginning of the season!! Yep, I jumped the construction fence and took a few pics.

I'm such a sucker for roses!

Tag: may

And then you've got those odd ball families! ... who I love the best! :)

The photo is terrible, since I had to shoot into the sun and didn't get a chance for a different angle...

Right-Click and "View Image" and then hit the back button!

Two Canada Geese, it looked like the first one may have had angel wings. One hybrid something or other. One Swan Goose. And two children, you can't see the other in this pic.

Ha! So curious! Who are the biological parents? Are they all related? Or just helping out the angel wing Canada Goose? So many questions!

Tag: may

I've been trying to get to a walk along the Riverbank for weeks. The last two weekends, when I've been able to actually get out there, it was pouring down rain! Now, I don't mind walking in the rain. You may have heard, even, that I love it!

:) But it's tough to take pics when it's pouring, and the wildlife is usually hiding, anyway.

So I was happy for a sunny day, when I didn't have to go out to water the Community Garden plot!

I got out to the Wildlife Refuge and ... Oh the Goslings! The Canada Geese have babies all over the place!

Adorably, the families are all separated by the ages of their children! The littlest goslings have the third run-off pond to the right of the path. The older ones are hanging out on the lawn of the big apartment complex, just beyond the Refuge. And there was just one family with almost full grown kids, they were by themselves on a hill I love to stand on to catch a glimpse of song birds. ha!

When Mallard ducks have babies, there's the Mom and there's the babies... and there may be one male nearby or there may be three males nearby! Or none! I don't think male ducks really care about being a dad.

But all the Canaada Geese families clearly consisted of two parents along with all the babies.

Tag: may

Happy House Finch... but I don't know what those little purple flowers are!

Tag: may

Today there are 4,291,081 Confirmed cases of covid in the world and 293,241 people dead from it. (according to current Johns Hopkins COVID-19 dashboard)

In the United States, there are 1,404,683 confirmed cases and 83,314 dead people. (according to current 1pt3acr Global COVID-19 Charts)

Yep. The USA has 32.7% of all the covid cases in the world. By the way, the USA has only 4.25% of the total population in the world.

Also. 1,593 people in the US died every day, on average this week. Every day.

Yeah, not so much of a rant today. More just reporting the numbers with a sigh of resignation.

The pic is blurry, but how sweet...

Tag: may

There are a couple places to watch the Swallows swooping up bugs along the bike path. It is so fun to watch them, especially when they swoop close and make a circle around you!! It's surprising and joy-full to see a little bird zing right past!

We have three different species of Swallows... Tree Swallows, Violet-Green Swallows and Barn Swallows.

The Tree Swallows and the Violet-Green Swallows are hard to tell apart when they are flying... they both have white on the bottom, and, even tho Tree Swallows are blue on top, you can't tell the colour difference when you are looking up at the sky at them!

But, if you catch them at the right angle, Violet-Greens have some white on their lower back. When they're flying, it looks like there is a band of white, altho I don't think the white sides actually connect across their back.

Barn Swallows on the other hand are easy to pick out from the group! They are rusty / buffy red underneath, and that flash of red always gives them away. In addition, they have a deeply forked tail that you can glimpse sometimes when they are flying past you!

For the past several years, the Barn Swallows have been missing from the bug gathering along the bike path. But this year, in many places, I've seen Barn Swallows. Sometimes even more Barn Swallows than the other Swallows!

Anyway, I love to watch them all. But I don't bother pulling out the camera, there's no point! I'm sure Swallows do sit sometimes, but they are usually too busy for down time!!

Here's a Tree Swallow. :)

Tag: may

I have been sleeping with my window open, and the singing birds wake me up every morning!

Usually it's a Robin. He's a bit far away, so this is a gentle wake up. Robins song goes "Cheery, Cheerily" over and over. I've heard other robins change it up with some trills and other cool sounds. But my Morning Robin is a traditional fellow, just "Cheery! Cheerily!" :)

The past week or so, a family of Crows has been waking me up. They are right out the window, and so they are pretty loud and I get an abrupt wake up.

There are 2 Crows who say the usual "Caw, Caw" and the third crow says other stuff in kind of a rough, deep voice. I really wonder what's up with him! What's his story?!

This morning, I happened to wake up at 4:30, still very dark, and I could hear some other bird just quietly talking to herself. Not the regular song, just chirps and twitters. Kind of sweet and I fell back asleep to that.

Every once in a while, I hear a bird singing in the middle of the night. It makes me wonder if they have nightmares and then they comfort themselves with a song, or maybe their branch buddy helps by singing...

Little birds do have scary things in their every day lives sometimes, so I'm sure they get nightmares sometimes, just like we do. But, they must have good dreams, as well. After all, they get to fly every day! How much better, their dreams must be! :)

*** Update ***

laughs! My friend sent me this YouTube link to a kid's song! It is hilarious. And, ya know? There are some mornings, where this is my sentiment as well!

∞ Billy Kelly - Repetitive Bird

Tag: may

oh my. The textures! and the dots of colourful rhododendrons!

Tag: may

It surprises me to see a non-Purple Columbine! But this Red Columbine is native to the western US and Canada.

Tag: may

I just think this is a lovely colour combination!

Tag: may

I didn't get a very good angle on this amazing blue butterfly, but what a fun, furry body with striped antenae!

I think this is a Silvery Blue Butterfly.

Blues are a whole set of completely unrelated butterflies that all look basically the same! You've got the Dotted Blue, the Northern Blue, the Greenish Blue, the Boisduvals Blue, and the Acmon Blue. Not to mention the Spring Azure, and the Eastern- and Western- Tailed Blues!

Ha, it just cracks me up that the people who are naming butterflies can't be more creative!!

Tag: may

Average number of tests done daily in Oregon (the last week of april)
== 1439 tests per day

Average number of tests done daily in Oregon (for this past week)
== 2032 tests per day

Yeah, I'm sooo glad our testing rate is going up. </sarcasm>

To compare... Washington state is to the north of Oregon. They supposedly had the first covid case in the US, but they got on top of things right away.

Average number of tests done daily in Washington state (in the past week)
== 5234 tests per day

And to compare again, California to the south of Oregon has had some major hot spots, has lots of money, and is doing okay testing...

Average number of tests done daily in California (in the past week)
== 24,310 tests per day

yeah. An order of magnitude more than Oregon.

I have been trying to avoid the news about the anti-lockdown protesters. Mostly because it makes me want to shout "What is Wrong with you people?!" GAH.

Tag: may

Last spring, I kept coming across Lady Bugs. I took their portraits whenever I saw them. And one of my all time favorite photos was a pic I took in mid-April of a Lady Bug in a Camas Lily. (hm. You can request a postcard. :)

This spring, I keep coming across Roly Poly Bugs!

I gotta say, it's difficult to get their portrait because they are always walking. And as soon as they see me and the camera, they start walking Away! *laugh* But I also gotta say, when I do get a decent photo, I am amazed at the little colour variations on their shell.

∞ Roly Poly Bugs are invasive in the US. They are from Europe. But I'm not sure if they are causing any problems in the ecosystem here.

∞ They eat decaying plant matter! So if you see them in your garden, it's a good thing! They aren't eating your plants, they are making food for your plants! :)

∞ They are not bugs! ha! They are crustaceans!

∞ Their shell has seven plates. Seven pairs of legs. A pair of antennae and a pair of simple eyes. Simple eyes just means they have one lens (rather than compound eyes)... similar to our eyes!

∞ They breath with gills so they must have a humid environment.

∞ They live 2 to 5 years!

∞ Male Roly Polies have longer antennae... but I've not taken enough photos to tell the difference.

Tag: may

The latest batch of newborn ducklings.

I just love the word ducklings. And I think we should apply the -ling part to other species.

So we could call babies humanlings. Foals are Horselings. Kittens are Catlings.

See?! It works! Buglings, Sharklings, Kangaroolings, Robinlings, Sea Turtlelings! *laughs*

Tag: may

oh dang it, this is a terrible photo... I wish she was closer to the ground. And I wish I wasn't looking straight up at her. And I wish I could fix the colour. Because these are apparently beautiful moths.

So, she's high up in a tree and hanging down from a leaf. Here's the same photo, but I've turned it upside down so it looks like she's standing upright and it's a little easier to understand what you're looking at.

Check out those amazing antennae!

Anyway! This is a Ceanothus Silk Moth... (pronounced Sea-uh-No-thus) native to the western US and up to Canada. And she is huge! Their wingspan can be up to 5inches across (9 to 13 cm)!

Some much better photos, here, and oh my goodness!! look at these awesome caterpillars... *swoon*

∞ Ceanothus Silk Moth: A Beautiful Moth From A Color Changing Caterpillar (what a great page!)

Tag: may

This is a variety of English Hawthorn, very pretty but also very non-native. Which is a bummer, because this tree is growing along the creek near my home in a city maintained park.

The Pacific Northwest does have a native Hawthorn, the Black Hawthorn. The leaves are very different from the English version, and I'm not familiar with them.

Not yet, at least! :)

Tag: may

(Posted 22 Dec 2020...)

The new archive is HTML5, and completely validated!

2019 journal entries

Tag: 2019

(Posted 18 Dec 2020...)

I have managed to move all of the 2018 journal entries into an archive page. I did not write very much in 2018, so I decided not to divide them up into months, like I usually do.

The new archive is HTML5, and completely validated!

2018 journal entries

Tag: 2018

(Posted 19 Dec 2020...)

I have managed to move all of the 2017 journal entries into an archive page. And again, I didn't write very much, so the posts for the entire year are on one page.

The new archive is HTML5, and completely validated!

2017 journal entries

Tag: 2017