Different Perceptions

I was behind a woman in the grocery store today. When she got to the end of the aisle, she turned left and walked past an employee (an acquaintance) who was walking toward me.

For the short time I was behind this woman all I could think was, "How can a grown woman (near my age!) be so dog gone skinny?" After she had turned I realized she was talking on a cell phone. It took me a couple beats more to realize she was speaking Spanish.

She wasn't anorexic skinny, she was naturally skinny. With the tiniest waist I have ever seen on an adult. And she wasn't super short. It just boggled my mind.

So the woman made her turn, the employee/acquaintance was approaching me. I must have been wearing a perplexed look. He was wearing a similar look. Only as he passed me he muttered under his breath, "Dial 1 for English."

He was down the aisle before what he said to me registered. I guess I should have chased him down and given him an ass chewin'. Because we know each other we share the same opinion? Are opinions like this supported and encouraged by management? Does management approve of employees expressing socio/political opinions?

The woman was skinny. But I probably shouldn't express that opinion either, since it is based on jealousy.

Impromptu Birthday Party

Templeton Rye

Weather and Birds

The weather has been gorgeous. Temps in the low 80's, nice breezes, and except for the occasional thunderstorm squall, sunny. A real downside of the recent wet weather is that the mosquitoes are thriving. Just try to open the car door and get in without a cloud of mosquitoes getting in with you. It can't be done.

H sent me one of those helpful hint forwarded emails that said Listerine kills mosquitoes. The email also said that spraying Listerine around your deck leaves you free to enjoy the great outdoors. I wondered if the generic would have the same effect and H figured it would. So one day before I went out to feed my birds I splashed a little generic Listerine on my arms and face. It made me sticky and very, very attractive to the little bloodsuckers. I would like to know if anyone else has tried this. More than that, I want to know what really works besides Deep Woods Off.

So other than the mosquitoes, the weather has been wonderful. Farmers are back tending to their fields. Some of the field ponds have dried up and been replanted. Other field ponds look like they are here to stay:

Geese in a corn field.

I was running low on eggs so this morning went to Crazy Uncle Miltie's Chicken Farm for eggs. Milt wasn't home so I wandered around and talked to the birds. Milt has such happy chickens. Happy chickens lay the most wonderful eggs. I went to his egg room, put some eggs in a carton and left a note and some money.

Chickens

I used to have chickens. I miss them.

Sidebar Stalking

H called me a stalker recently. It made me a little sad, even if she was kidding.

The internet makes stalking easy. There are people whose blogs I read and at times I feel I have enough information about them to make their lives a living hell if I wanted to. But I don't. I love my internet friends, even if they don't know me.

I don't miss a thing that they reveal because I have their blogs loaded into my Google Reader. Goggle lets me know what's going on right away. One of my stalkees told me that using the reader was just plain lazy. There you go. I am too lazy to be a good stalker.

I can't stalk H anymore through her blog as she shut it down. She is still listed in the sidebar because I'm hoping she will come back.

Jeremy, who got me hooked on blogs in the first place, shut down his blog, too. He's collaborating with other professionals on a blog. While Jeremy pokes through once in a while, the blog is often technical to the point of being boring (for someone who is not so bright, like me). I still read it but it is not on the sidebar.

Today I added two of my "must reads". The first is "The Other Side of the Ocean". Nina is in France now and has been for a few weeks. When she is not working she is traveling somewhere, usually in Europe. She takes fabulous photos and she posts every day. It's enough to give you wanderlust.

The second is "Sociological Images". It's stuff that makes me think without hurting my stupid head too much. It's kind of like college without the classroom, tests or tuition. So thanks, Gwen, for the free education!

Rain, Rain, Go Away

Yesterday was a muggy, muggy day. I tried to reclaim a patch of ground for garden but gave up. I managed to dig out enough muddy ground to plant some spinach, carrots and radishes that should have been planted a month ago. I came into the sweltering house, showered and dressed in minimal clothing to monitor the impending storms.

Crab mowed the lawn, showered and took off on one of his little journeys. I started working on food (mmmm....pea salad), played Facebook Scrabble with H, tried to watch a stupid movie and waited for the shit to hit the fan and cool off the damn house.

It did hit pretty good. I got phone calls. Crab wasn't coming home right now because it was raining too hard. My mom heard the name of the non-existent "town" where Crab and I live on the television. Evidently, a tornado had been heading here.

Really? For once I wasn't nervously pacing from window to window. I was just looking forward to the cool down after the rain.

Then several more phone calls from the K Town bar coalition asking me to come uptown. They had no electricity in K Town and life would not be complete without me there. So I went.

The new neighbors saw a tornado skipping down the K Town blacktop on their way to town. It had been very close to my house. K Town had been hit by lightning, knocking out the electricity. Basements were getting wet. I heard a generator running a sump pump.

The bar was stuffy and dark so we stood on the street and enjoyed the rainbow, taking pictures with our cell phones.

In front of the bar, snapping pics with cell phones

Over the old elevator

Look! The rainbow ends at Crab and pj's. Alas, there was no pot of gold when we got home.

They said the rainbow ended at Crab's and pj's. It didn't.

It rained and boomed all night. The fields are full of ponds. Rain is in the forecast all week long. I'm hoping my mom has her usual bountiful garden because we are going to starve if we have to depend on mine.

The house is down to 74 degrees, though!

Peach Iris

The peach iris are in their glory.

Peachy

Up Close

The dandelions are in their glory, too. Darn lawn.

Planting Posts

I joined a Yahoo group for plants/seed exchange and gardening advice even though I am a tad out of the area of the group (but willing to travel for new plants).

I have belonged to the group for about 24 hours. Every new posting arrives in my Yahoo in box. I've gotten about 20. I read them and thought (after all but the apparently literate moderator's posts), "OMG!!! Just because you dig in the dirt doesn't mean you can't write a decent sentence!"

Or does it? Maybe I should belong to the "Plant Exchange for People Who Can Be Understood When They Post" group.

Going For The Gold

I went to Ames Friday to watch my sister in law compete in the Special Olympics. I grumbled a lot about "having" to go, but once there had a grand time. It helped that I did not have to cling to the vertical cliff (bleachers) all day, but only for a few hours. Seriously, it was all I could do to keep from puking while looking straight down at the pool below.

My sister in law won handily and brought home the gold. You cannot imagine how excited she was.

I took the back roads on my big trip, driving on one of my favorite roads, E18. I encountered very little traffic and some great scenery. I got to pick my own pace and not get pushed and pulled along by the crazy people on the interstate. This is one of the things H hates about riding with me. I like to enjoy the scenery and she likes to get places fast.

Here are some things you can't enjoy while barreling down I35.

My Favorite Road

Church On My Favorite Road

Sweet

My little brother (a loosely used term since he is only a year and a half younger than I am and we are both old) called me tonight. We rarely talk on the phone. We are not a chatty family. If we know the others are fine, we're fine. When one calls, worry ensues immediately because why else would they call?

It turned out that he called because he was watching the weather on t.v. and was worried that I did not know about the looming thunderstorm. Ha. I should be so nonchalant about the weather. I am not. I am paranoid and I live in tornado country.

Years ago I procured a weather radio which informs me of impending doom or possibly-sort-of-maybe impending doom. Sometimes the radio is just annoying as hell. It had already told me that the storm would hit me at 6:15 p.m and I had a couple of different radar screens in different tabs up on my computer (how can radar differ so much?). I knew I was in for it.

It was sweet of him to worry. I asked if he wanted me to call him back after I survived the 60 mph winds that were sure to hit. He told me it wasn't necessary, he would see it on the news. Sweet.

The red eye of the storm was aimed right at me and then.... it went somewhere else. There was a short burst of not 60 mph wind and a little rain and then it was quiet again. It is always a little disappointing when the radio and radar get you all stirred up for a big disaster and all you get is a little fart.

Here is the radar after the fart:

Weather map, I am at the X

I went outside and here was the view to the terrible northeast:

Deep blue sky to the north and east.

And here is the inevitable rainbow:

Rainbow to the south and east

Sweet.

Most Exciting Day Ever

Last Friday was my most exciting bird day ever. I thought the orioles had forsaken me, but they returned after a couple of days of shyness. While admiring them I noticed a Rose Breasted Grosbeak, a bird I'd only seen once before.

Rose Breasted Grosbeak

Then I noticed a Rufous Sided Towhee on the ground. Later I saw Mrs. Towhee.

Rufous Sided Towhee

The usual suspects were flitting around. Harris and white throated sparrows, the goldfinches, one lonely blue jay, the robins, mourning doves, grackles, brown headed cowbirds and red winged black birds.

And then I saw a cat bird. I haven't seen one of those in a long, long time.

Catbird

Just when I thought I'd reached the pinnacle of bird watching for my little patch of countryside, I noticed a hummingbird.

Hummingbird

The Grosbeak has not reappeared but the goldfinches are here with a vengeance. And this morning the indigo buntings arrived. I hope they stick around even though they haven't in the past.

Indigo Bunting

And the hummingbird is still here so there's hope for a colorful display out my kitchen window all summer long.

Better Hummingbird

Realism

The feather I found was this big:

Sorry for the confusion. But when you have been on the campaign trail as long as I have been, suffering from lack of sleep and motor mouth, you are bound, at times, to mis-remember things.

For Hannita

My grandmother always had the most beautiful iris in a dazzling array of colors. I grew up loving iris (and day lilies, which she also had). Grandma also had these little iris that bloomed early in the spring. I had some of my grandma's baby iris long ago but none managed to make the trip to the place where I live now.

A couple of years ago my friend Kate gave me some of her baby iris. They aren't Grandma's, but they look like hers and I think of my grandma whenever I look at the precious little blooms.

And I think of Hannita, too, who makes her own iris.

Sweet baby iris.

Lost and Found

Found

If You Feed Them, They Will Come

Sort of like "if you build it" in "Field of Dreams". Only this is food. Food orioles prefer, to be more specific. My mother always told me that if I fed them, they would come. My half-assed attempts in the past yielded no results. It wasn't until I strung orange halves on wire and hung them from the tree that I saw an oriole.

And he told his friends. Today I saw three. At the same time!

Three of them! (this photo gets bigger)

No, I am not feeding them Star Kist Chicken of the Sea Tuna. I made a feeder out of a board (for them to stand on) and tuna cans (to hold the oranges). I was too lazy to paint the cans a color that is attractive to orioles.

Here is another, non-enlarging photo:

Orioles!

So the lesson for the day is this: Always Listen To Your Mother! And you don't need to spend lots of $$ to make orioles happy.

Bird Party

While I was about to post crappy pictures that were badly Photoshopped, I saw a blog recommendation -- Photoshop Disasters. Hmm. In some of them I couldn't see the problems even when they pointed them out. Some were obvious. My work will probably end up there as a glaring example of total ineptitude.

I'm doing the best I can with what I have to work with. That goes for digital photography, marriage, motherhood and life. So there.

Back to the birds, as this blog has turned from me constantly complaining about the weather (it is friggin cold and windy -- a high of 54 is NOT May weather) to a blog in which I either brag or whine about birds.

The blue jays were kind of scarce for a while but the other day decided to come to pj's and have a party.

Psst --- we're having a blue jay party at pj's.

Here's the best part (and the worst Photoshopping) -- the hanging oranges have paid off. An oriole was eating them today.

Oriole. Really. Please take my word for it.

I hope he tells his friends.

Better Everything

I mentioned to Hannita in my comments that my mother had much better birds at her place. This morning I was talking to my mother and told her about my little mystery bird. Mom one-upped me. She had a mystery bird, too. Only she had 4 of them. My brother was out there and managed to get a picture of one of the little birds, which my father tried to email me.

The process of teaching my parents to send an attachment is post-worthy in and of itself. "This damn computer is broken!", "It just doesn't work!", "It is just not possible!", "I quit!" (Things I heard my father say as I was talking to my mother who was trying to relay instructions.)

I got the email with the same photo attached three times. So, yes, it does too work. Mom said she was going to practice sending attachments this afternoon when my dad was out of the house.

I tried desperately to get a shot of my little bird. This is what I ended up with:

My Bird, My Camera

Don't bother clicking on my photo. It is as big as it will ever get. Here is the photo my brother shot of my mother's little bird:

Better Bird, Better Camera.

Mystery Solved

I've had a little bird out here that heretofore has defied identification. Until this morning, that is, when I finally figured it out by not relying on crappy drawings from my bird book or the what-bird website. I figured it out by googling pictures of the possibilities. And I ended up with an orange crowned warbler and snagged the picture. You know it is not a picture I took because it is good and there are leaves on the trees. Hello -- we are still having winter here. Or maybe fall. There has been frost the last two mornings.

Mystery Bird.

I glimpsed what I thought was an oriole yesterday morning so strung a cut orange for him. Later the bird showed off for me and it wasn't an oriole at all. It was a spotted towhee. Not that I mind but I have an orange freezing / rotting in the tree.

Towhee.

Signs of Spring

• The temps have remained above freezing.
• There are sheep with lambs in the pasture.
• The grass is green.
• There is a faint blush of new leaves on some trees.
• The cats are bouncing off the walls like a psychedelic light show.

Busy

I've been busy, spinning my wheels mostly.

Today while doing research (O.K., I'm easily sidetracked) I found this counter and decided to add it to my site -- the cost of the war in Iraq. It's in the sidebar. Watch the numbers grow. It boggles the mind.

I wanted to make a post long enough to push my overly long Flash movie down the page. Maybe I should just get rid of it.

I wonder how many more paragraphs I need to write to push that damn movie down?

I'll just put a big spacer here.

Spinning My Wheels

I have a new client for whom I am building a website. I have spent countless hours making a Flash movie that fits neatly in the header. Countless. Hours.

After I showed the client one of the earlier versions, he informed me that he was no longer involved with one of the companies represented. Back to the drawing board! After completing the next version he told me that he was not involved with yet another company that was represented.

Communication is paramount. It is also a skill at which I am completely inept, evidently.

I can't blame all of the hours spent on dismal communication. My Flash skills are somewhat rusty. Eventually I got his product representation right and got the movie to work the way I wanted.

The original intention was to have the movie run on the home page and then just have a static graphic on subsequent pages. While I love making Flash movies, having something constantly moving in my line of vision drives me apeshit batty. So I decided to have stop and go buttons. Then I made the mistake of asking for opinions from various people which caused me to make (or try to make) different ways to stop, pause, start the movie. I think this is where the majority of countless hours came in.

So here for your viewing pleasure is various farm and some industrial equipment scrolling, scrolling, scrolling. Unless, of course, you want to stop it and then make it go again.




And if anyone out there can tell me a simple way to have a pause button that morphs into a play button when then movie is paused (and vice versa) without causing me to entirely redo the movie, feel free to tell me. Please.