A Second Look--December 31, 2014

Crows

I took a break from the holiday celebrations and did a Second Look yesterday. And what did I see? Crows. Crows are abundant this time of year coming in flocks to see what tasty things they can get out of the ground.

I didn't really think much about crows until a few years ago when I heard how smart they are. Some consider them to be the smartest of all birds (including parrots). They are the only birds that can pick a person out of a crowd. Also, they use and make tools equivalent to the abilities of chimps. One group learned to drop nuts off an overpass and let cars run over them to crack them open. The crows then waited for a break in traffic and retrieved them. The stories go on and on. And now my own personal example.

Ward and I were on vacation in Yellowstone National Park and had stopped by the main lodge in hopes of seeing Old Faithful. Also stopping in the parking lot was a large group of motorcyclists who were traveling across the US. We watched from our car as the crows waited for the cyclists to get off their cycles and go inside. As soon as they left, the crows descended onto the bags that were strapped to the back, opened the zippers, and looked inside. Sometimes they found something to eat and sometimes they didn't. Let me go back. Yes, they unzipped the bags. And it wasn't random. They seemed to know just the right angle to pull for the zipper to open easily.  To tell you the truth, I was more excited to see this than I was to see Old Faithful. (Although that was pretty impressive too.) I wish I had time to watch the crows in my yard these days to see what tricks they are up to. But that will have to wait for another time.

Here are a few of the crows I saw this week

 during a Second Look.

Notice the little feathers around the crow's bill.

Notice the white patches on the wing of this crow. This occurs in about one in every hundred crows.

If you look closely, you will see white patches on the right wing of the bird in flight. I don't know if it is the same bird as above or not.

More Reading:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Corvus_%28genus%29

http://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/American_Crow/id

Merry Christmas

 

 ^"Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace and goodwill towards men.^"

"...And that's what Christmas is all about, Charlie Brown." 

 "A Charlie Brown Christmas" 

A Second Look--December 24, 2014

It's Christmas Eve, so a Second Look today was done from some of my Christmas decorations. Below you see a few ornaments on my tree that have a nature theme. 

Also, may these holidays be a safe, calm, and good time for you and your families whatever big or small celebrations or quiet time alone you have planned. I will be spending the next two weeks traveling, visiting, and hosting various holiday activities. I may or may not be checking in here before the new year. 

Wishing everyone Happy Holidays!

Note: I'm having a problem with Blogger this morning and there is a BIG space between the first and second pictures. Keep scrolling to see them all.

 

Queen Anne's Lace bloom pressed in epoxy

 

Turtles made from sea shells

This apple really is low hanging fruit. We hang several of these on the lowest branches of the tree for the cats to play with. You can see this one has a split in it from being played with.

This sheep was made by a friend with powder puffs and cinnamon sticks.

 


 

"Broken" Scales

Holidays are famous for both good eating and subsequent weight gain which often happens to Ward and sometimes to me. However, we don't usually realize our increased girth until January. So when Ward and I both weighed ourselves last week and found uncomfortably large increases, we were a little disturbed.

Ward weighed himself first and jokingly said that something must be wrong with the scales because he had gained several pounds. I then weighed myself and seriously agreed something must be wrong with them because I saw an upward change--not a huge jump, but bigger than I was used to seeing. In the meantime, Theodore was home and weighed himself. He also noticed a larger gain than he expected, so that confirmed there was a problem.

We decided that the scales probably needed a new battery and we would be close to our old weight as soon as we installed it. However, the new battery made no difference. Then we decided that they must need to be rebalanced because they had been moved around while the floor was being cleaned. So I set off to find the instructions for the scales to see about rebalancing them. However I couldn't find the instructions for our current scales, but I did find some for the ones we owned before these. (Note to self: the files really need to be cleaned.) So what to do? Maybe Ward or I could get a new set of scales for Christmas because these were obviously broken.

In the meantime, Theo, who was not part of any of this discussion, said he didn't want any of the brownies we had that evening. He didn't say why but when pressed, he said that he had gained a few pounds and that he'd was going to cut back a bit. Well, that was an interesting way to look at things.

We have also cut back this week and “surprisingly” the scales don't seem to be broken anymore. They still weigh more than we'd like but they're on a downward trend. Cause and effect seem to be alive and well.

This whole episode made me feel pretty silly. I'd like to believe that I am a logical, rational thinker, but I guess not this time. It must be too many Christmas cookies have affected my thinking. :)

P.S. Ward here. I still think it's broken.

Thankful Sunday--December 21, 2014

I am thankful for spilled juice.

Yesterday as Ward was putting some juice in the refrigerator, it slipped and splattered all over the floor and the inside of the refrigerator. After the initial expletives, we used this opportunity to do some cleaning that we always mean to get to but rarely do. We pulled the fridge out and not only cleaned up juice but all the dust bunnies that were living on the floor and on the back of the fridge. Next we cleaned the inside under the drawers and the back of the shelves. In the end we had a clean fridge and most of the juice left. Not a bad outcome at all and for that I am thankful.

Christmas Presents

Waiting and Wondering

My mother would have had numbers on these.

When I was a kid, my mother was a master at keeping our Christmas presents secret. One of the first rules of hers was that after Thanksgiving, we were not allowed in her bedroom. Next if we found out what any present was before Christmas morning, she told us that it would be given to the Salvation Army. This alone was enough to keep me from looking too much. Every year at Christmas time, we had to pick out one of our current toys to give to them, so I understood who they were. I was willing to give up one toy, I wasn't willing to give up the new toys that were coming.When we got a little older, our presents were labeled with numbers instead of names. Every year the numbers were different and seemed to have no rhyme or reason as to who got what number, but she told us she had a system.

However of all of these present rules, the one I remember the most was that we were not allowed downstairs on Christmas morning until my aunt and uncle arrived. It wasn't like they got there in the middle of the day, but it seemed like forever to me. However, my mother had a way of making the waiting bearable. When we went to bed the night before, we took the toaster, a loaf of bread, and a stick of butter with us. As a child I thought this was very special and was fascinated with the fact that we used the window sill as a refrigerator for the butter. The next morning while we were waiting, we had toast for breakfast. Then finally we would be called downstairs to see what Santa and others had left for us.

While I didn't always understand all of the present rules while I was growing up, I realize that they were one of the things that made Christmas special for me. My mother understood that anticipation is sometimes the best part of something.

Now lets move on a little bit. I realize that one reason that my mother's gift practices worked was because she had four fairly rule abiding children. However I know that sometimes curiosity gets the best of kids and they can't help themselves. For example, a friend was telling me about her children when they were younger. She wasn't sure where to hide their Christmas presents to she put them in the back of her large van with a blanket over them. The gifts couldn't be seen, couldn't be reached from any of the seats, and the kids were never in the van by themselves. So she thought they were safe. However one day, the two older kids lifted up their younger brother and pushed him through the vent window into the van. He then unlocked the doors so they could all get in and see the gifts that were coming. They never let on that they knew anything even on Christmas morning. It was only recently as adults that they told their mother what they had done.

I'm gonna have to ask Wally and Theo if they ever did anything like that because it was only recently that I learned they climbed out on the roof when they were supposedly taking a nap.Who knows? Maybe they were looking for Santa.:)

Do you do anything special to keep gifts secret? Have you ever secretly found your gifts ahead of time?

A Second Look--December 17, 2014

A Second Look Eye Spy

Can you find? 

• A Red-tailed Hawk
• Red Bellied Woodpecker
• Tufted Titmouse
• Crows
• Goldfinch
• Female Cardinal

Thankful Sunday--December 13, 2014

I am thankful for Christmas puzzles.

During the hustle and bustle of this Christmas season, it's nice to take time out for some quiet activities. That's what we did yesterday with Miss Landers when we worked on a Christmas puzzle at her house. For the quiet puzzle fun and the good conversation we had, I am thankful.

A Second Look--December 10, 2014

I had it all planned. After work, I was going to take a Second Look around the yard no matter how cold it was. But then we had freezing rain all day and no matter how much I had planned to investigate the back 40, I didn't want to do it in freezing rain. So, I'm going to let you take a Second Look at my zoo visit in October. During that visit, we got a behind-the-scenes tour of the great ape house that I described previously. However, we did see a few other things that day. Here are some of them.

It took the turtle in the water a lot of effort before it finally made it up onto the rock to join the others.

These lions are a lot bigger than our cats, but don't look a whole lot different when they are sleeping.

Luke, the only male in the lion pride at the zoo.

??

Asian elephant

The National Zoo is famous for its pandas so there's always a line waiting to see them. We decided to wait in line this day since we had never seen them before.

It was worth the wait to see one of the rarest animals in the world.

Christmas transitions

One of several pieces of stationary that I used this year.

One of the first things I do at the beginning of each December is to write our Christmas letter. That's what I did last week and as I started to finish it by signing, “June, Ward, Wally, and Theo,” I paused and wondered if it were time to take the kids' names off and just sign it from Ward and me. Wally and Theo are out on their own now and it would really be more appropriate for them to send their own letters and cards. This thought made me a little sad. So I struggled with my emotions that wanted things to be the way they used to be, but realized that they weren't.

So what did I do? Well, I let it percolate for a couple of days and decided that I wasn't fully ready to acknowledge our empty nest this Christmas. I signed the letter, “June, Ward, and the two boys who are out of the house, Wally and Theodore.” We'll see if I can get away with that next year.

Thankful Sunday--December 7, 2014

I am thankful for 

DIY stores.

Ward and I are working on a Christmas present that will cost about half of what it would if we weren't doing the work ourselves. I am thankful that there are stores where we can get our supplies to do this. I am also thankful that they have generous coupons.

Help me understand

Recently, a friend of Miss Landers, Jack, passed away and she helped his wife with a luncheon after the funeral. Among other things, she decorated 10 round tables with centerpieces depicting things that were part of Jack's life. One table had toy car mustangs and a map representing a hobby of his, another had books from a famous author that he was friends with, and yet another had a group of Beanie Babies showing that he was an animal lover. The other tables were decorated in a similar way and really gave a good idea of who Jack was. It was a total surprise to his wife and she was quite moved by it. Miss Landers bought some of the things she used to decorate with and borrowed other things from friends and family.

Now here's the part you have to help me understand. People started leaving with parts of the centerpieces. Not just one person, but many. Miss Landers was able to stop a couple of people from taking things that she had borrowed, but they had no explanation when they gave them back to her. They just gave them back.

What do you think was going on? There was no announcement to help yourself or suggestion that there would be a drawing for them. They weren't in a basket by the door suggesting that they were “party favors” for the grieving crowd. Was this a custom that I don't know about? Or was this just a crowd mentality where one person took something and everyone else followed? Or was this just tacky behavior that was totally inappropriate especially in the setting it was in? Help me understand.

Upload/Download?

Okay, I admit it. I am confused by the terms upload and download. I know I should understand them, but I don't. I know upload and download deal with computer data transfer, but I'm never quite sure which direction is which. I usually just use both words to cover myself such as, “I'm going to upload these pictures, or download them, or whatever.” I am confused and I think it's finally time to get myself straight.

I asked one of many experts around me, Wally, to help. He said that they were such basic terms that he hadn't thought about explaining them before. But he tried anyway using the floor and a high shelf to help me visualize. I listened to his explanation and thought, “So simple. So very simple.” I thought I had it and wrote down the definitions with examples.

But then Ward read what I had written and he told me that I was still confused. So I didn't have it. He says it's better to think of it as a client/server relationship. And then he proceeded to tell me things about restaurants and UPS stores to help me understand. When I tried to repeat back to him to make sure I understood, he said I made sense, but I was wrong.

So I thought about both Wally and Ward's examples for a while and I think I finally have it. Let's only use two devices in my explanation: my personal computer and the Internet. We will call the computer the initiating device or the client and the Internet the server. If the computer asks for data and gets it from the Internet that would be downloading data. Or if the computer sends data to the Internet like a picture to Facebook or Blogger that would be uploading. In other words, if data is coming to the computer/client/initiator then the data is being downloaded. If data is being sent away from the computer/client/initiator, then it is being uploaded.

Now it starts to get confusing when you add peripherals like your camera or phone. I think throwing these into the mix has been the complicating factor for me all along. Depending on the device, the computer or the device could be doing the asking for the data transfer so there could be either uploading or downloading going on. And if the data goes back and forth from peripheral to peripheral, I understand that sometimes there is no name for that—neither uploading or downloading.

So there you have it. Downloading and uploading. So simple. So very simple.  Or not.

A Second Look--December 3, 2014

I've gone into hibernation mode for the winter and these Second Looks are getting shorter and shorter. The weather has been all over the place this week, but today was cold, rainy, and sleety. Meaning hibernation started as soon as I got home from work. Nevertheless here a couple of things I saw this week during a Second Look.

We traveled for Thanksgiving, but timed our travel just right. The snow and ice was cleared from the roads before we got to the snowy areas. (Picture out car window.)

Do you see all four deer in this picture?

The white-breasted nuthatches have recently returned to the feeder.

We've had a lot of noisy crows around.