A Second Look--February 11, 2015

The winter weather continues typically for our region with temps ranging from teens to actual fifty's over the weekend. Too bad I had to work during that time, but it was good just knowing that it was warm outside. We also went almost an entire week without precipitation, but we are back to the old routine with freezing rain yesterday. However, February shows more hope for the coming of spring than January. Maybe I'm seeing what I want to see, but I think I see more birds and squirrels about. And I'm noticing more buds on trees. Actually they've been there since last fall, but I like to believe that they are a sign of spring.

Here are a few things I saw this week 

during a Second Look.

Female cardinal among maple buds

Rhododendron bud

There are fresh chips in the hollow of this tree. I vote for a woodpecker since there are other holes in this tree made by them. A sign of spring?

Dogwood buds

Male downy woodpecker. Down for a bite...

Up for a swallow.

Miss Landers sent me this picture. It reminds me that I don't have to be in a natural setting to enjoy the beauty of Mother Nature.

Thankful Sunday--February 7, 2015

I am thankful for my alarm clock.

Leo wakes us up every morning. However, he's not so happy when we wake him up.

We learned years ago that if we want a decent night's sleep, we have to banish the cats to the basement for the night. We have a cat door in our basement door, and we lock it at night so they can't get out. That works well except for one of our cats--Leo. He has learned to outsmart the lock and get out while still leaving it locked to the rest of the cats. So Leo spends the night where ever he wants which is usually on the couch in the den. However at 6:48 AM every morning, he walks all over us with loud meows which promptly wakes us up. And luckily, that's about the time we want to get up anyway. Sometimes with the late sunrises this time of year, we have the tendency to oversleep. But not with Leo, our feline alarm clock. We don't use any other kind. For Leo's wake up call every morning, I am thankful.

Smile

There so many clever and amazing things to see on the Internet these days that I pretty much ignore them.  Or else I wouldn't get much done. However, a friend showed me this clip that really made me smile and it only took 15 seconds to watch. Fits my bill perfectly. See if you find it as entertaining as I did.

15 second clip

A Second Look--February 4, 2015

Here's what I saw this week 

during a Second Look.

Even in the winter, dandelions are providing color in the yard.

Blue Jay and Downy Woodpecker. The blue jay has just taken off to land on the feeder below.

Front door hole and back door hole for the local groundhog. (The front door hasn't been used much.) I don't know if he even bothered to come out Monday for Groundhog's Day. If he did, he wouldn't have seen his shadow because it was raining that morning.

The birds have been using this nesting box to keep warm. There was a little material left from the last nest in the bottom, but I found new feathers on top of that from whatever has been using it.

And speaking of nesting boxes, you can see that something has enlarged the hole on one of them. It could have been a woodpecker or an squirrel. I vote for squirrel.

This is the first time I've noticed a white-throated sparrow this winter. They travel in flocks, so I don't know where the rest of them were.

With the snow, we can more clearly see the evidence of where the deer have been in our yard. Everywhere!

Sunrise

Tattoos

Tattoos

Let's get this out of the way at the beginning. I don't have a tattoo and have never had the desire to get one. However, I know that many people do have them. In fact, it seems like everywhere I turn there is a person with a tattoo--multiple ones in fact. I wondered if my perceptions were right, so I consulted Statistic Brain to see what the actual numbers might be. Here are a few of the statistics. (These are for the US)

Percentage of all ages that have a tattoo--14%
Percentage of 18-25 year olds with a tattoo--36%
Percentage of 26-40 year olds with a tattoo--40%

So you can see from these numbers, in the under 40 crowd, more that a third have a tattoo. It didn't give statistics for those of us over 40, but from my experience, tattoos were not so popular in our youth which has me wondering about the whole process.

While I appreciate the art I see in many tattoos, I still don't understand why you would get something on your body that is essentially irreversible?  I understand a wild haircut or color because your hair grows out, or maybe a henna tattoo, but not an ink tattoo. I've heard that they can be removed, but a bit of research suggests that is not as easy as it sounds. Removal can be expensive, be very painful,  produce scars, and may not be successful. So in my mind, I still don't quite understand the tattoo mind set.

I am a planner and cautious person by nature. Not the sort of person even in my youth who would have gotten a tattoo without a lot of research. That research would have led me to problems with removal which would have deterred me right away. But if I made it past the permanence issue, I don't think I would have ever been able to decide what the tattoo would be. What would I want for the rest of my life? I thought about both of these issues recently when we were on a tour with a young woman. She had a very nicely done tattoo of Miss Piggy on her shoulder. I'm not sure why she chose Miss Piggy, but I can imagine she liked the humor and strength that Miss Piggy symbolized. But in 10 or 20 years from now, will she want a cartoon pig tattoo her shoulder? I wonder if she thought about that?

A few years ago, when tattoos were becoming popular, I had an interesting discussion with a nurse that worked in veteran's hospital. She said many of the men in there had tattoos, and every single one of them was sorry that they had gotten them. That was one of the things from their youth that they wished they could do over.

On the other hand, one of my friends got a tattoo when she turned 50. For years, she said if she made it to 50 she would get a tattoo. She got a phoenix on her back to symbolize all that she had made it through in her life (and it was a LOT). Her tattoo, I understand a little better. She had a lot of life experience behind her decision.

So what do you think? Do you think tattoos are here to stay or the youth of today will regret their tattoos when they are older?