Still feeling sick, but I was able to take care of animals and sit in the sun a bit. Kathleen and I took a slow walk this afternoon to just get out of the house. I didn’t get to go to marches with my friends, which I really regret. But my energy is awfully low.
This pretty Texas star was a surprise on my walk by the front pond today.
Right now I don’t want to drive anywhere, anyway, thanks to wars and such. Grumble.
Grumpy is a good word for me, because I’ve not been taking NyQuil or anything, so my snoring and loud breathing issues keep waking me up all night. I must have sounded awful last night, but I didn’t bother Lee with his earbuds on.
Tonight I have Chloraseptic for my throat and will sleep with my head raised. I’ve had enough of this irritating minor illness.
Wild berry! That’s exciting.
I need to do some writing and other things that require an alert mental state, so wish me the best! And I know there are many friends out there dealing with MUCH more serious concerns. They have my thoughts, and they help me remember to focus on what’s good in life, which there is plenty of.
Look at all the pollen on this bee!
For example, the chickens are back to laying in their usual nest box! Woo hoo! Plus I found a new plant!
This plant with cool seed pods is wild tantan (Desmanthus acuminatus), the second sighting on iNat in our county!
I broke my blogging streak yesterday, but I just didn’t have the brain power to do it. My brain was too feeble to put together even my usual simple sentences. I’m still dealing with this virus today, but I have more energy, so I’m gonna say I’m on the mend. (Yes, I know there’s a new COVID strain, and yes, I will get the booster because I’m at risk due to my advanced age.)
This is my picture from yesterday when I felt sickly.
It’s story time, nature observation time, life update time, or whatever. First, I’m cheered every time I go outside these days, because some of my favorite sounds are back, Barn Swallows and White-eyed Vireos. I’ll be tired of them eventually, but right now, those songs convince me it’s spring.
White eyes! Photo by Brad Imhoff. These guys hide in trees, so I rarely see them.
I’m looking forward to seeing hummingbirds soon, because our red yucca are starting to bloom. These are good signs when all the grass is brown and crunchy.
This stuff is nice and green, but the Bermuda grass beside it should be green, too.
Second is another tale of rural living. Yesterday I didn’t feed the horses their supplements, and neither did Kathleen due to recovering from her recent issue. Today I felt up to it, and marched into the tack room (which smells good because it’s the WOMEN’S room and we can turn on the Scentsy diffuser. I digress.
Scentsy thing is beside the lamp.
It came time to give Dusty his two scoops of bran powder, and when I reached into the bin, the bran moved. I guess the lid on this bin needs to be very securely attached. Yep. A mouse. One of the little ones. I tried to scoop it out and that’s when the whole dang bin began to move. More than one mouse. They started to try to fling themselves out, as they do. I did not want them in the tack room!
I did NOT take pictures today, so here’s the henhouse mouse.
So I bravely dragged the bin outside, grateful that the bran stuff isn’t very heavy. I did my best to encourage exiting by angling the bin downward, but of course the rodents tried to climb up or bury themselves in the bran. My goal was for zero mice to crawl up my arms. I succeeded! In the end, SIX mice scampered away. I hope something eats them.
Maybe they went over to chicken world where there is corn.
How did six of them get in the bin? There’s not any mouse poop around since Kathleen cleaned the room. Maybe they were in there when the bran was put in? Mystery. Even AI can’t solve that one. I do assure you, though, that I put the lid back on very tightly.
Lids must stay secure or critters will get in. Stock photo.
Later, Kathleen helpfully offered up the theory that if they’d kept eating the bran they’d have gotten all swollen and died. Eww. Now that’s in my head.
Boom! Note mouse has 3 tails. Quality AI.
So, to change the subject, I want to share how happy I am with a work development. Today I was meeting with a colleague on my new project and we got to talking about our previous lives. And talking. And laughing. And blathering away in geeky grad student language about our original fields of study, linguistics and folklore. At some point we were practically giddy about how much we have in common. And some of it is pretty niche far left cultural stuff that you usually don’t get to talk to random coworkers about.
I didn’t mention crafts to her, but hey, five rows of my blanket!
Then she told me the other woman running the project I’ve been brought in on is secretly a cultural anthropologist. I’d never have guessed.
I’m quite thrilled to have gotten to know someone just as weird as me who speaks the same quasi-intellectual language I used to speak. Sometimes I do miss aspects of my earlier years, and learning is one of them. My new friend and I both admitted we could stay in grad school the rest of our lives. I’d just keep getting Master’s degrees to go with all my interests!
I guess today was not all bad. It was quite interesting and satisfying. Hope yours was, too.
There’s a lot on my mind this evening, so I’ll be brief. Today I enjoyed talking to my friends online, finding interesting flowers, noting the return of the Black-chinned Hummingbirds, just letting go and reveling in the flying horsehair while grooming Apache and Dusty, and some relaxing crochet. I have washed off the dirt and hair.
White version of blue-eyed grass“Blue” versionBuckeye on dewberry blossom Many stem evax (Diaperia verna) a type of rabbit tobacco One of my cultivated portulaca flowersFrom the same basketRed oak tree is not dead!
I did not enjoy finding out Star Fleet Academy was canceled, worrying about sick people, conversations that made me paranoid, nor finding out how expensive my car’s maintenance is.
But, hope springs eternal, and the wheel of the year keeps turning.
Every so often you get to enjoy a whole day where there’s peace, beauty, fun, humor, and a little accomplishment thrown in. Today was such a day. Why was it so good?
Walking! I didn’t walk all that far today, but I enjoyed it. On my first walk I noticed all the grass and such is already crunchy and brown thanks to scant rain and that freeze a week ago. But there were white evening primroses, which are even more delicate than their normal pink friends.
These are just pale versions of pink evening primroses, not a different species. Normal. Ladybugs have been chomping.
Later in the afternoon I went out again with Kathleen, since walking is helping her recuperation. I showed her how big the puffball mushroom in the front field has gotten, and we found a thick patch of verbena next to the rye crop across the road. Apache would sure love that field.
That’s big!Can’t wait until it explodes!I love the textureVerbena patchNice to see green!The last trees are budding out
Calves! There are many cow-calf pairs in the field behind us right now. The babies are getting more adventurous and frisky, which is always entertaining. I love the brave and curious ones who try to get the dogs to play. This one with the white spot had a lot of fun with Penney and let me talk to her a while.
Crafts! We watched some television this afternoon and evening, which gave me time to work on my patchwork blanket. I got through all but one square on the fourth row. It looks pretty cute. I have some ideas for it once I join all the squares.
Click to see the whole photos.
Funny things! I have two funny things to share. First happened yesterday. I went to the birding hut to re-start Merlin after it had been running a while. I wanted to write down the new species in my notebook but I couldn’t open it. That was odd. I finally peeled the pages apart, and I really perturbed a bold jumping spider who had managed to build a web nest in the book in just over an hour! I encouraged her to relocate.
But, I liked your booklet.
Second story was from today. When we went to feed the poultry, I once again found no eggs in the boxes. You could see someone had been sitting in them. But none were chosen for egg laying.
You may remember that last week Kathleen cleaned the henhouse. New pine shavings were put in the boxes and on the floor.
Before we went to the horses, I got a notion and had Kathleen wait while I checked something. Sure enough, there were four eggs in the old nest boxes we still have up for when we get new hens. I guess Cindy and Cathy don’t like the pine shavings. I’ll have to get them some straw. No photo because (gasp!) I left my phone in the house!
We prefer the little nest boxes, with no nesting material.
I’m only writing to keep a blogging streak going. I was so boring yesterday that only 36 people visited the site. It’s a good reason I just like to hear myself talk, or read my writing, or something. And I’m only going to get more and more boring if I keep working so many hours.
I’ll still try to take a few nice photos when I can get outside.
To put a positive spin on things, if I’m being boring, it means I’m not letting outside events upset me, I’m enjoying my family/pets, and my dull hobbies are satisfying me.
This could be a painting.
So if you got this far, feel free to suggest something interesting to write about, or I’ll do the wise thing and not blog until I have something blog worthy.
This could be a painting, too. So many greens.
PS: don’t watch Lost in Space (new version) if you’re one of those people who expect their science fiction to be at least somewhat plausible.
My mom would have been in a tizzy by today’s end. She really hated wind. She said it made her hair hurt. I’m not fond of it either. Fine old lady hair and wind are an aesthetically unappealing combination.
Artistic rendering of annoyed me in wind
The wind wasn’t as horrible as yesterday, but since it was uncharacteristically cold for mid March, going outside was a brutal experience. Even the birds were hiding—only 26 species today were heard over the wind by Merlin. Needless to say, my exercise goals were not met!
This little friend is safe indoors.
The best thing about today was that it made for crazy colors in the temperature blanket. Yesterday was red (90s) and Kelly green (low 50s). Today the green was the high temperature. Tonight it might freeze! This is not usual.
Yesterday and today. Sweat followed by chills.
Being indoors all day left me a little grumpy. It didn’t help that I spent 2.5 hours trying to get my monitor situation for work under control. Two IT guys and much brainstorming later, I’m all set, though I changed to a different monitor. It turned out that it didn’t need new drivers (but has them anyway). Instead, the setup I had where each monitor was attached by an HDMI cable, which had worked since last June, suddenly was no good. I guess a recent update changed it. So I had to find a Display Port connector and use it. Lucky for me I have many extra display cables gathered over by the extra work monitors. The right one was there.
Stock photo of correct cable.
I have to give IT guy #2, who was in Oregon, credit for troubleshooting with me. I sent him many photos and screenshots for diagnostic purposes. He liked that I understood all his questions.
He promised not to laugh at my docking station. But it showed the problem. That empty slot should be attached to a monitor.
I’ll spare you the story of how I muddled up my web-based training file. But at least I had two giant monitors to screw up on!
The weather was pretty weird today. Low in the 50s, high in the 90s, and so much wind! If I ever complained about the wind before, I was being wimpy. This wind is not a gale but is pretty close. All our poor new porch plants are getting buffeted.
Before the buffeting.
Of course we got all these new plants, only to realize that it is getting cold again tomorrow, maybe a freeze. I guess it all gets to come back in tomorrow. Sigh.
While the wind has been annoying, it’s otherwise been a beautiful weekend full of getting things done at home. Yesterday the chicken house got all cleaned out. That was about time! Kathleen had a fancy mask so she didn’t get sick like I did the time I did it by myself.
Partway through
The turkeys were not happy with all that stuff going on. Darryl Junior was all puffed up and glowing in turkey colors.
Click to see him in all his glory
Today I’d hoped to spend lots of time with the horses. They were so lovely out in the field this morning that I wanted to make them prettier.
It wasn’t so windy but still too windy to do the flower photography I’d hoped to do.
Kathleen and I did the best we could, but she wasn’t feeling well and I got overheated. So, Mabel got nothing and Apache just got a little currying. Spice really needed grooming and was so grateful for the attention that she kept nuzzling me. I even gave her a little workout that she seemed to enjoy. She’s a very good horse and so well trained. I’ve enjoyed having her with us.
Slightly less hairy.
I also managed to get Drew all shiny and pretty. He still has stains from rolling in poop, but he’s already starting to get shiny. He’s much whiter now, and even his mane is lighter. Now that we are working with him more, he’s behaving very well. I’m glad he’s still here.
He only had one bur, on his forelock.
Kathleen got Dusty looking most excellent, too. She’s giving him some new supplements that even have his hair shiny. And we think he’s putting weight back on. What a lucky old man he is.
You can see the wind blowing everyone’s tails in the photos.
Okay, back to the wind. We went to eat with friends tonight and noticed the sky was so weird. There was so much dust in the air that you couldn’t see the clouds or sun. It was eerie.
Photo out the car window doesn’t do it justice.
The wind gave me time to get some reading done as well as some nice family time. I hope there isn’t too much damage. Stuff is really blowing around and we saw pieces of metal lying around and downed tree limbs on our drive to and from the restaurant.
It was a good weekend, even if I didn’t do all I’d hoped to.
I didn’t work but a couple of hours today. Instead I drove Anita to Georgetown so she could have a medical procedure. It was good to spend some time together, even if she wasn’t 100% at her best.
Three dogs on a couch wish Anita well.
While she was at the snazziest medical facility I’ve ever seen, I went out in the beautifully landscaped area to see what native plants I could find. I discovered that whoever did the landscaping used primarily native plants, which pleased me.
And I heard many birds, including some Sandhill Cranes, which pleased me greatly. I didn’t even mind that the procedure was delayed, because that gave me time to walk to the really beautiful grocery store next to the surgery center. It must have replaced the old one that was there when I had a child in college there.
Fancy roundabout leading to what I assume is a nice new neighborhood.
I got a tasty Mexican torta, plums, a dessert, some snacks for later, and my favorite bread. Of course I got Anita some flowers.
Fancy waiting room
Then I came to the empty waiting room and took a nap. Yes, in the chairs above. What a treat!
Getting Anita home was challenging thanks to the after-effects of the procedure and anesthesia, but we made it back to Cameron, fed the ancient dog, and got food into Anita. Success.
Late afternoon trees greeted me at home.
Tomorrow is ranch chore day, since what I’d hoped to accomplish this afternoon didn’t happen. And I’ll have a book report, too.
Not much went on today, since it’s my busy work day and we had a reasonable amount of rain. Wish it were a bit more.
The colors are so vivid after the browns of winter.
There’s been a bit of danger this week. Harvey got bitten by a snake and swelled up. Then when he was all numb and swollen he managed to bite through his lip. As if having a bad liver, going deaf, and dealing with stroke after effects wasn’t enough! He is healing though.
Showing it from the least icky angle.
And today when we were walking my horses (we alternate between Kathleen’s and mine, apparently), I was trying to convince Apache that cantering in mud isn’t smart, when Drew erupted and started jumping and acting afraid. Apparently it was his first snake encounter, because he was really scared. Kathleen did a great job holding on and settling him back down, but that was enough danger for us. You’d think Drew would have seen snakes in the pasture or pens before. I certainly have.
It was a beautiful day to make a hasty retreat (Kathleen IS in the photo, but the bulky gelding is blocking her).
Still, it is always good to see that we can help the horses out, and as a bonus Kathleen didn’t get bitten. Maybe the tide has turned and she’s not a magnet for venomous creatures anymore!
It was raining all around us, and thundering. More danger!
Need proof that we had enough rain to make mud? Look no further than Muddy Mabel. She was gleaming and clean yesterday.
I hope she rolls in some dewy grass tomorrow and cleans some of her mane.
Other excitement of the non dangerous type? Today was Lee’s birthday. We are the same age again, whew. I hate those 6 days when we’re a year apart. He got mini Bundt cakes and a banana pudding cake, which we all enjoyed. I still like lemon the best.
He’s a good guyAnd a good sportI like the vanilla wafers sticking out of the cake.
Grumble grumble. There I was, hanging out with the niece in my very clean tack room, when I spotted an email saying my son’s bank account was frozen. What the heck?
Take a deep breath, Suna.
So I called the number in the email and listened to a woman telling me someone had been trying to access my account (not his), repeatedly. By phoning? I’ve taken so many phishing classes at work over the past few years that when she asked me to verify my address I panicked and thought I was giving some scammer my personal information. I guess they hear it a lot, because she said that if I wanted to be sure it was really the bank, I could call the number on the back of my credit card. Then we got cut off. I was so worried.
Imaginary me seeing my money flying away.
So I did call the number on the back of my debit card and explained my concerns. The second bank woman was very nice. I’m glad it was “only” my bank account in danger, since fewer automated settings rely on that than my credit card. “Just” my direct deposits of my pay and Social Security, and PayPal. I can take care of those fairly quickly. I now have a new account, login, and password. That will thwart those darned criminals.
All secure for now.
It seems like the digital age gets scarier and scarier. You always have to be alert for so many potential threats. It’s exhausting. And nerve wracking. My hands were all shaky as I went through the endless process of changing everything. But I’m grateful that the bank spots these things. I guess I’ll forgive them for taking away my checks with horses on them.
My bland new checks will arrive soon. This is a stock image, not real.
Tomorrow is yet another day of challenges and opportunities at work, so I’ll sign off and try to get sleep. I hope you had only positive excitement today!
The Hermits' Rest 