Today I had two hours to think as I mindlessly shoveled the driveway.  Among other things I thought of the many definitions of buff.  There is the color buff, the well defined muscle buff, the enthusiast buff, and the polished buff (as in well dressed).   This means if I were tan, physically fit, well dressed, and a big fan of Orpingtons, I would be a (wait for it) buff, buff, buff, buff Orpington buff.

I was almost finished with my driveway when a man with a snow plow offered to clean out the driveway once.   He said he would back in as far as he could and push forward one time.  I hesitated - it was almost done.  He said, "No charge."  I said sure, thanks.  I thought I would ask for his card in case I wanted to hire him to plow.  I had shoveled enough to get my tiny car in and out.  I figured the rest could melt.  He backed in and widened my path.  In front of the driveway I had shoveled one car width.  He tried to clean out the other lane but it was hard going backwards with the plow.  He was a little reckless.  He plowed over the wooden ties that mark the sides of the driveway in two spots.  And he knocked over a tree.  And he peeled the bark off of two other trees.  Back and forth he went.  He seemed a little obsessive about cleaning out all the snow.  He backed up towards my garage and BANG, he hit my car (parked innocently inside the garage) with his trailer hitch pretty hard.  Lucky for me I had the transmission in gear or I would have had a Honda Civic and a green work table inside my fireplace downstairs.  The car moved forward when it was tapped and there was no damage to the bumper.  The plow driver got out and looked for damage and I told him there was none and thank you very much for your help, the driveway looks great.  But he still wasn't done.  He moved back and forth and there is no snow between the hack berry trees on the east and the woods on the west.  After about 5 more minutes of anxiously watching this reckless plower, he finally left.  I didn't ask for his card.  He had failed the test.  I finished shoveling the sidewalk, made a snow person beside the driveway and went inside to enjoy a cup of hot cocoa.

I am glad there was no damage when he struck my car.  I think it would be difficult to explain to my insurance agent that my car was damaged in an accident while parked inside my own garage.

Chicken Catalog Website

Do you have an extra hour or two to spend dreaming about chickens?  You can have as much fun as I did browing through the varities of brown egg layers, white egg layers, dual purpose, and ornamental chickens.

http://www.strombergschickens.com/

Orpington Decision

A sibling gave me a chicken catalog.  I've been looking through it for over a month; page after page of chickens to choose from.  Since I only have Meredith left, I thought it was time to get more chicks to raise.  Last time I ordered chickens my main objective in getting chickens was to be closer to my egg source.  Now my objective in getting chickens in two fold - eggs and entertainment.  I've had more fun than I ever expected watching  chickens and being a part of their daily drama.  So I knew I wanted chickens but I had trouble making a decision.  I want five females.  I think this chicken catalog brought out the ADD (attention deficit disorder) in me.  I would look at a page, admire the chickens, turn the page, admire those chickens, start looking at the swans, the geese, the peacocks, the ducks and the quail.  Every page had something fascinating on it.  I could look through the catalog for 15 minutes and put it down being no closer to a decision than I was before I picked it up.  Do I want a Polish chicken with the fancy hairdo or will their feathers obstruct their view and make them more vulnerable to predators?  Well, Polish are only available in a mixed run (male and female) so that is out.  How about a Cochin with the feathery legs?  Choosing a chicken that can be sorted by sex and is cold hardy narrowed down my choices.  How about getting a beautiful all white peacock?  Wouldn't that be awesome?  Stop!  No peacocks.  Be sensible.  Finally, this last Saturday, I came to a decision. I'm getting Orpingtons, buff Orpingtons.  In this case, buff does not mean well muscled but a color (orangy tan).  Orpingtons are larger chickens.  Females weight about 8 pounds.  I thought a larger chicken would be nice because they could stay warmer together in the coop and might be less likely to be picked off by a fox or a cat or a dog.  Orpingtons are named after a town in  England.  These chickens are known for their fluffy feathers, soft appearance and gentle contours.  They are large and therefore don't fly much.  Orpingtons are calm and easily tamed.  I can hardly wait to get my new family of chickens.  I hope Meredith is accepting of her new companions.  New chicks!  I'm so excited!!!!!!

Living In The Avon Hills

I don't live in the Avon Hills but for the third time I went to the "Living In The Avon Hills" conference at St. John's University in Collegeville.  I think this year was the best.  The main speaker was Mike Lynch, a weather reporter for WCCO radio.  I didn't recognize him visually  but I did recognize his jolly voice.  Mike has a passion for star gazing.  He gave us an assignment sheet of the March night sky. I think I might do the assignment too.  We are to go outside and let our eyes adjust to the darkness for 15 minutes.  Then sit on a lounge chair or on the ground and hold the star map he gave us up to the sky.  Comparing the map to one direction at a time, find all the stars on the map.  He said we should use a headlamp with a red bulb so we don't loose our night vision.  As he is speaking, he puts on a headlamp with a red bulb.  Boy, you really never notice how often a speaker bobs his head until he is wearing a headlamp with a red bulb.  He was like a bobble head up there.  After the main speaker we got to choose classes to attend.  My first class was called Fish Tales.  The speaker was Ray Tuhlosky.  Ray also carves fish and fish decoys for spearing.  He uses pop and beer cans for fins.  He showed us replicas of primitive hooks used 4,000 years ago.  These hooks were carved from bone and antlers.  He had a primitive spear with three antler prongs. Ray had interesting facts regarding the effect of WWII on fishing poles, life jackets and the fishing industry.  He had antique rods, reels and jigs to pass around.  He even let us hold the crystal radio he used as a child.    After a delicious lunch (nobody bakes better bread and cookies than St. John's), I had another class on preserving herbs and one on dragon flies and damsel flies.  My last class was on foxes or specifically the ecology of the North American Fox species. This speaker was very involved in bringing back the island kit fox endemic to the channel islands off of southern California.  You might have read about these island foxes who were being exterminated by the golden eagles.   I got to my last class early and I shared my story of how a gray fox attacked Meredith.  The woman I was speaking with mentioned she was interested in raising chickens.  I pulled out the chicken catalog I happened to have with me and we looked through it together. She wrote down the name of the chicken supplier. She was very interested in raising chickens for meat and for eggs.  We admired all the chickens and she wondered how many to order and whether to get a mixed run or only females.  I said, "You know, you don't need a rooster to get eggs don't you?"  She nodded that yes, she knew that.  Some people don't know that.  Five minutes later I learn that she is the speaker for the fox class and she has a PhD in biology.  So yes, I suppose she did know she didn't need a rooster to get eggs.  I had a great day at the conference and was pleased to see many of my master naturalist friends there too.

Project Feeder Watch Update

I didn't see a lot of birds this weekend.  I don't know if it was the wind or a predator that kept them away.  But the lack in quantity was more than made up for by the brown creeper I saw.  This is the first brown creeper I ever saw.  Brown creeper is a negative word for such a darling, elusive, tiny bird with a sleek beak to tail curve.  My little brown creeper - it was like having a celebrity come to visit.  Brown creeper-1, Cardinals-2, Crow-2, Black capped chickadee-3, White breasted Nuthatch-1

I Am Not Going To Tell You

I finished a book that was so bad I'm not even going to dignify it with a title.  Don't even bother reading it.  The ending was so corny I had to moan aloud.  It's amazing what I will do to pass the 45 minutes on the elliptical or exercise bicycle and that is with a bank of televisions silently providing 10 different stations of programming (which says a lot about the quality of television too).

Eagles

I have been keeping my eye on the eagles in Coon Rapids.  They have a nest right off Highway 10 just east of the Main Street exit near Lowe's.  I am pretty sure they are incubating an egg or two.  Eagles eggs are supposed to be 2.9 inches long.   I've seen one eagle sitting on the nest every time I go by for the past 6 days.  Sometimes the eagle sits low in the nest so I can just barely make out the head over the nest rim as I drive by at 65 mph craning my neck to see. The parents take turns incubating the eagle egg. The Momma eagle is 25% larger than the Poppa.  This eagle family has a nice view of the large Coon Creek swamp which must have lots of good things to eat in it.  I've seen lots of ducks, songbirds, raccoon, possum, and deer in there.  The creek might have some fish.  And nearby Highway 10 must offer plenty of road kill although it is a dangerous road to eat from.  Someday I would really love to see eagle courtship.  I read about them doing cartwheels in the air.  They also lock talons and fall nearly to the ground before releasing each other; eagles playing chicken.  That would be something to see.

21

I learned today that I moved into my current office in 1991.  That makes 21 years in the same square room.  21 years is longer than I have lived in my current house.  21 years is longer than I lived with my parents.  21 years is a long, long time.  I count my blessing to have had a job that I liked for so long.

Big Brother Watching Me

I just got a bill for driving on a toll road outside of Denver on December 22nd.  The bill states the four plazas I crossed, what direction I was headed (north), what lane I was in (2, 3, 1, 2), and what time I went by.  The total comes to $11.70.  I don't mind paying the bill. I am just a little freaked out by how much the Public Highway Authority knows about my whereabouts.  Spooky.

Decisions

Should I move these miniature stick on photo's to my new office?
I already have the 8x10's of the same shots.

For reasons unclear to me even now, I was given two full sized stop signs on short pipes.
Directing traffic has never been in my job description.  Do I move these to my new office?
Or I could put on an orange vest and fulfill some power seeking thrills by messing with the traffic on 89th.

A friend gave me this slate blue egg shaped candle.  It's been sitting
on the desk for 18 years.  Keep or use?

This dixie cup full of sand with a popsicle stick and a cupcake liner and a
photo was given to me from a day care provider.  Move it to the new office?

This decorative yellow, pink, purple, green and blue dinosaur with pencil point decorations
was made for me in elementary school by Offspring #2.  Keep?

Do I move this decorative fan and small ceramic parrot to my new office?

This is a birthday card I got in the 90's that unfolds to look like
a Golden Retriever.  Keep or recycle?

This is another greeting card with no sentimental value. I just liked the blue door.  Probably recycle this one.

Do I move this friendship award to my new office?  It was given to me about
15 years ago from a guy who doesn't work here anymore.   Hardly anyone
could get along with him.  Somehow we connected.  I think I want to move this with me.

Time To Move

 A BFF gave me this.  She sewed it herself.
This has to come along.

I don't know how long exactly I've worked in the same office but I think it's between 15 and 20 years.  When our agency moved into this building, I was assigned this office.  At first I had a desk.  Later we all got modular furniture with a 3 sided work space, overhead bins, upright file cabinets and a large lateral file cabinet. I didn't really need all that storage space but somehow when you've got it, you use it.  People gave me things and because I had the space, I kept it.  But now I am moving.  I will still have an office.  The new office has one huge advantage - a window to the outside. No longer will I be like a coal miner.  No longer will I be surprised by the weather at the end of the day.  I doubt having a window will improve my time on task - at least not at first.  I am looking forward to having a window.  With the southern exposure, my office might be warmer and I won't need to use my electric throw like I do every day in my current office.  My view will be of a large parking lot.  The disadvantage will be the loss of my current office neighbor.  He and I have been office neighbors forever.  After all these years we know each other's patterns, habits, likes and dislikes.  We have each other's back.  We can communicate without words.  All I can say is, when I move to my office, he better not make best friends with the new office occupant - at least not right away.  I will have a new office neighbor and that might work out just fine.  I will be positive about this move.  But this week, as I move, I need to make some decisions on stuff.  Do I keep the 23 years of calendars?  Will I need to know, some day in the future, what I was doing on February 20, 1991?  Tomorrow I will post more pictures of stuff I have in my office.  Maybe you can help me decide what stays and what goes.

Project Feeder Watch And Great Backyard Bird Count

I didn't see a ring necked pheasant in the yard but I saw one a block away.  Pretty cool!

Pileated woodpecker-1, hairy woodpecker-2, downy woodpecker-2, House finch-2, Goldfinch-3, White breasted Nuthatch-3, Cardinal-2, Blue Jay-1, Black Capped Chickadee=6, Dark eyed Junco-3

A Wish Come True

Sometimes at work I will hear a page asking me to come to the front office.  Ever Pollyanna like, I think to myself, "Maybe someone sent me flowers."  Never have I gotten flowers.  When I get up there I am usually faced with a problem or a misunderstanding.  Once I was even served papers.  Such circumstances can make a person dread the walk to the office to find out why I was paged. So I keep hoping for flowers.  Today my name was paged.  As I left my desk I told my office neighbor I was hoping for flowers.  When I got to the office I didn't see anybody with a problem.  I saw a tall package wrapped in paper.   FLOWERS!  AND THEY WERE FOR ME!  Okay, it was a single yellow rose with lots of baby's breath but my wish had come true.  I couldn't believe it.  I started to tear up.  Earlier this week I had told some people how I always wish for flowers when my name is paged.  One very kind and generous coworker thought about that and decided to get me some flowers.  Isn't she wonderful?  I am so lucky.  Never have I seen a more beautiful yellow rose.

Movie Premier

Last night I went to a movie premier.  I saw a documentary film about trumpeter swans that a friend of mine wrote, filmed and edited.  Lots of people we know came to see the film and appreciate all the hard work she had done.  To my surprise, she even put my name in the credits although all I did was call her when I saw a trumpeter pair near a road where they could easily be filmed and drive her out to one location where trumpeters were nesting.  Now that I've seen the film, I love trumpeter swans even more than I did before.  They are beautiful, graceful, loud, monogamous creatures.  Trumpeter Swans are the angels of our earth.

A Soldier's Wife

My book club and I read A Soldier's Wife by Margaret Leroy.  This story takes place on the island of Gurnesy, just before and during the German Occupation.  The main character is a woman named Vivienne who lives with her mother in law and two daughters.  Her husband is fighting in the war.  German officers take over the house next to hers.  Vivienne is artistic, sensual, unassertive and kind.  She takes care of her children and her mother-in-law who suffers from dementia with unending patience.  Margaret Leroy describes the beauty and the wildness of the island so clearly you can almost smell the apple blossoms and taste the wild blackberries. And the ending?  The ending to this story is the best ending that I have read in a long, long time.  In fact, while reading the ending quietly in the lunchroom at work, I couldn't help but let out, "Awwwww!" which surprised the people sitting in the room with me.  This is a very good book.  Not great, but definitely worth the time spent reading it.

Happy February 14!

F. Scott and I

Yeah, F. Scott Fitzgerald met and had our photo taken together in the park next to the Ordway last night. I am a big fan.  I was feeling bad for the poor fellow after reading his latest novel, Tender Is The Night so I thought I would chat him up a bit; give him some cheerful attention. I don't know if it was just me but he seemed a little cold and stiff.

Playing For Change

On Sunday we went to the Ordway to see a "Playing For Change" concert.  (I am feeling very cultured because I went to the Guthrie and the Ordway in the same week).  Playing for Change is non profit organization with a goal to "inspire, connect, and bring peace to the world through music."  I saw their video a few years ago where people all over the earth and from all the continents played the song, "Stand By Me."  Each local musician interpreted the song in their own style.  I thought the video was very cool.  Last night was a live concert and the first night of a new world tour to promote the organization and raise money to build music schools in impoverished nations.  They already have 7 schools established with 3 in Africa and 4 in Asia.  On stage they had about 10 performers singing, playing instruments and dancing.  Many of the songs were African but not all.  My favorite performer was Grandpa Elliot, an elderly, blind performer who usually performs on the sidewalk in the French Quarter of New Orleans.  After the group sang two songs and was near the end of the third song, a tall young man jumped out of his seat and rushed over people's legs to get to the aisle.  He ran up toward the stage and onto the dance floor and started shaking his long and limber arms and legs.  He had so much pent up dance energy he couldn't sit still any longer.  Others saw that and within 2 minutes the dance floor was full of people and remained full of people until the concert ended hours later.  The audience was unusual because the ages varied.  There were equal numbers of people in all decades of life.  I really enjoyed this  unusual music and dance concert.

Project Feederwatch

A Red Bellied woodpecker

I am happy to see my red bellied woodpecker is back.  Red bellied woodpecker-1, Hairy woodpecker-2, Downy Woodpecker-2, Black Capped Chickadee-6, Blue Jay-1, Dark eyed junco-3, Goldfinch-1, White Breasted Nuthatch-3, American Crow-2

Beatrice And Virgil

Yann Martel wrote Beatrice and Virgil as well as The Life of Pi.  I really enjoyed The Life of Pi, a far fetched and amusing story about a boy lost in the ocean on a life raft with wild, predatory animals.  He lived to tell the tale.  This story also had animals in it, this time a howler monkey (Virgil) and a donkey named Beatrice. The story  is cute in the beginning.  Beatrice and Virgil are friends and they look out for each other.  There is a detailed and interesting description of a pear, a taxidermy shop named Okapi Taxidermy, and a young married man named Henry.  The story gets strange in the middle and the last two chapters are surprising but not in a good way, at least for me.  Don't read this book if you are faint hearted.

Cat On A Hot Tin Roof

Liz Taylor in the movie version

Last night we went to see "Cat On A Hot Tin Roof" at the Guthrie Theater. This is one of those famous southern literature plays where the female lead wears a slip, fans herself, and argues with a hot headed, alcoholic husband.  The author of the play, Tenessee Williams, also wrote "A Streetcar Named Desire."  The entire play takes place in a bedroom.  The set was beautiful with a teal colored carpet and teal columns and doors.  The carpet had a large design of rabbits and partidges worked into it.  Brick and slip wearing Maggie are the main characters.  Big Daddy and Big Momma are Brick's parents.  Brick's brother, fertile sister-in-law, and their five children are also in the play.  My favorites were Maggie and Big Momma.  The story is bitter and sweet, tragic and hopeful, funny and as sad as hell.  I really enjoyed seeing the show.

A Rabbit Thinks He Is A Sheep or Maybe A Sheep Dog

3

My guess as to how many more months until I can ride my motorcycle?  Three.  I'll be very happy if it's less than that.  I am itching to get back on two wheels again.

Project Feeder Watch Update

Black capped Chickadee=5, White Breasted Nuthatch - 2, Downy woodpecker-2, Hairy woodpecker-2, Cardinal-2, Goldfinch-1

It's Not Easy Being Cheesy

'

I wish I could dress up as Chester Cheetah!  I'm so jealous.

One Thing I Like About Winter

Tilt your head a little to the left side so the photo doesn't look crooked.

I know I talk much about preferring spring over winter but this winter has been positively balmy.  As I walked my trash out to the street this weekend I realized I have not spent any time shoveling the driveway. Not once have I shoveled my driveway this season.  Not.  Even.  Once.  Unbelievable.   I swept the sidewalk a couple times but not the driveway.  How have I spent all that free time not shoveling? I have no idea, probably not wisely.  If our winter this year is like a winter in Cleveland, I could live in Cleveland without complaint.  This past Saturday I enjoyed the hoarfrost.  As I drove past, I noticed the hoar frost was thicker on the north sides of the trees than the south sides.  The thickness of the frost added to the beauty of the landscape.  This picture shows the huge swamp off Highway 10 that Coon Creek flows through.

Reasonable

For several days I've been thinking about the quality of being reasonable; having sound judgement; fair and sensible.  I like people who are reasonable very much.  Reasonable people are like air or sex-you don't think about it much until you aren't getting enough of it.

Tender Is The Night

F. Scott Fitzgerald wrote Tender Is The Night.  Before reading the story I knew that this was the last book he published while alive and that it was the most autobiographical of all his novels.  After a while I figured out that the character, Dr. Dick Diver, was close to F. Scott's personality.  That made the story so sweet and tender and so sad.  As Dick, a young psychiatrist, cares for his mentally ill wife, Nicole (much like F. Scott cared for Zelda), he looses himself. As she gets stronger, he becomes weaker.  The Divers, with their two children, live in Europe.  They travel from city to city living off her family wealth.  They spend time on the French Riviera.  There is one scene where Dick gets into a brawl with a taxi driver in Rome.  He is brought to the police station to settle the matter.  He becomes so drunkenly abusive he gets beaten and thrown into jail.  The scene is written so vividly and with such detail, I accurately guessed that F. Scott had the same thing happen to him.  Tender Is The Night is on the list of the 100 greatest American novels.  I agree.  And it just goes to prove that you can be rich, you can be famous, you can have enough money to drink champagne on the French Riviera while a governess takes care of your children while being more miserable than I am (who is not rich, is not famous, had to raise her own children, and cannot afford to go to the French Riviera).

Green Thumb

My Mom had a green thumb.  I can remember vividly three plants she had.  The first one was a bird of paradise plant.  She grew it in a pot inside the house.  The leaves would curl up at the edges and had a tendency to split down the middle vein.  It was tempting for us kids to play with those leaves.  She seemed to have eyes in the back of her head when we reached for them.  This plant was  huge for our small living room, taking up at least a 3 square foot space.  Once I saw her repot it.  The thick root was beige and had spiraled down inside the pot to make more room for itself. She pulled it out of the pot and just about screamed because it looked like a big white snake.  In the summer she planted it in the garden and brought it back inside in the fall before the frost.  And in 1967 it bloomed.  How do I remember the year?  Because that was the year my parents took one of the two vacations without us kids along. They went to Expo 67 in Montreal.  And the bird of paradise chose that vacation time to bloom.  Oh, the irony. The two blooms were lovely.  My uncle came over to photograph the blooming bird of paradise.  By the time my parents returned the beauty had faded.  That summer the plant went back into the garden but never got brought into the house in the fall.  The second plant was an orange tree my Grandfather had planted from a seed inside an orange he bought at the store.  She cared for that tree and it grew as high as the ceiling in our dining room.  She pruned the top into a globe shape.  The leaves were dark green, waxy, and shiny.  Although the tree never flowered it was a very attractive plant. The orange tree grew too large and was brought to the farm where it got too cold and expired.  The third plant is the variegated ficus with a braided trunk in the picture.  This tree was tiny when she got it.  She fertilized it and cared for it until it too grew too large for her dining room.  Since I had a vaulted ceiling I agreed to take it.  She warned me that in the fall the leaves would drop and there would be a dustpan full every day.  She was right.  And the tree kept growing.  Eventually it needed a larger pot.  The larger pot made it too heavy for me to be moving in and out every year.  This tree is a shopping mall sized tree.  I asked for suggestions.  One friend suggested dropping it off at a nursing home with a note saying, "In memory of Mom."  Instead I brought it to work where a friend takes care of it.  The tree enjoys both north and east windows and seems to be thriving in environment.  Mom, she grew some big plants!



Bucket List

I decided not to buy the coupon to drive a Caterpillar skid steerer.  What I really want to do is move a big hill with a full size bull dozer. If I spent money on a skid steerer, it's be like traveling to see Lake Mille Lacs when I really wanted to see an ocean.  Mille Lacs is a fine lake but it's not an ocean.  What I really should do is make a bucket list.  Secondly I should prioritize that bucket list and plan on doing the more physical items first because I'm already getting old and decrepit.  I've already had to give up on some things I wanted to do.  It's too late for me to do the splits.  I think I really owe it to myself to make a list of the things I want to accomplish in life.  I am responsible for the quality of my life.  I think making a list of goals and achieving them will be a good use of what time I have left.  Lets see, drive a Zamboni?  check . . . . .