Frogging

We had a great night herping.  Two experienced herpers and one very competent newby went out on the Kroschel frog and toad survey near Mora last night.  Although the sky was fairly clear we never saw the moon on the route because it didn't rise until the route was over and we were on our way home.  We heard frogs at every stop.  Tree frogs were the most common singers but we also heard spring peepers, chorus frogs and American toads.  We also heard veerys calling from a close distance and winnowing snipe.  At several stops fire flies lit up the night sky.  Some hovered just above the grass and others hung out at the tree top level.  The night was beautiful and full of life.  I am amazed how much energy frogs put into propagating their species.  I wonder how similar we humans are to animals.  I've read that Genghis Khan had between 1,000 and 2,000 children. He doesn't seem frog like to me.  Sperm donors had many children but I think they're in it for the money more than passing on their genes.  Brigham Young had many offspring with multiple wives.  Jim Bob and Michell Duggar also have many children.  I can't pretend to understand the motivations involved with them but I suspect it is more complex than frogs croaking in the swamps last night.

I Got All Day

Two more early morning visits from the red fox this morning.  The reign of terror has begun.  Bring it on red fox!  I got all day to practice my slingshot accuracy.  I'll be ready for you in the morning.

No Regard

With absolutely no regard for a working woman with a cold that *!X&! red fox came by at 5:20 in the a.m. to harass my chickens.  That is exactly 40 minutes before my alarm goes off.  I was not happy. Also, this *!X&! fox would not leave when I yelled at it from my bedroom window.  Oh, no, this red fox would only leave once I put clothes on and walked out onto the deck to yell at it which woke me fully up. Grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr! I do not need this much life and death drama in the morning.

Irony

Irony

 I ran into a couple of problems on my trip back from Bremerton.  Offspring #1 really wanted to drive me to the airport but I hated to inflict a minimum of a 4 hour drive on the new father.  So I took the ferry to catch the light rail to the Seattle/Tacoma airport.  No problem, right?  I took the light rail to the airport 18 months ago.  A week earlier I accompanied Offspring #2 to the same light rail station.  I knew where it was.  Plus I had a picture of the google map of the route on my camera. I knew I had to walk 2 blocks up and 3 blocks to the right from the ferry terminal to get to the station.  No problem at all.  The whole family was kind enough to leave the house at 6 a.m. to ride the ferry to Seattle with me. This gave me an extra hour of grand baby holding time.  And I got to be part of her very first boat ride.   I found it hard to leave her but did manage to do it without tears.  Wearing my backpack and pulling my suitcase I walked to the train station.  A homeless man without any teeth explained that the station was padlocked shut.  I kinda didn't believe him.  He told me where to walk to get to the next train station and after he walked away I looked.  He was right.  The entrance to the building that housed the train station was padlocked shut with a thick chain.  I started walking to the next train station.  I came upon a man and a woman also wheeling suitcases.  When we waited for a red light I asked if they were looking for the light rail to the airport.  They said they were.  I told them I would follow them.  In a heavy German accent the man said he didn't think that would be a good idea because they weren't sure of the way.  They had scouted out the first train station last night and it wasn't padlocked.  We walked together.  At another red light I asked a Seattle police officer where the train station was.  He pointed the way.  We walked there.  The second train station was padlocked shut too!  This is a Saturday morning at 7 a.m.  We didn't know why the stations were locked. No signs explained what was going on.  The website never warned us about closed stations.  We came upon a young man with a backpack and another traveler with a suitcase who were confused why the station was locked.  The young man had to get to work and he took off running toward the Seattle stadium.  The woman traveler said she had used this train station many times before.   Then she got on the phone and ordered a cab.  She looked up at us and asked, "Should we all share a cab to the airport?"  In an instant I knew the answer.  "Yes!" I said.  I looked at the German couple and spoke for them, "We all want to share a cab."  Bossy, aren't I?  She ordered the cab.  The ride would take 25 min. and would cost $45.  With the tip it would come to $13 each.  I looked in my coin purse.  I had a ten dollar bill, two one dollar bills, and six quarters plus pennies and a dime.  Wow!  This was meant to be.  A very large black car pulled up.  The trunk was so large the four suitcases fit easily.  We three women fit in the back seat while the German man and the cabbie rode up front.  We had a nice talk on the way to the airport and they all admired my photos of my new granddaughter. Looking back I can see that I was surprisingly calm about these travel problems.  I wasn't anxious.  I wasn't worried.  I figured if I missed my flight I'd catch the next one.  We got to the airport about 8 o'clock which was slightly earlier than the light rail would have gotten me there.  Once there we saw the light rail train arrive.  So the light rail was working but the downtown stations were padlocked shut.  Go figure.  I got frisked at security because of my titanium hip.  The TSA agent also wiped my clothes with a cloth and tested it for bomb materials.  I passed all the tests.  But on Monday I realized that the last time I saw my driver license was while, arms held out straight from my shoulders, I was being felt up at the airport. She even ran her finger inside the waist of my blue jeans. I worried about my drivers license on Tuesday.  I called the Seattle airport lost and found office on Wednesday to learn they did not have my license.  I know it is illegal to drive without a license so today, after work, I applied and paid for a replacement license.  Less than 90 minutes later I open my mailbox and, lo and behold, someone from Alaska Airlines mailed my license to me.  Irony. 

Don't Think About Silos

I attended a meeting at work today about a certain database system named after a fruit (cough *apricot* cough).  I struggled.  After a 3 week vacation I struggled to even think about data and data bases.  I struggled because I'm fighting a cold.  I struggled because one person asked in the middle of a database discussion, "You mean like a silo?"  A silo?  Seriously?  I picture a red barn and three tall metal silos and wonder what a silo has to do with data bases.  Silos are for storage.  Databases store data.  Silos store corn and wheat and possibly other grains.  Sugar beets don't go in silos.  Does cotton go in silos? People die in silos. People fall into silos and they can't breathe and they die.  Silos are dangerous. Silos are a part of the farming culture.  Silos can be seen from great distances. I had to force myself to STOP THINKING ABOUT SILOs because I was falling behind in the discussion.  This meeting was a conference call and also one of those "Go To Meetings" where we share a view of a computer screen on the internet.  We had six people physically at the meeting and three more attending from Texas.  The discussion was going fast and furious and my brain struggled to keep up the pace. The Texas people work for the fruit named database system.  Customer service is a priority with them and these three people had excellent customer service skills.  I noticed a pattern.  After one of us speaks the data base people respond with a positive statement (such as "That's great!") followed by a recap of what we said and another question.  We have done a lot of work on this database but haven't really been able to reap the benefits yet.  That is why we called the meeting.  Instead of saying "a lot of work" euphemisms were being tossed about.  "Meat and potatoes" was used and because of the great customer service technique meat and potatoes got repeated quite a bit as they validated what we said.  But one of the database people scored BIG  points with me when she recapped one of our statements by saying, "You have put a lot of work into the meat and potatoes or tofu and potatoes of this program."  For once my mind was on topic.  "Hear, hear!" I say applauding her inclusion of those of us eating a plant based diet.  The carnivores at the table snickered. I have never heard anyone say tofu and potatoes instead of meat and potatoes.  I know quite a few vegetarians.  None of them has ever used that phrase with me.  I like tofu too but only if Offspring #1 cooks the tofu.  I've tried making tofu and it turned out inedible terrible every time.  Now that the meeting is over and I'm at home, I am free to think about other things, like silos.

Birds in Washington

Western Tanager

I didn't go to Washington to see the birds but seeing birds is part of what I do. I saw lots of American robins, Canadian geese, black capped chickadees and mallards. The mallards looked different because their heads were more purple than green but they were still mallards.  I saw lots of crows and a few ravens. I had trouble identifying the pelagic cormorants.  I saw many long black birds flying over the water.  They looked like cormorants except each had a white patch on either side of their tails.  It wasn't until I saw one fly up and land on top of a post next to the ferry I was riding that I could get a really good look and identify it as a pelagic cormorant.  I saw a white winged scoter on the ferry too.  Walking back from the beach I heard a bird scream at me like a blue jay but not quite a blue jay.  This bird demanded my attention.  With it's black head and head crest I identified it as a stellars jay.  I saw a robin sized bird with a reddish breast but a black head in the yard.  I thought it could be a towhee.  I looked it up and it turned out to be a rufous sided towhee.  I was very proud of myself for guessing the towhee part.  I saw a hummingbird fly by overhead and could see it wasn't a ruby throated hummingbird.  But the underside of a hummingbird is not enough for me to identify it.  One late afternoon I was snugging my grand daughter when the sight of a new bird with a red head and a yellow throat forced me to leap (as much as an old arthritic woman holding a newborn can leap) up out of the chair to find my binoculars.  My first thought was a Blackburnian warbler but this bird was too big to be  warbler and it was eating fruit from a tree instead of bugs so it couldn't be a warbler.  What could the pretty bird be?  Turns out it was a Western Tanager.  A Western tanager is such a pretty bird.  Scarlet tanagers are cute but Westerns are pretty.  I think it would be great fun to go on a guided bird tour while out there.

Hard to Say Goodbye

I'm back at work now.  People ask me if it was hard to say goodbye to this little girl.  Here she is in her very first pair of blue jeans.  Honestly, I have to say yes, it was hard to say goodbye.  I thought I'd say goodbye the night before.  I knew I had to catch the 6 a.m. ferry to Seattle.

To my pleasant surprise she came with me on the ferry ride over so I had an extra hour to hold her on her very first boat ride.  We bonded even closer going across the Puget Sound.

The ferry takes only about an hour and soon Seattle was showing in the eerie morning light.  Then I really had to say goodbye.

I told her it would be easier for me if she would be hungry and cry for her mother.  She didn't listen.  She stared up at me contentedly with her big blue eyes and made cute faces at me.  The little stinker!  Being content and extra cute made it all the more difficult for me.  Now my arms are cold and empty without her.  I miss snuggling her and kissing her and singing her songs and taking her out on the deck in the evening to watch and count the crows flying home to their roost at night.  And I miss singing her "Once Upon A Dream."