FIVE SECOND STORIES

 A Saturday late afternoon at our house in the Fall:

Our Jack has held up remarkably due to his freshness. In past years,within a couple of days, they would be molding with major face dropping. He is just starting to sag. When I mentioned this to C, she told me what she and her brother used to do: carve Jacks out of apples. Then, by putting them on a radiator, they would turn into shrunken heads-much to their delight. I had never heard of this. The result is pretty creepy, right out of Beetlejuice!

11/6 Jack is now serving as a sentinel by the bunny mound.

 ꩜ 

With it getting colder and the failures of the portal and warming huts for Buddy, we've been racking our brains trying to figure out what we can provide for him. The problems seem to point to an aversion to small openings and enclosed situations. C had a brainstorm-put down straw/hay in a snug spot next to the never used a/c unit and the house. We've had some success with this-several times in the early am, she has opened the garage side door (see photo-door is directly around the corner to the right) and viola! there he was. The hay showed an indentation so he had hung out there for awhile. We have a good 15" eave overhang so this corner should stay dry except when there is driving precip coming in from the NW. The warming hut and pallet will go to one of her work friends who provides shelter for the neighborhood strays. 

What is curious, then, is his knee jerk reaction, especially in high stress times, to become a rafter kitty. It has to be connected with impossible conditions at the hoarder house. Poor Buddy. The three of us continue to learn about each other.

꩜

Patterns

 ꩜

For some species of trees, the transformation from green leaves to color to final dropping can happen quickly, depending of the weather. High winds, rainstorms, cold temps can impact the timeline. Mr. Birch for example, this year the process took 16 days.

October 16

October 22

October 24

October 27

November 1

His leaves are his solar array, renewed every year. During the cold, he rests and the nutrients and moisture in the ground sustains him. In deep cold events, he slumbers until one of those bright and cold January days brings him into a semi-conscious state. He soon realizes the event is short-lived-it is not Spring yet and like us, turns over and goes back to sleep.

꩜

As in past years, I am discovering my learning curve when building a fire. The same will happen with driving on the first snow/ice. Michigan traditions.

꩜

No sightings of these guys this year. I can't find any news that they are ailing so hopefully, it's a case of not being in the right place at the right time.

 ꩜

Big Woody and the Jays

The competition continues between these two species. Poor Woody, he is often outnumbered 3:1 as a third Jay has joined the fray and being smaller, I am thinking he/she might be one of this year's offspring. Jays tend to mate for life and their offspring are known to hang out with Ma and Pa. I watched one afternoon during a busy time at the Diner, there was considerable back and forth from a perch to the feeder and back. BW tried to go about his business but during these to and fro flights, he had constant encounters with the Jays. Nothing outwardly aggressive, more like the Jays are letting BW know they are there. Typical are high-speed fly-bys, swooping past on the edge of BW's peripheral vision. Hopefully in time, each side will just tolerate the presence of the other for in the end, the goal is fueling up for Winter.

꩜

I was watching a doc about the 15 tallest trees in the world. The first 5 examples all ended with the narrator exclaiming that the location of these trees will remain classified to keep tourists away (a lot of visitors tend to eff up the environment) and to prevent some bastard from cutting it down for cash, notoriety etal. (recent example, while not a tall tree, the 200 year old Sycamore Gap tree next to Hadrians Wall was cut down-evidently simply as an act of vandalism). I got depressed and watched something else.

 ꩜

I remember when violins began to turn up in rock music as the psychedelic era took hold with bands like The Animals, Jefferson Airplane, Hot Tuna and It's A Beautiful Day. Hardcore rock n' rollers purists were not happy. They didn't dig Jethro Tull's flute either.

꩜

Turkey Bros out for a foraging stroll. There were nine of them!

They were doing their counterclockwise stroll today. Outside my office window:

Man, they have gotten big! Just in time for...🙀 For the record-we do not eat our friends!

꩜  

Drought and El Nino are having a major impact on Panama Canal passage. From CNBC:

Starting Friday, the Panama Canal Authority is implementing additional vessel reductions in an effort to conserve water as a drought exacerbated by a severe El Nino weather system continues to plague water levels in the locks of the key global trade conduit.

According to Panama Canal authorities, the drought requires them to reduce the number of daily transits from 29 to 25 ships and in the proceeding weeks, they will reduce vessels transits even more until it declines to 18 ships a day in February. That represents between 40%-50% of full capacity. Under normal conditions, between 34-36 vessels traversed the canal daily.  

Bottom line: out of stocks and price increases. Something else to blame on Biden.

꩜

Agent Orange redux: Marine and Army gun crews involved with a massive, secret artillery campaign against ISIS 2016-2017 came home with serious physical and mental issues that went beyond PTSD. As usual, the damn Corps was slow to take heed and of course, slower to figure out the problem. Curious that. It's common knowledge about repeated blows to the head in football. Here, the repeated concussion while in close proximity to the gun, effects the entire body. I'm not a doctor or a genius so to me, this is a no-brainer to join the concept to these two circumatance. Bastards.

https://www.nytimes.com/2023/11/05/us/us-army-marines-artillery-isis-pentagon.html?searchResultPosition=2 

 ꩜

I was working in the kitchen this past weekend afternoon when I heard a lawn mower fire up over at Benny's next door. His grandson was running over the lawn using the mower as a gas powered rake. As I moved into the Great Room, I glanced out the slider and I saw a young girl out in the yard running back to the house. Her hands were over both ears, eyes were scrunched and her mouth was open. She was screaming but the noise from the mower drowned her out.

I remember doing this myself as a young boy after encountering a sudden big noise and the shock of it brought out in me the same reaction as the little girl.

Later when the mowing was done, I saw her come back out and talk to her Dad. He gave her a shoulder to shoulder hug and a quick, two beat rub on her back for reassurance and apology.

I wonder if the girl came back out on her own or if when she came back to the house and her Mom had come to see what the screaming was about, told her to go talk to her Dad when he finished?

꩜

 

Curious fact: everyday the Earth rotates counterclockwise. Its orbit around the sun is counterclockwise as well. This is true of all planets in our solar system. However, the sun rotates clockwise around the center of our galaxy.