FIVE SECOND STORIES

 9/29-Diner News: Seen yesterday at the Diner:

Meet Mr. Yellow-Shafted Northern Flicker. I remember these guys where I grew up although I don't often see them here. They generally don't frequent feeders as they are more of a ground scrounger. Flickers are one of the few woodpeckers who migrate-our lot head to an area from the Carolinas to East Texas. They leave at the end of September and into October. While here, he enjoyed the feeder and the bath but was too flighty to photograph. Safe travel, buddy!

There were a lot of birds at the feeder-here, Mr. Redbird was awaiting his turn in the staging area in the honeysuckle.

 

Lil Woody has been a frequent visitor:

A sunny late afternoon:
 

 Buddy chillin' in some waning sunshine:

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I see the Turkey Bros. nearly everyday. I've noticed they like to peck around the edge of the road where it meets the lawns. The other day, I noticed another individual had joined the posse, evidently he is a new associate member.

Yesterday, I was on the couch surfing while C was doing yoga in her room. The slider was open and I kept hearing a repeated noise in the background. I got up to investigate:

C heard the clucking as well-they were right by her window.

Buddy did as well but considering being substantially outweighed, he wisely decided that heading inside was the better part of valour.

Meanwhile out front, our resident Charlotte was busy repairing her web:

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The Pool: 

We've had some off and on rain that just gets stuff wet and brisky winds. Radar showed that this is from the remnants of Hurricane Helene sending showers and wind in a counter-clockwise spiral. 

The wind has proved problematic-it whips under the pool Winter cover resulting in a strange, breathing beast in our backyard.
 

This had not been an issue with our old pool where a pool deck that surrounded 2/3 of the pool. I'm adding bungee cords that will attach to the taut wire holding the cover in place and wrapping the edge in industrial strength shrink wrap. Our old pool had water-filled bleach containers bungeed to the wire which we thought were ugly although practical.

 

The cords/wrap seem to be working as the amount of billowing has been drastically reduced.

 

Since I have been watching and writing a bit about Patrick McGoohan, this all reminded me of Rover, the bouncing white ball that prevented anyone from escaping The Village in the Prisoner series.

 

Here is Rover in action with its otherworldly sound:

It is an odd visual, this breathing, billowing creature. We've wondered how Bud is coping as he is motion attentive.

C and I agreed in gratitude, that we weren't doing mushrooms when we first saw it, lol! Yikes! 

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The winds toppled several of the tithonia which I pulled and put on the brush pile. Out of curiosity, I measured their length: 12 feet tall!

Standing in front of the giant tithonia

10/1: After a wet Summer, September was quite dry-only .71", 2.10" below average. This is the third September in a row with below average rainfall. 

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A Buddy-roo mandela with a William Morris design background:

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Space and stuff:

The shy comet. For the first time in 80,000 years, Comet A3 will be visible from Earth. The weather has not cooperated in the mornings and we are running out of time as the comet is swinging around the sun and soon will not be visible until around October 12. At this point, it should appear in the West just after sunset.

Comet C/2023 A3 (Tsuchinshan-ATLAS) appears in the sky over Molfetta, Italy, on September 28, 2024. (Getty  Images)

We were up early on Monday, 9/29 and supposedly the comet would be to the lower right of a nice, horns-up crescent moon. Alas, no sighting. Fog banks had rolled in and the horizon was obscured. I'm wondering if that is where the comet was.

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Hoag's Object

From Wiki: 

Hoag's Object is an unusual ring galaxy in the constellation of Serpens Caput. It is named after Arthur Hoag, who discovered it in 1950 and identified it as either a planetary nebula or a peculiar galaxy. A nearly perfect ring of young hot blue stars circles the older yellow nucleus of this ring galaxy. The ring structure is so perfect and circular that it has been referred to as "The most perfect ring galaxy". Ring galaxies are a rare type comprising just 0.1% of all galaxies.

Even more curious is that looking inside the ring, there is another ring galaxy that is considerably farther away.

 

Space Fun Fact: The six Apollo missions to the moon left behind 96 bags of human feces, urine and vomit. I was unable to find the size of these bags.

Fun Vids: 

SNL is approaching its 50th anniversary! Here's a whacky vid from 1990: Toonces, the Cat Revenge. Candice Bergen's cat Spunky has just passed driving class. Toonces, the original Driving Cat, plots Spunky's demise.

These Mysterious Pre-Historic Structures Discovered In China Reveal Ancient Secrets

The Dark Origin of Your Favourite Fairy Tales:

Insane monster development by Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman. Breathtaking and audacious conceptually and very expensive-NEOM:

What Earth will look like if all the ice melts:

 The origin of "ok":

Brian Eno was tapped by Microsoft executives to create the start-up sound for Windows 95:

From The Music Network: Eno explained how this particular job come about in an interview with SF Gate. 

“The idea came up at the time when I was completely bereft of ideas. I’d been working on my own music for a while and was quite lost, actually. And I really appreciated someone coming along and saying, Here’s a specific problem — solve it.’

“The thing from the agency said, ‘We want a piece of music that is inspiring, universal, blah-blah, da-da-da, optimistic, futuristic, sentimental, emotional,’ this whole list of adjectives, and then at the bottom it said ‘and it must be 3.25 seconds long.’

“I thought this was so funny and an amazing thought to actually try to make a little piece of music. It’s like making a tiny little jewel.”

Eno soon became obsessed by this task, creating 84 different pieces of music.

“I got completely into this world of tiny, tiny little pieces of music”, he continued. “I was so sensitive to microseconds at the end of this that it really broke a logjam in my own work. Then when I’d finished that and I went back to working with pieces that were like three minutes long, it seemed like oceans of time.”

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According to US census figures, in 1950 89.5% of the country was white. In 2020, it was 61.6%. It is projected that non-Hispanic whites will become a minority by 2045.

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Susumaniello wine: I stumbled across this wine via the Trader Joe's monthly brochure. I had never heard of this varietal whose name is derived from the Italian word somarello or donkey and it refers to the high grape yields that young vines are able to carry (much like the donkeys that were used to carry the harvests). I liked this wine very much-it's robust and burly-that can stand up to strong flavors such as pasta red sauces. Curiously, the taste explodes on the back of the palate and lingering slightly with a dry finish. Hopefully, this is not a one-off, never to return. Darn good price as well at $9.99.

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10/1-A very happy 100th birthday to Jimmy Carter!

President Carter in 2017