HAPPY MARCH!

3/1-February is over! It was an exhausting month between the relentless snow and cold, being ill throughout and coping with the never-ending shitshow of the current vile regime. Now, March has always been my least favorite month-the bi-polar nature of the weather and the drab overall browness of the landscape. We've had days in the past week reaching 50° but today is barely in the 20's and there has been a lot of wind. But, the sun is warm and soon the crocus will be up.

Since late Fall, there has been a new squirrel in our neighborhood. Its tail is a bit scraggly so I wonder if this is the offspring of the BentTail clan. I haven't sexed it yet but it is fairly fearless-it will tolerate my presence when I go out to fill the feeder although very nervous, tail switching and vocal.

One of the new nutkins who appeared in late Fall-this may be a female

The snow is pretty much gone except in shady spots and parking lot piles.

For the first time in weeks I heard Mr. Jay. They have been around all season until that stretch of heavy snow cover. Now with the snow gone, he is back. On hearing his call, I immediately grabbed a handful of peanuts and flung them off the deck to the Diner. Curiously, I did not hear his usual double call from him when he sees the peanuts-one part thanks and one part "hey, honey-peanuts available at the Diner" call to his mate. But since we're getting close to egg making time, they have been busy. Males generally gather nest materials while females take care of construction. Perhaps Mr. Jay needed to fuel up as I believe he solely snarfled up the peanuts. I was hanging out with Bud on the couch surfing when I saw him come over to a birch branch closest to the house. He looked into the room and peered directly at me.

I took the hint: the buffet needed refilling.

C cleaned out the department frig and added to the buffet

Sunny but cool 

DHS keeping an eye on the apartments

Then came in and curled up for a well-deserved nap

3/8-A dusting of snow overnight left the rooftops, drives and street painted white. Meanwhile, the first crocus shoots have poked through the mulch. With temps next week in the 50s and 60s, I believe we shall hit a long-standing benchmark of crocus blooming by St. Paddy's day.

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Curious marketing for a frozen pierogi:

Oh-My-Gawd, you finally bought me! I've been waiting sooo long!

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FUBARland

US military firsts among the 26,000 images flagged for deletion in Trump DEI purge.  Among them is this:

Yep, the famous B-29, named for the pilot's Mom, that flew the first atomic attack in history to Hiroshima. All because of Mom's name containing the banned word "gay".

What a bunch of maroons. You tell 'em, Bugs!

Winston Churchill, 1918

 

From Wiki: The Allied intervention in the Russian Civil War consisted of a series of multi-national military expeditions  that began after the Armistice of 11 November 1918, to help the White Russian forces in the Russian Civil War against the Bolsheviks. After the Whites collapsed, the Allies withdrew their forces from Russia by 1925.

This effort was adamantly supported by Winston Churchill and looking back at the failure of the Allies, he said:

“I think the day will come when it will be recognized without doubt, not only on one side of the House, but throughout the civilized world, that the strangling of Bolshevism at its birth would have been an untold blessing to the human race.”

When I came across this, I thought: here we are again. We have with Trump and Maga, an entity that needs to be snuffed out in its infancy to save our democracy and quickly end the suffering that has been inflicted in this past month.

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At 2:51, this tornado begins to form a large white skirt akin to an image of a whirling dervish

 Go to 1:57

THE GASHLYCRUMB TINIES BY EDWARD GOREY

The A-Z tragic, untimely deaths of children. A precursor to Lemony Snickets, although in these books, the kids are much more clever to avoid their demise.

 https://onehundredpages.wordpress.com/2015/03/17/the-gashlycrumb-tinies-a-very-gorey-alphabet-book/

FEBRUARY THAW

 2/23-bright and sunny

As things began to melt, critters were out looking for food. In a bare area around the pool, a group of hungry robins pecked around for insects. The crabapple out front was picked clean by mid-January (as are other crabapples in the neighborhood) so this group is hurting for nourishment.

 

 

A couple of days later, more sun and warmth and a lot of meltage.
 

FIVE SECOND STORIES

We had a nice Valentine's evening in front of the hearth. Here is a beautiful card C gave me:

When opened, a tiny light within Mr. Moon comes on. V cool at night. What a lovely idea, thanks sweetie!

We watched a new animated feature Flow, the Latvian entry for Best International Feature Film at the Oscars. Fabulous visuals (oh, check out the reflections in water) with an intriguing choice for storytelling: no dialogue, no narration. It seems to be set in some sort of post-apocalyptic world-humans are gone and a dark grey kitty is trying to survive. On this journey, he is eventually joined by a disparate group of animals: dog, capybara, ring-tailed lemur and secretarybird. They communicate with each other the best they can. Each has its strengths and weaknesses and somehow, they learn how to survive, together. Highly recommended. 

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2/16-more snow and cold. This morning, the Turkey bros visited everyone's Diner in the neighborhood and found some good eatin's at our buffet:

DHS kept an eye on them:

 

One of those afternoons where the sky is the same color as the snow

 

2/23-hopefully, the worst of arctic cold is over with little additional snow in recent days. The sun has been out and warm enough to melt the snow on the driveway and roads.

There's a quartet of squirrels these days at the Diner as well as the turkey bros.

Minn's grave

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Bizarre commercials: 

CeraVe, a skin moisturizing cream:

Let's hope that you never hear your skin speaking to you! If you do, please see a licensed professional as soon as possible!

 

What an opening!

My Dad always has his tool belt with him but now he's living with prostrate cancer... 

I guess this is for those manly men out there and now there's a new tool in his belt from those nice folks at Pfizer. My years of reading MAD magazine kick in whenever I see nonsense like this.

 

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FUBARland

 

Bizarrely disconnected, mixed-metaphoric concepts for GOAT:

Ostensibly, Project GOAT, which stands for the Global Offensive Against Trafficking, is an initiative where 75-pound goat sculptures are auctioned off to raise funds to combat child sex trafficking. These gilded statues are plastered with fake $100 bills which read In Trump We Trust. Evidently the creators, didn't think Christians would be offended either by the replacement of God with Trump on the bills or the glaring similarity to the Golden Calf-one of the Bible's big no-no's about worshiping false idols. Oi vey.

 

This poster appeared at the conservative's conference CPAC, again suffering from major disconnect: ok, you want Roach to be dictator for life, an American Caesar...

...apparently forgetting what happened to the real life Caesar in 44 BC. 

 

A reprise posting from December, 2016 in response to Trump and Vance statements making clear that defending Ukraine is not a priority to this administration. Our late buddy Bin provides commentary.

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Sark, one of the Channel Islands West of Le Havre, France does not allow cars much like our own Mackinac Island. This is a tiny isle-barely 2 square miles with a population of 500.

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Kelimutu-a volcano in Indonesia with three crater lakes whose water color changes due to volcanic vents which emit various gasses and minerals.

 

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Some much needed Summer imagery from Otava Yo-a Russian folk song: Ivan the Crayfish 

 

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I've been dipping into this travel vid from an earlier post. The other day, I began an imaginary drinking game: one shot each time the narrator uses the word surreal. Half an hour later, I was under the table after downing nine shots 🙀🙀.

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Switzerland has nuke shelters for 114% of it's population. While this nation may not be a member of the alliance but it has long been planning for all-out conflict. Under a 1963 law all Swiss residents, including foreigners and refugees, are guaranteed a spot in a shelter capable of protecting them from nuclear, biological and chemical weapons as well as “close hits from conventional weapons”.

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Trapped astronauts get a reprieve: scheduled return moved up from end of March to mid-March. We'll believe it when they safely hit terra firma.

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Mammatus clouds and lightning. The appearance of this type of cloud is often associated with the formation of tornadoes.

Charles Peek

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Englishman creates unusual amphibious craft

 

On the other extreme, dangerous windsurfing on the Luderitz Channel, Namibia

 

WINTER STORM

Our first Winter storm of the season began in the pm of 2/12

When we finished watching a show, we saw Mama Doe and 3 of her daughters stop by the Diner then head over to Benny's.

The next morning-we had received 6" of snow. 

I had cut a path to the Diner and cleared out and area around the giving stone 

At least we got some sunnage, in fact the strong sun melted the drive I had cleared in the morning. The weekend promises up to another 6" and then another polar blast that will have lo's below zero well into late week.

FIVE SECOND STORIES

1/7-C and I are entering our third week of fighting a flu-like bug. Her version was shorter and less virulent, thankfully, as she is working. The weather has been mixed but happily, we have missed out on the ice. The Diner has been busy:

Buddy has been busy giving us purrrtherapy-he's such a good lad. Taking a break but still keeping an eye on the realm via the slider:

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Curious places:

Buzludzha Monument, Bulgaria

Glowworm caves, New Zealand

Blythe Intaglios, CA, USA

 

Stone Labyrinths of Bolshoi Zayatsky Island, Russia

 

Unreal places on the planet from Travpedia-a pleasant escape to destinations often unknown, complete with succinct, albeit flowery British narration. Still, nice to dip your toes into:

 

Hokkaido, the northern most of the Japanese main islands, is no stranger to snow. They got clobbered with over 50" in 12 hours. Yikes! Reminds me of UP Winters like around Copper Harbor MI. Count yer blessings...

Sparkle paper towel ad campaign with Kerri the Sparkle Fairy who saves the day!

If only this was true, a magic fairy cleaning up the shite in Washington for us. 

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The Celtic languages is divided into two groups: Breton, Cornish and Welsh; Manx (Isle of Man), Scottish Gaelic and Irish. A linguistic curiosity: English speakers when asked "are you going out?" and answer in the affirmative "yes", this latter group will say "I am".

 

A WORD FROM ABLE SEAMAN JOE

From the film Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World-Able Seaman Joe gives advice to a young Midshipman as he experiences his first time under fire: