In the neighborhood:
10/7-8—we finally got some decent rain: 1.5" from a substantial cold front. Chilly temps followed with a couple of days only in the 50's and one night of 35° but no frost. The rain has everything breathing some relief and only the transplanted coneflowers have gotten some extra watering from me.
This brought to an end of our second Summer—a stretch of days in the mid-high 80's. Summer this year was topsy-turvy: began cold and ended cold. At least the warmth brought a final wave of ripe tomatoes although most of which were enjoyed by the deer. A super Harvest moon occurred, being closer to Earth in its orbit providing v bright nights.
C and Buddy went from enjoying a final evening of deck yoga...
...to enjoying our first fire of the season:
It's been a year of prolific seed pod production from Mr. Honeylocust tree. Some years are heavier than others but I think in this case, drought related stress has pushed production as it has with other species.
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We haven't seen MamaC since the end of September. According to research, she might be preparing her underground den where she will overwinter. They are one of the few true hibernators in MI joining chippers, bats, bears and certain varieties of snakes, frogs and turtles. Chucks often have separate seasonal dens and I would bet hers is in the woods around Carrier Creek which is about 100 yards the neighborhood. She has fattened up the past few months since the kids have moved out. Her den will be dug below the frost line so the temperature will remain stable above freezing while she hibernates. She will lose up to half her weight by February/March when she awakens. Have a good snooze, Mama.
We also have a mating pair of Red-bellied Woodpeckers:
Our female didn't have a full red nape—it was more of a rectangular swatch.
I've also seen the return of Tufted Titmouse at the Diner. While they are here year-round, they will expand their territory as the weather cools often incorporating whatever Diners they can find.
Six more zaps to go! I am pretty happy for this to be done as I am weary obsessing over bladder fullness and control.
Hodgepodge for $400:
Goosebumps: These small bumps appear on the skin due to the erection of the hair follicles. They are primarily triggered by cold temperatures or strong emotions such as fear, but can also occur with joy, sadness, or even during physical exertion. Goosebumps are a holdover from evolution where in the past this response helped animals by trapping a layer of air for insulation and made their ancestors appear larger and more intimidating to potential predators.
Perspective: The Sahara Desert is roughly the same size as the US:
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The tree that survived ground zero on 9/11:
This Callery Pear tree was discovered by recovery workers a month after the attacks, its
roots snapped, branches burned, and otherwise badly damaged, but still
alive.The tree was transported to a park in the Bronx, where it was cared for by the NYC Parks Department for a decade. Workers worked to heal its wounds, and by the spring of 2002, it began to show new life, sprouting new leaves and branches. In 2010, the tree, now known as the Survivor Tree, was replanted in the 9/11 Memorial plaza, a testament to hope and rebirth. It lived up to it's name in 2012 when it was toppled by by strong winds from Hurricane Sandy. Mr. Tree eventually made a full recovery.
Dog Lordship: C meets most Saturday mornings with a group of poet friends at various homes. One of them has a rambunctious beagle named Tony. He wears a harness so his Mums can quickly grab him. He is fond of jumping over seated guests on the sofa. During this past week's visit, he snatched a lemon cookie off a coffee table. They discovered this when after they had gone into the kitchen for coffee, they heard Tony crunching the cook. "He regards the coffee table as his own, and anything on said table as well" said C.
Lost and forgotten: The Ted Knight Show 1978, where the Mary Tyler Moore alumnus stars as an owner of an escort service in NYC. Only 6 episodes aired before it was pulled.
The Mima Mounds:
These are natural, flattened earth mounds found in clusters, most notably in the southern Puget Sound region of Washington state, but also other parts of North America. Their origin is a mystery with several competing theories, including those involving gophers, periglacial processes from melting ice, and seismic activity.
In November 2026, Voyager 1 will reach 1 Light Day from Earth or the distance light travels in 24 hours.
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C's Summer elegy songs with Jamaican vibes:
From 1977, Stephen Bishop's major hit On and On:
From 1963, brother and sister Inez & Charlie Foxx song Mockingbird based on the lullaby Hush, Little Baby:
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Fun Vids:
Non-AI Bonobo builds a fire and roasts marshmallows!
From a March 20, 2025 article in Scientific American:
Kanzi the bonobo, who learned how to communicate with humans using symbols, has died at the age of 44. Raised and kept in captivity, Kanzi was the subject of many studies aimed at illuminating ape cognition and the origins of human language and tool use..
Kanzi was not the first great ape to learn how to communicate with humans using symbols. Koko the gorilla and Washoe the chimpanzee learned signs that were adapted from American Sign Language. But unlike his predecessors, who acquired their skills through direct training from researchers, Kanzi developed an interest in such symbols on his own when his adoptive mother, Matata, was receiving lessons on how to use keyboard lexigrams to communicate. Kanzi went on to learn hundreds of symbols that represented various objects and activities, as well as some more abstract concepts. Sometimes he combined these symbols to create new meaning.
Kanzi was also something of a technologist. Archaeologists Nicholas Toth and Kathy Schick, both at Indiana University, began working with Kanzi in 1990 to teach him and his sister Panbanisha how to make stone tools by using one rock as a hammerstone to remove sharp flakes from another rock called a core. “Kanzi slowly got more adept at flaking stone through time,” Toth recalls. Early in Kanzi’s training, he invented his own technique for making stone tools, throwing a flint cobble against a hard tile floor to remove larger flakes. He would then use the flakes to cut a cord to open a box with a food treat inside. After developing this technique, Toth says, Kanzi “seemed to realize that the force of impact was important in getting larger usable flakes” and applied this newfound knowledge when he resumed using the hammerstone-and-core technique to make tools.
Kanzi’s toolmaking skills fell short of those of modern-day humans and our ancestors, however. When Toth and Schick compared Kanzi and Panbanisha’s handiwork with their own and that of human ancestors who lived 2.6 million years ago, they found that the bonobos had many more failed attempts at removing flakes from the cores—and that the flakes the bonobos did produce were smaller than the ones made by humans. “We feel that their limitations in flaking were both biomechanical and cognitive,” Toth says. “You have to recognize acute angles on core edges and strike in the right place and at the right angle with your stone hammer to successfully remove flakes.”
Palm tree topping turns into a Looney Tunes event:
Ants solving a puzzle:
