It's Been Too Long

I'm in trouble with my Mom. I haven't posted any of her pictures. I'm her official blogger.

When I first stepped out the door, I noticed two large birds in the pine tree on the next block. My eyes aren't what they used to be, but I knew they weren't the usual crows. I went into the sun room to look for binoculars, and couldn't find them. (It takes awhile for the cobwebs to clear out of my mind in the morning. I then thought of my camera.) It was the neighborhood hawk and friend. Only got one picture of the two of them together.

A few weeks ago, I saw the dragonfly on the clothesline. I liked the dew on the wings. I just needed another excuse to take a picture of a draggon fly.

The clothesline offers all kinds of wild life. I see Blue Jays, Mockingbirds, Woodpeckers, and this lizard on it. There are a few of my friends that won't appreciate the picture of the lizard.

I know most aren't going to like the snake. I was in the bedroom watching TV one morning, when Charlie started barking. I looked out the window and see an snake looking right at me. Good thing Linda wasn't home. She would have freaked.

OK, so you've had it with the reptiles. I end this post with a female cardinal.

Hawkeye Linda

When we drove across the country, Linda didn't see a thing. I always kid her about not seeing anything. I guess I'll have to stop that. Tonight I arrived home from work, and as I got out of the truck, I heard Linda say, "come back here."

I thought to myself, "what's happened in the back yard, now?"

As I approached the fence, Linda pointed to the power pole and said, "look at the bird." There was the neighborhood hawk.

I quickly made my way to the house for the camera. This guy didn't seem to be to pestered by me getting close. He also didn't seem too annoyed by the daring little Mockingbird at first. The little one would swoop down, and the Hawk just gave a a glance that said, "get real."

The Mockingbird would sit on a wire for a little while to gather her wits, nerve, or strength and have another go at the Hawk. She got a little too close and caused the Hawk to ruffle his feathers.

I just stood below the two of them, enjoying their show. Linda finally understood why I'm late for work in the mornings. I told her I see stuff like this all the time, but the lighting stinks. Then the Mockingbird got a little too close to the Hawk, and they moved their show further down the road. Yes, that crazy Mockingbird followed the Hawk.

Mornings in the Backyard

Mornings aren't always the best time to take pictures. It seems the wild life has a habit of being in front of the sun, or the sun is just coming up. To sum it all up, it just means bad lighting.

Sometimes it's amazing that I make it to work. I sit outside and watch the birds and squirrels. The day I took the picture of the hawk, I was surprised that the birds didn't go into hiding. The jays were dive bombing him, and the Mockingbird was harassing a squirrel.

This morning a wood pecker decided to sit on the power line. The one of the backyard Mockingbirds didn't like it, and tried to pick a fight.

Speaking of Mockingbirds, there is a campaign to replace them as state bird with the Osprey. I like Osprey, but I think the Mockingbird should stay. One will get up in the elderberry tree and imitate the frogs. I've also seen a pair dive bomb a cat that got to close to their nest.

Reminds Me of Night Witches

Earlier this month, on a clear night, I was fooling around with the white balance on the camera. The picture of the moon isn't my best. It does make me think of the Night Witches.

The Soviet Union used young women to fly bombing missions, using biplanes, during WWII. It's be written that those women in the crop dusters drove the Germans crazy.

A Bad Feather Day

I'm finally taking some pictures off my camera. At the end of June I spotted this little guy out side the front door. It's amazing the Mockingbird is everywhere here in FL. The little one could barely stand on the concrete block.

Mom and Pop weren't too happy me being so close. I retreated back into the house. I could only take pictures from the window. The problem was the blind was down, and I didn't dare lift it, in fear of scaring the family. That's why the picture looks so strange. The white portion is the reflection of the blind.

Been Bummed Lately

I have pictures to post, but watching people being walked out the door at work, has left me a bit down. It's not that the company I work for is decreasing its operations, they're just sending jobs out of the country.

I still haven't figured out how this "consumer economy" of ours is supposed to right itself, if the consumers don't have jobs.

I was having the above conversation one afternoon with one of my co-workers, when I noticed a strange bird. Finally something different to shoot. It turned out to be an immature little blue heron.

Godzilla and other Critters

Not much has been happening. As you can see I got a picture of a family of ducks at work.

The girls barked at a Wood stork.

I couldn't figure out why my camera was taking so long to focus. Then I looked at the lens filter, and noticed it was dirty. It had brackish water spots on it. I cleaned it, and found cloth was black. No wonder I couldn't focus on the Giant Swallowtail Butterfly that visits the back yard.

Tuesday, I arrived at work to find an email from K.D. She wrote that there was "Godzilla" outside the accounting conference room. (10 years of working in the place, I didn't know there was an accounting conference room.) A half hour had passed since she had emailed. But it didn't matter. He was still outside.

I told Katie I was going to break, as I grabbed my camera. Her replay was, "but you just got here".

The picture doesn't show the real size of this Tokay Gecko. He must have been 10 inches long.

Life Has Gone to the Birds

Walking to my car tonight I spied a woodpecker. (Actually there were 3 of them, but this one wasn't a shy as the others.) I put down my bag, and retrieved the camera. As I was pulling it out of the bag, Kim drove by and asked, "is everything OK?"

How couldn't it be OK. I'm a bird brain. There are birds everywhere around work. Everything is wonderful when I'm outside.

I like this one. The little guy looks like he is going to take a nap.

I forgot to post the Osprey.

Last month before I went on vacation, Kathy and Deb were coming in from break. K.D. says, "there's an Osprey eating a big fish, on a light pole, in the parking lot." I walked briskly back to my desk to pick up the camera. Even though I have Osprey pictures up the ying yang, I just couldn't help myself.

Fort De Soto

We had always stayed away from taking the canoe to Fort De Soto, because of the heavy boat traffic there. Since we're on vacation, Linda and I decided to give it a try. We were pleasantly surprised to find that they have a 2.5 mile canoe trail. Either no combustion motors or low wake in the area. It is not an area that the personal water craft people will be seen.

We seen the usual suspects like the pelican.

I had no problems getting close to this Blue Heron in the Mangroves or the Dobule-Crested Cormorant. I couldn't say the thing about the King Fisher that was flying from one tree to the next. I would get close, and off that nervous little bugger would fly. One day I will get a good picture of those obnoxious little birds.

Another bird that drove me crazy was the Red-Breasted Merganser. I would aim the camera, and down into the water she would dive. She would reappear 10 feet away from the original spot. I finally got a shot.

The day was topped off by the manatees. No pictures.

Charlie Treed a Squirrel

I haven't had any pictures that have thrilled me lately. As I was making chili, Linda came into the house. "You have to get Charlie in here. She has a squirrel in the tree." It is a photo opportunity!

If you look at the photo closely, you can see the squirrel in the Macadamia Nut Tree. He tried to stay as still as possible. I'm sure Charlie's jumping ability frightened him.

I was so excited to see what I had shot, I forgot to put the meat in my chili. Now I have to wait for the pressure to go down in the pressure cooker.



It takes forever to upload video.

I’ve Become a Kindle User

The Decision to Purchase a Kindle

I showed Linda the demo at the Amazon store. She asked about prices.

I showed Linda some price comparisons. Since I purchased James Patterson’s Run For Your Life today at Costco (Art Linda’s stepfather likes his books.), I’ll use it for the price comparisons. Costco sold it for $15.09. Amazon sells the hard cover for 16.79, and the Kindle version for $10.00. That’s a five dollars savings from Costco.

More importantly, I don’t have to buy a book right away to get the savings. I have Traitor to His Class by H. W. Brands, Nothing to Fear by Adam Cohen, American Lion by John Meachem, The Coldest Winter by David Habertam, and Team of Rivals by Doris Kearns Goodwin, sitting on my book shelf waiting to be read, because Costco had them at such great discounts. Most of the books above could have been purchased for the same price or lower via the Kindle store.

Then there is The Panic of 1907 by Robert F. Bruner and Sean D. Carr. I purchased it at Borders, for 30% off the $ 30.00 cover price, using a coupon. (I have to go to my Hotmail account and print the coupons). That still doesn’t get close to the $10.00 at the Kindle store.

I figure in most cases, we would save approximately $5.00 per book. At the rate I read books, the Kindle will pay for itself in approximately 18 months. Linda liked the idea.

Kindle Blows Books Out of the Water

I’m reading Alexander Hamilton by Ron Chernow. It is over 700 pages of small print. It weighs almost 3 pounds and is 2 ½" thick (it can be used for a weapon or a bar bell), versus the Kindle’s 1.5 pounds and less than ½" thick. If it were on my Kindle, I would be able to increase the size of the print. If I don’t know the meaning of a word in the book, I have to go to my iBook and look it up, or one of the two volumes of my 1968 World Book Dictionary (I can now use the dictionary that comes with Kindle). The ebook version would allow me to move the cursor in front of the word, and the definition would appear at the bottom of the page.

It’s easy on the eyes. I can read outside, without the sun reflecting of the page, causing me to see spots.

Oh yea, you can download a sample of the book. That would have been a blessing, before I purchased Debby Applegate’s The Most Famous Man in America: the Biography of Henry Ward Beecher. I seen her speak on Book TV, and she made her subject seem captivating. The book could be used in lieu of sleeping pills.

The Down Side


The price, bye bye 2 or 3 person Kayak.

The magazine selection. We can get Time delivered to the house for 20.00 a year in color, why pay 17.88 a year for a black and white version? (Why pay any amount for the magazine?) If they had The Economist, I would get a subscription.

Amazons shipping. They sent this via United States Postal Service in conjunction with FedEx. Pony Express would have gotten it here faster. It shipped from Campville, KY on February 22nd. It arrived in Orlando (approximately a 2 hour drive from here) on the 24th around 1300 hours. It didn’t leave Orlando until approximately 0200 hours February 26th. It was delivered here on the 27Th. They charged me approximately 10.00 for this “service”.

I took measurement of the box, gave it a weight of 10 pounds, and checked UPS. This would have taken 2 days to reach me, and it would have cost the same amount of money in shipping.

Conclusion

I’m so happy with it, I even read the instructions that come loaded on the devise.

Trip to the Suncoast Seabird Sanctuary

On January 25th Linda and I took a trip to Indian Shores (not much a drive) to visit the Suncoast Seabird Sanctuary. It was started in the the early 70's to help save birds. I wish I could have gotten better pictures of the pelican nesting on top of the pelican cages. The best view of them were facing the sun. No pictures turned out. As you can see, the wild birds such as this Black-Crowned Night Heron seem to like hanging around the place.

The name is sort of a misnomer. They take care of more than just seabirds. You can see hawks, owls and wood peckers. Recently they took in a Bald Eagle that was shot in Seminole. Unfortunately, they weren't able to save the bird.

Speaking of eagles, I was downloading some pictures of the eagle, who I photographed over Lake Seminole, for K.D., when I noticed this picture.

Road Trip

Yesterday started out normal enough. We’ll maybe not too normal. It was 43 degrees when I took the girls for their morning walk. By the afternoon, Linda and Harriet, a former HR person where I work, were having the day of their lives.

While Linda and I were driving back from Longboat Key a few weeks ago, we were taking the Tamiami Trail back, when we passed Jungle Gardens. It’s just south of the John and Mable Ringling Museum. I showed Mayra it on the internet, and the two of us decided to explore another part of “old Florida”.

(While were on the subject of Old Florida, I’ll tell you something about the Tamiami Trail. It is a highway that was built to connect Tampa and Miami. It was supposed to help everyone along the highway, but it was finished in time for the stock market crash of 1929. It took a little time for prosperity to be found, and then came interstate highway system under Eisenhower’s administration. And like most highways, the businesses along the highway suffered because of the freeway.)

Jungle Gardens is the “Area’s only zoological garden”. We arrived when most of the exotic birds were in covered cages, with heaters. It was so cold, not much was moving.

We stopped at the flamingo café for hot chocolate, where we met a friendly flamingo. According to the woman behind the counter he usually comes up to get popcorn. We didn’t have any, but that didn’t stop him from trying to become chums with Linda. We stated on the patio for a few minutes watching this guy. Then we decided it was time to go. He followed.

Actually he followed Linda, which kept the woman at the café from having to take him back to the other flamingos. Once we reached the pond, you can buy food to feed them. Mayra tried to feed him and others tried to feed him, but he didn’t want any. Guess he’s a popcorn addict.

Mayra did finally find flamingo plus another that would eat out of her hand. She was so exited.

After the flamingos we continued to walk around the garden. This place would be great in the spring or summer, because to the shade. We hit the bird show. The parrots to tricks. Most of the shows are geared more for children.

As we were headed home, the decision was made to stop at Ted Peters Famous Smoked Fish for lunch. (It isn’t much to look at, and if you eat there, be sure to bring cash. They don’t take cards or checks. ) As we sat down, Linda and Harriet were all aflutter. “Guy Fieri from the Food Network is over there”.

I asked, “who?”

Mayra and I refused to ask for a picture, until he finished eating. Once he stood up Mayra, Harriet and Linda headed towards his table. I finally recognized him, but had no interest in meeting him. His assistant used Mayra’s camera to take the picture.


Harriet kept trying to get Mayra to stop at a Walgreen’s to download the picture. She wanted a 8X10. I’ll find out tomorrow if she got it. I’ll have to upload the picture Mayra emailed to upload to Walgreens for Linda. I’m sure everyone at her work will her about this. She was kept saying all the way home, “we have to call your Mom. She’ll know who Guy Fieri is.”

We got home to find another surprise. Mom’s goat Lady had given birth to two kids. Their picture is on “Trips Away From Florida”. The link on the right.

Looking Back

We don’t know when Charlie was born. I found her on the street in May of 2007, and she had a mouth full of puppy teeth. She has this mischievous personality, much like a certain Cookie Elf we loved, and gave her the birth date of January 31, 2007.

Joan would have been 75 today.

Saturday, the 25th of February 2006, we received a call from Art, telling us to meet him at Morton plant Hospital in Clearwater. Jo had taken a turn for the worse. The doctor told us that she most likely wasn’t going to make it through the night. Art, Linda, and I stayed all night in that hospital. We didn’t want Joan to die alone.

As I sat with Linda in the ICU, listening to the ventilator helping Jo breath, I asked myself, “am I only going to remember her like this?”

Sunday afternoon, Art told the staff to remove the ventilator. He went home. Linda, Nancy and I stayed with Joan as she took her final breath. I found the answer to the question I had asked, as I held Joan’s cold hand. Things from the past came rushing back to me, as if they happened yesterday.

We went to Disney World in 1998. Joan screamed all the way down Splash Mountain. When we go to Space Mountain, I assured her she had nothing to fear. “It’s like a child’s roller coaster in the dark.” She believed me. The first few seconds of the ride scared her. Then she was told the ride was just beginning. She yelled at the top of her lungs, “I want off.” In between the blood curdling screams, she pleaded for the ride to stop, s she could get off. She then vowed she was never going to listen to me again.

She trusted me enough to have me drive her to Clearwater Beach one afternoon. As we were leaving, I took a wrong turn. Instead of going home via Gulf Blvd., I took US 19. I new that largo was in between Clearwater and St Petersburg, and so I followed the sign to St. Peterburg. I explained my strategy to her, and she started in on me, “You’re going to St. Petersburg! We’re lost!”

“We not lost. We’re sight seeing.”

“We’re lost!”

I turned onto East Bay and asked, “do you know where we are now?” She instantly transformed from Chicken Little to Captain James Cook, navigating us safely back to her home.

Her kids like to give her Life threatening surprises. It is a wonder the woman didn’t have a heart attack in 1999 or 2001.

In 1999, Linda didn’t tell her we were moving from Washington to Florida. When we arrived at Steve and Lisa’s Seminole home, Steve called his mother and told her and Art to come over for dinner. Linda waited at the side of the road for them. When Joan seen Linda, she jumped from the moving car. (I correct myself. We shouldn’t have worried about a heart attack. We should have worried about her becoming road kill.)

In the fall of 2001, Bruce and Rose came down for vacation without giving her warning. Her son knocked on the door, like he lived down the street fro her. She made us all promise her that we wouldn’t spring anymore surprises on her.

She was a bit too generous. She almost lost her fingers to a ferrous beagle one Thanksgiving. She dropped her roll, ans Susie immediately snatched it from the floor. Joan tried to retrieve it, and Susie snapped at her. I asked, “what are you doing?”


She replied, “I wanted to butter it for her.”

She was the keeper of dates, the letter writer, the foundation of the family, the cantankerous cookie elf with a very forgiving heart. (See the smirk on her face. She was telling me, “I’ll get even with you, you little shit.” And she did, I picked up one of her rum balls. I don’t drink.)

Now I’ll put on a Garth Brooks DVD and I’ll cry. She loved that man. She almost wore out the video she had of him in Central Park.

Yes I still remember her struggling to breath on her, during her final minutes on this earth. But I also remember that smile, the laughter, her ribbing me, and the way she felt when she hugged me.

Bald Eagle at Work

I'm sitting at my desk, engrossed in my work. I didn't even see K.D. walk up to me. I hear, "do you have your camera?"

"Huh?"

"There's an eagle outside the front door. Get your camera."

I reached for the camera, and tried to digest what she was telling me, when I said, "hold on, I have to put myself on break." (When we leave our phones, we have to click on a reason.)

Katie tells me, "don't worry about it, Go!"

I followed K.D. out the door. And as you can see, what was going on over the lake was impressive.

Red Tailed Hawk at Work

Katie did it to me again. Just like Thursday, she came back from break all excited. "Pick up your camera. The hawk is on the light pole in front of the building." (I knew what pole she was talking about, because usually it is where the Osprey eats.) I grabbed my camera again.

I knew going out the front door wasn't an option. That would get me there faster, but it would also scare him off. (Osprey down here, will sit on a pole an look at you like you are what is to be observed. Hawks aren't like that. These guys are very skittish.) I headed out the lunch room door. Turned the corner, and again he wasn't where Katie said he would be. I then looked at the tree that he likes to perch and no luck.

I seen Kim and Angie smoking, and wandered over to them to talk. "Katie did it to me again. She tells me there is a hawk out here, and he's no where to be found." Then for whatever reason, I looked over my shoulder, and there he was, in his favorite tree.

I usually see him in the tree, when the sun is directly behind him. But at 3:30 PM the sun was headed to the west, and I could get a few shots of him. As you can see from the above I got him screeching at me or the little birds trying to get him out of the area.

Trip to Anna Marie Island

Linda and I had planned to take a trip to Honeymoon Island, not far from Clearwater Beach to check out the owls. They should be nesting now, but we decided to make a trek south instead. At first I was a bit apprehensive about crossing the Skyway bridge. No, I'm not afraid of heights. We had fog this morning, and I was afraid visibility would be low. Strangest thing. It was one of the few areas that didn't have fog.

There isn't much to see on Anna Marie. Like most of Florida, the rich have been allowed to build gigantic condos and homes that block the view of the road. It was too early to stop and have lunch. So we decided to head little bit further south.

John Steinbeck was right. In his book, Travels with Charley written approximately 1961 or 62, he wrote that one day we wouldn't be able to tell one American Town from then next. Longboat Key wasn't any different from any other coastal town in Florida.

We found a nature preserve on out way out of town. Not much nature going on in it. A Blue Heron and another bird in the mangroves. That was about it.

I have to admit it was a nice Sunday drive.