Rants, musings, and other general purpose blog entries reflecting the thoughts du jour.
This got ugly really quickly and the feeding frenzy for his seat with the Scuderia didn’t take long with Carlos Sainz and Daniel Ricciardo scenting the blood in the water. I wouldn’t have imagined Vettel scrambling for a drive but even more unthinkable is a possibility that a four-time World Champion will be all the way out on his ass way sooner than I would have ever imagined. It seems clear Lewis only has to…
Three of the four baby robins are out and about leaving one poor lonely soul to stay behind and guard the nest and get a bit of feeding. I'd imagine this one was the last to hatch but I don't think it'll be terribly long before they're winging their way round the neighbourhood… It'll feel pretty weird when that nest is finally empty. Maybe it's nature's way of providing a bit of training for what…
Those little chicks are getting to be not so little and have spilled out of the nest to the bit of the pillar next to the nest. It almost reminds me of those old war movies set on a submarine where everyone is hot-bunking in the crew quarters and there is no space to be had! Amazingly, Lady Robin was able to get everyone underneath her last night but how I have no idea because…
"Dear George, remember no man is a failure who has friends. Thanks for the wings, Love Clarence." Clarence Oddbody, "It's a Wonderful Life" Today started out as so many have of late…waking up early to go collect Alex and Katie and then ultimately rousting all three kids from the beds they'd much rather stay in (and truth be told, so would I!) in time for their virtual school day. I'm firmly convinced that every teacher…
All four of the chicks are growing seemingly exponentially and one especially brave soul decided to flap their wings a bit. They're definitely much more feathered than they have been and it's hard imagining how that nest isn't standing room only! It won't be long before they're off to adventures new and Lord and Lady Robin are left with an empty nest. :)
If you happen to be in a narrow aisle at the shoppes where your trolley is parked in the centre of the aisle and pointed opposite to the direction of the three arrow signs within 1m of the trolley whilst you're messing about with your phone completely oblivious to the other shoppers nearby…that would be exactly the WRONG TIME to cop an attitude toward those very same shoppers who comprehended the meaning of the arrows…
Today I managed to catch Lord and Lady Robin bringing some tasty morsels of worms and bugs for their four very hungry chicks! This seems to be a near constant job taken in shifts which is something I'm sure we can all relate to. This is the first day I've really been able to catch the baby birds stretching their heads above the top of the nest and it was nice seeing all four eggs…
The last week and a half has been rather uneventful in the nest with the days going something like this: Lady Robin sits on the nest.Occasionally Lady Robin leaves the nest for a bit.Lady Robin returns to the nest.I open the front or garage door and she gets right cross and flies away.The one time I was of a mind to sit on the porch for a bit after mowing, I got the most dreadful…
The missus of the nest hopped a wind which allowed some having fun with a ladder and two cameras (an iPhone 8 Plus and the D7000 with a 40mm Micro-Nikkor lens). Much as I love the D810…the 50mm f/1.4 doesn’t focus close enough in the small space between the nest and the underside of the porch roof. Anywho, she’s been incubating four beautiful blue eggs that will likely be chirping for worms presently.
Lady Robin is firmly ensconced on her nest and isn't particularly interested in moving any time soon so no pictures of the eggs yet!
Taking a peek out the front door during the storm revealed that the nest is indeed happily occupied by a mommy robin… :)
About six weeks ago, I filed an "informal appeal" of the rather insane increase in the tax valuation on the house from $205K to almost $272K hoping they'd see reason and find a much more appropriate number for the next four years. Theoretically, the county is supposed to base their valuation for residential homes on comparable sales (typically in the year prior to the revaluation which in this case would be 2019). However, in practice,…
Some little bird has been busy making a nest on one of my porch columns…no eggs from what I can see but I would suspect it won't be long until that nest has some tenants! Patience (the Japanese maple at the southern end of the flowerbed) had a bird nest in it at one point but the leaves have grown in so much in the past week that I can't see if it's still there.
I managed to get a quick run to Wegmans and by and large it looks as if things are slowly getting to be less panicky and insane, at least for the moment. There was plenty of meat in the coolers, everyone seemed to be respecting the purchase limits and maintaining the proscribed two meter distance (or essentially the length of the trolley) which isn't that easy to do in confined spaces. All except one individual…
One might not normally think of a Formula 1 racing team as being at the forefront of medical device development but the Mercedes engineers at Brackley have managed to do just that. In an impossibly short time-frame, the engineers along with clinicians in London reverse-engineered a CPAP unit and have designed a even better replacement they can put into mass production to the tune of 1,000 units per day assuming the 40 prototypes do well.…
After three weeks of the outside unit being down thanks to a buggered contactor that had fused (so the unit wouldn’t shut down unless you pulled the fuse), it was nice to finally get the replacement part and install it. It was pretty much a drop-in replacement moving the wires one at a time and now the heat pump is back in working order just in time for a near 90 degF day! :) The…
The dawn of a new age is upon us… ;)
The Fed and other central banks just blew a massive load of liquidity all over the markets and dumped the key interest rate on the deck. The markets responded by another massive sell off to the tune of nearly 3,000 points on the Dow! If that’s not the clearest indication the market has zero confidence in the government’s ability to respond to this crisis, I don’t know what is. Maybe the administration might try for…
So President Trump tells the nation that he’s taken the COVID-19 test given his contact with people who have tested positive for the virus. But then he’s waiting 1-2 days for the lab to report the results?!? How is it possible that the most powerful leader in the world or at least his CDC chief can’t be bothered to fast-track those results given how much interest there is from the media? I’d understand if someone…
It’s about four minutes from the house to DQ and passing right by Soprano’s Grille. What to do? Crank up “Fratelli D’Italia” in honour of all the Italians who courageously confronted this nasty Coronavirus with opening their windows to song and music and showing that they have the biggest hearts in all of Europe! And I think I’ll play it again on the way back down Rogers Lane! :)
Mattia Binotto, Ferrari's principal during the afternoon session of the second day of F1 Test Days in Montmelo circuit. (Photo by Javier Martinez de la Puente / SOPA Images/Sipa USA)
Normally Formula 1's silly season is during the summer break when everyone is speculating which drivers are going to be in their seats or elsewhere but the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile (FIA) apparently decided to really drop a deuce on the championship right at the end of the testing sessions at Catalunya. For those who are not dyed-in-the-wool petrolheads that seriously miss the sound of the engines before the turbo-hybrid era and wonder how many…
It’s Bernie v Biden today in the Tarheel State and already we can see this battleground state living up to its recent reputation. Katie woke up long enough in her school’s carpool lane to rate both of the leading contenders a solid “MEH!” before casting her vote for Biden. Alex, OTOH, is solidly feeling the Bern! Guess it’s up to me to be the tie breaking vote.. :) Truth be told, I was sad to…
Especially when they owe you money because between the time they cut a check for the delay rental on the coal leases I inherited and the time I actually tried to deposit the check…the mining company had filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection! Part of this is my fault for sitting on the rent checks for about five weeks because my credit union isn't particularly convenient to where I live and I just discovered mobile…
Alex surprised me today on the way to his school by mentioning that our state is amongst the ones "voting for President" tomorrow on Super Tuesday which I'm sure he saw on his favourite news programme this morning. I explained to him as best I could in terms he'd understand that we weren't really voting for the President but rather voting to choose who will be allowed to stand for election in November when we…
Sooooooo…I discovered that my DirecTV which has been flaking out a bit of late has decided it doesn't want to serve up HD channels and it's missed a couple of recordings it shouldn't have. Not terribly surprisingly, I saw the 771 error message and the diagnostics say that the dish is mis-aligned which means "send human to sort this out straightaway!" Then begins the fun of calling for service to a call centre where clearly…
