Welcome to my little Nerdery on the Net! :)

Yes…even knowing Katie was going to be all eye-rolly and NERD, there was no way I wasn’t going to have the live feed from Pad 39A on the TV. But I can’t be the only one amused at the names of the astronauts… ;)

It's not often I get to tell Bob Murray of Murray Energy where he can file his Chapter 11 bankruptcy plan (here's a hint…it's a rather notorious orifice!), thoroughly reject Santander Consumer USA's completely inadequate response to my consumer complaint a couple of months ago, and at the same time suggest that the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau is at best a paper tiger with no interest in actually regulating bad actors in the financial services…

Sometimes it is just a matter of perspective of experiencing the bitter makes one appreciate the sweetness when it comes round. Lindsey truly gets it. It might be hard to remember at times but perspective is always the key! (Look up her “String Sessions” duet with Amy Lee of Evanescence if you don’t believe me. The song was amazing but the interview afterward even more so…) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4uSWXKh9JpY&feature=youtu.be

I'm thinking the driver of this vehicle and I would agree on quite a lot of things, not the least of which would be that the Peruvian sense of humour totally rules! :)

There are some lessons one can learn from spending any amount of time on a nuclear submarine that definitely apply to social distancing and navigating tight confined spaces. This is especially critical on an attack submarine (think Los Angeles class) which are much smaller than the missile submarines ("boomers" like the Ohio or Virginia class boats). One of the most critical is that unless you need to be somewhere quickly, you hug the walls or…

In a nutshell (!), I inherited a portion of my great-grandfather's mineral rights from under the family farm land in Southern Illinois which have had mining leases with several coal companies, the latest being Murray Energy that bought out The American Coal Company that operates the Galatia IL coal mine. In our main story, yesterday I finally received the latest in a series of love letters from the law firm handling the Murray Energy Chapter…

When it became patently clear that Seb was getting the boot, the prohibitive favourite to take his seat was McLaren's Carlos Sainz Jr and Daniel Ricciardo moving on from Renault to take Sainz's seat. We've not even raced a kilometer in anger this season and already three major pieces are shuffling round the grid. And it's almost certain that this is only the begining of the unsettled silly season when you consider that Vettel really…

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.