Recap of the Fitbit saga: I lost my
watch Friday night, looked for it everywhere and then some. On Saturday we
realized we had an older Fitbit in the camper that might serve as a replacement
watch. When we got back to the camper, I put it on the charger and waited. Posted
my journal entry on the blog and then turned my attention to the Fitbit in
hand. Now here’s the rest of the story:
Last night (Saturday), after the old Fitbit (Charge 4) was charged, I needed
to figure out how to pair it with my phone. First, I had to unpair the lost
Fitbit (Luxe), then uninstall the Fitbit app and reinstall it to get the latest
updates. The Charge 4 was rather stubborn about pairing with the phone; the app
would get to a certain step in the process and then time out because the Charge
4 wouldn’t respond. I checked Bluetooth
settings several times…it was not showing up. Very frustrating.
I was going to give up for the night but decided to check available
Bluetooth devices one more time. I looked at the list and, rather
sarcastically, said, “Well, the Luxe, which is lost, is showing as available,
but the Charge 4, which is sitting right next to the phone, isn’t. How crazy is that?” That caught Kim’s attention. He said, “If it’s
showing as available for pairing, it has to be nearby.” But where? We looked everywhere last
night.
Being within Bluetooth range meant that it to be in the table/kitchen
area, which we’d already searched multiple times on Friday night. We started
searching again…table, trash, my box of needle felting, shoes, anything that
could hide a watch, even if it seemed far-fetched.
I always throw my bike keys in my right riding boot, so I know where to
find them. Always…that’s where they are. Friday night I shook the boot…I could hear the
keys. Later, I felt in the boot…I could feel the keys but nothing else. Kim did
the same. Last night, as we were looking
for the watch that was close enough to pair with my phone, I took the keys out
of the boot and tangled in with them was my watch. What?! It’s been in my
boot the whole time? Obviously, I
would have found the watch the next time I went riding but finding it sooner rather
than later made my day….and I don’t know how my watch got in my boot, but you
can bet that’s the first place I’ll look if I lose it again.
In the meantime, the Charge 4 decided to pair with my phone. And Kim wanted to know how my boot with the watch in it logged 2,059 steps when it wasn’t on my foot.
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Kim brought a DSLR camera out here for star tracking purposes but has
been using it to take pictures on our walkabouts. He’s been wanting to get a
photo of a quail; we know where a whole bevy of them hang out down Picacho Hwy.
This morning, I had an idea: drop me off at either end of the fence line where
the quail are, then he parks the truck at the other end of the fence line. He waits with camera in hand as I walk along
the fence line toward him, hopefully pushing the quail toward him. When they
run out, he gets his picture. Easy
peasy!
Kim questioned why we couldn’t just walk down there and set up the same
scenario; my theory was that the birds are used to traffic going by so the
truck noise wouldn’t throw them into a tizzy, but they might react too quickly
to the sound or feel of feet walking. So,
we got in the truck to attempt what Kim called The Quail Drive.
I could see the quail down by the
bushes where they usually hang out as soon as I got into place, but I had no
way of letting Kim know where they were. I slowly walked between two rows of
pecan trees, hoping to keep them from running into the grove. I didn’t get very
close before they either ran or flew to the other side of the road. When Kim
brought his camera up to focus, etc., it indicated that the battery was
dead. Oops! Not sure he could have gotten a picture
anyway because they flushed fast.
Next time I think we should use our phones with ear buds for
communication purposes and a fresh battery would be helpful, too.
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Right from the get-go, the day was warm but cloudy. Cloud cover is
perfect for doing a walkabout in the desert, so off we went. Parked along E. Park Link Dr. and wandered
out into the desert, following a washout used by off-roaders. Before we left the truck, I asked Kim to track
us on his OnX app because I didn’t trust us to not get lost just following
washouts. As it turns out I didn’t need
to be concerned about that as we never lost sight or sound of Park Link Rd.
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When we were walking past a big hanging tree at the edge of the washout,
we could hear bird chatter. Quail. I motioned to Kim to stay put and that I
would walk around the tree to flush them out.
Worked like a charm, except that most of the quail flew out of the tree
and it’s really hard to get a picture of a flying bird. Must have been 30 or
more in there.
Saw lots of lizards skittering away from us, a hawk up on a saguaro
cactus, and the quail. Only got a picture of the hawk.
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The OnX app indicated that we walked 1.93 miles at 1.2 mph. WooHoo! Our speed is increasing!
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There’s been no action on the Nutt Rd. camera, yet all the potatoes were gone. That doesn’t add up. Turned up the sensitivity on the camera and bought more potatoes and a cabbage. As of 8:15 p.m., we have a picture of a desert cottontail eating a potato. At least we know the camera is working.
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It’s almost 9:30 p.m. and all the windows and the ramp are open because
the outside air is still balmy and a closed up camper can get hot so quickly in
this weather. Of course, that means that
the traffic sounds are incredibly loud, coming at us on the night air.
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Kim is still targeting the
Dolphin Head Nebula…he reports that the images are looking good so far.
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