I threw a carrot in the yard a couple of days ago; it didn’t take long to shrivel up in the dry heat. I’ve watched Peter Cottontail and his friend investigate it and then turn away disdainfully. But last night, something decided that it was worth the effort because a good portion of it was gone this morning. My guess would be that it was a rabbit who didn’t want it known that he actually likes wimpy carrots so he ate under the cloak of darkness.
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We decided not to do the Shamrock Run today, which actually includes half-marathon, 10K, and 5K walk/run options. About a week ago, Kim suggested we save the $90 (2 x $45) registration fee and do our own 5K. Sounds good! Woke to sunshine with a touch of cool, but by 9:30, it was warm enough to get set and go!
We know that walking to Nutt Rd. and back is the equivalent of a 5K. I called our race the Picacho Hwy 5K…Kim thought Picacho Plod was more appropriate. I set the stopwatch on my phone at the truck bumper; we made it back to the bumper in 1:09:50, only 12 to 15 minutes slower than our best time. Given the speed we were walking and the fact that we stopped to take some video with my phone, I tend to think that the stopwatch wasn’t spot on.
P.S. It’s official…we have too
much time on our hands!
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It took me way too long to put that video together because the video
program was not following my lead and then I’m not sure it’s what Kim had in
mind. Figuring out exactly how someone else envisions the end product is always
the tricky part.
Kim was having trouble with whatever it is that he does with the images
he takes, so we were both in the camper mumbling to ourselves as we worked on
our projects. He took his computer up to
the clubhouse to try to finish it; I called the video good enough and jumped on
my bike. I was not going to let a good riding afternoon get away from me.
The campground has internet, but we’ve been using our phones as hotspots because the camp signal isn’t the greatest back here in the corner. For the most part our hotspot does the job…it allows us to stream movies on the TV and we both use our computers on it. But Kim tried to stack over 7 hours of data today and the hotspot wasn’t doing so well with that. That’s why he went up to the clubhouse. And while he was up there, he did the wash.
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I made chili for supper and didn’t have enough stuff; of course, I didn’t
realize that until I had several cans of beans open. I rode to Safeway to get what I needed then I
took the long way back. Well, it was kind of the shortest long way back. There
are two other route options heading west on 87, but in the interest of completing
supper, I passed on both of those. I’ll get out there another time.
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Came across an eagle cam in Big Bear Lake,
CA. The adult eagles have been named
Jackie and Shadow; according to the comments, the eggs have hatched over the
last three or four days. There are 3 eaglets in the nest. Bella and Scout are still incubating their
eggs over in the Shenandoah Valley.
There is a definite size difference in the nests; Big Bear Lake nest is
much smaller. Both birds don’t fit on
the nest at the same time…one perches on the edge of the nest to do the
housekeeping or to wait its turn at nest sitting. Bella and Scout’s nest can easily fit both
birds at one time. Also, the Big Bear
Lake nest has remnants of snow on it; there hasn’t been any snow on the
Shenandoah Valley nest the 2 ½ weeks I’ve been watching it. Cool to watch
Jackie grab hold of a stick on the nest rim for leverage so she could shimmy
herself onto the eaglets just right.
Things that pique my interest: How did the
humans know where to put the cameras? Did someone notice eagle activity so the
cameras were installed or were the cameras installed just hoping the eagles
would come? Obviously, the cameras had to be put up before nesting season
started since the nest is rarely unattended once the eggs are laid. The Big
Bear Lake nest appears to be snuggled into a pine tree, so I wonder how it was noticed
among the branches. Again, did the presence of the birds attract attention so a
camera was put up in the ‘off season’?
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Down near the telescope corner, a little boy is spending some time camping with his grandparents. He was about to take a shower when he realized that the ‘telescope man’ was out there. Thinking a shower could wait, he begged his grandpa to take him out right now to see what the guy was doing with the scope. Kim showed him the set up and even let him do a couple of things, then told him that he’d take pictures of the Orion Nebula tonight and show it to him in the morning. The boy apparently has been beside himself wondering about that telescope; his grandma said they almost came down to our campsite to ask about it. Kim and his telescope sure are an attraction. In fact, he’s mentioned on the Picacho KOA website:
Our KOA has such a good darkness rating at night that it attracts astronomers.
Check out Astronomers' Corner (SW corner of campground), where Mr. Kim is usually taking time-lapse photography of nebulae with his telescope during late winter hours.
Not sure if Kim is doing time-lapse photography, but at least it doesn’t say ‘attracts astrologers’. 😎
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