Tuesday, March 25…The Heat Is On (Glenn Frey)

 

Bella and Scout’s egg #3 hatched yesterday. The Shenandoah Valley nest has a full house.  Now it’s about hunting so they can feed the eaglets.  I don’t know how long the adults will continue to sit on the nest cup containing the babies. I know they still need to keep warm but sitting on squirmy bodies as opposed to eggs has got to be uncomfortable.

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   I’m not sure the night air ever cooled down last night because it was warm at 7:30 this morning. The kind of warm that says walking out on the road in full sunlight wouldn’t end well.  So, I sat out in the shadow of the camper and contemplated the rabbits in the yard.

   The rabbits scamper in and out of our yard with impunity. Which isn’t an issue.  What I don’t understand is how they get from the yard to the other side of the fence. Beyond the tree, there are two fences that form a 90o angle and I’ve seen two rabbits slowly crawl under the fence where there’s a dug-out area. The other day I watched one come barreling full tilt through the yard and seemingly go under another section of fence with no break in stride. I went over and checked the spot where I’d seen it cross… didn’t seem to be enough room to go under the fence. How are they doing this?

   Today, as I watched them travel from one side of the fence to the other side, I wondered if they were going through the holes in the fence. Are their bodies squishy enough to do that?  If they’re not going under the fence or through the holes, the only other explanation is that they can pass through the fence like the Hogwarts students do at Platform 9 ¾ in the Harry Potter books.

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   The tree in our yard has leaves that look more like small fern leaves than any type of broad leaf. I’ve always called them ‘tree feathers’; they grow, then fall to land on the ground, table, chairs, or on whatever is outside. Just part of the Lot 59/60 experience.  I discovered today that rabbits eat the tree feathers but they’re somewhat picky about which ones. I watched one work its way around the fountain table, sniffing at some that it passed by and sniffing at others that it ate. And It didn’t necessarily eat the green ones that had just fallen, which I thought would taste fresher. Just adding that to my growing list of trivia about rabbits.

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   The situation at the Nutt Rd camera is perplexing…potatoes were all gone again with only one picture of a rabbit that first night.  So, Kim put more potatoes/cabbage out and adjusted the camera downward.  He thought maybe it was angled too high to catch movement that would set off the motion sensor. Can’t hurt to try.

   On the plus side, a coyote showed up on the ditch camera about 10 a.m.  It was just wandering through; didn’t seem interested in the potatoes or cabbage, so not a vegetarian, I guess. 😉

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   Where do you do with a day that hits 78 degrees at 9:30 in the morning and is predicted to set a record high temperature for March 25th?  Shut the windows/ramp and turn the air on, for starters. But under those circumstances, the camper tends to be dark. The overhead lights aren’t really effective in the daytime, and it doesn’t make sense to raise the window shades on the dining room and kitchen windows to let natural light in because they have a southern exposure…all day long. That would defeat the purpose of the A/C.  I tried sitting outside in the shade, but the air was so thick and hot the birds weren’t even very active.   We talked about driving to Mt. Lemmon today, but it makes more sense to combine that trip with the trip to Costco to get Kim’s glasses. Next idea was to go see a movie. What’s playing and when? 

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   Of all the movies playing at the Casa Grande theater, the live-action Snow White movie seemed the best choice, despite all the dismal reviews. I’ve learned not to put too much stock in a movie review because it’s simply the reviewer’s opinion, nothing more.  Bought our tickets, nachos and popcorn and settled in for a couple of hours of air-conditioned entertainment.

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   Here’s my take on the live-action Snow White: 

**It’s a classic Disney story…king and queen have a child, queen dies, king remarries, new queen is on a power trip and needs to be fairest of them all, yada, yada, yada. There are some changes from the 1937 version, such as more character development and different songs that add to the story, but the bones of the original movie are still there. 

**The Evil Queen was well played by Gal Gadot, the weird headdress adding to the sinister nature of the character.  

**This Snow White may still dress like the animated Snow White, but what she’s taught by her parents and the resulting attitudes and actions are more reflective of the 21st century.

**Rachel Zegler was a good choice to play Snow White.  

**The CGI dwarves were well done…believable and humorous.

**There was a little twist on the prince character which makes him not a prince but it also gave him a bigger role. It worked.

**I did wonder why Snow White spent years cleaning the same floors when it appeared no one ever walked on them except her but that’s a minor detail.  

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   Bottom line, I thought it was well done and enjoyed it; even the incessant floor washing worked in a Disney sort of way. And at the risk of letting my politics show, what struck me in one of the Queen scenes, is that she is the equivalent of the current administration/Trump/Musk. All she cares about is status (fairest of them all) and riches…people don’t matter. The kingdom represents democracy. Snow White takes a stand and leads a resistance. She unifies bandits, dwarves, townspeople and eventually the guards to join her in standing up to the Queen and restoring goodness in the kingdom.

   But don’t take my word for it…go see it for yourself.

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   Came out of the cool theater and hit a wall of heat. The temperature in the truck read 100o.  Figured that would go down as we drove but nope! And I haven’t heard if today’s temperature broke any records but I can say that I’ve never seen it reach 100o in the years we’ve been coming out here.

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   Camera update: Adjusting the Nutt Rd camera worked! Twice around dusk, a coyote came strolling in to smell the potatoes and cabbage. Then there were multiple pictures of a single rabbit enjoying a snack. At least the camera is catching the motion now.

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  We’ve had several hot days and warm nights, perfect weather for scorpions to come out. Tonight, after dark, we drove down to the big tire armed with our fluorescent flashlights to look for them. Turned several boards over before we found one lone scorpion. Took pictures and went back to camp…we accomplished our goal so why be outside in the dark longer than necessary?

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   Kim got some more images of the Dolphin Head Nebula tonight.  Clouds eventually rolled in so he had to toss out the last few pictures, but he had about 15 keepers.

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