Woke up with my
brain having a conversation with itself. One voice was saying that I’m shirking
my community responsibility by remaining in Arizona; after it stopped talking,
another voice said that we’d only be adding to the problem. And yet a third
voice chimed in saying, “Yeah, you’ve got electricity, running water and a
flushing toilet here. Why go back to a situation that has none of these
things?” Those are all good points that
will factor into our departure decision. And because there’s over 2100 miles
between Picacho and Charlevoix, the weather/forecast of our route home has to
be taken into consideration also.
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Been keeping in
touch with Marshal about the status of Charlevoix’s weather and power
situation. Been thinking of leaving either Friday or Saturday, depending on how
things progress back home.
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Eagle chicks in Big
Bear Lake have names…Sunny and Gizmo.
Friends of Big Bear Valley (FOBBV), the nonprofit that livestreams the
nest on YouTube, held a week-long naming contest/fundraiser which ended last
Friday. The contest drew 54,000 entries; a computer randomly selected 30
finalists. Ballots with those names were given to third, fourth and fifth grade
students at the Big Bear Valley elementary schools to vote for the winning
names. In years past, the final name selection belonged to third graders since
a unit on bald eagles is part of the third-grade curriculum. However, the fourth
and fifth grade students were included in this year’s voting because Jackie and
Shadow didn’t have any chicks to name for the past two years. The current
fourth and fifth grade students missed out on the voting fun when they were in
third grade. *Side note: the chick that
died in a snowstorm mid-March has been named Misty in honor of a FOBBV
volunteer who lost her life to cancer.
Since eaglets are
typically banded in the 5- to 8-week-old range, Sunny and Gizmo are fast
approaching banding age. However, their nest is located approximately 145 ft.
up in a Jeffrey pine tree…can’t imagine climbing a ladder to that height and
can’t imagine a bucket truck being able to do the job quietly. And what would
they do about Jackie and Shadow? They have multiple weapons at their disposal:
size, talons, beak, and wings. Messing with the chicks when they’re around
could end with somebody being scarred or worse. And I wonder if this will play
out on the live stream. And then again, maybe they won’t band the chicks. Got
to stay tuned to the livestream to find out, I guess.
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Pulled the cell cameras
today because it’s time to pack ‘em up. Kim looked through the ditch camera SD
cards trying to figure out what set the camera off on the night of March 19…that
was the night that Kim requested a video
that wasn’t delivered which prompted my online chat with Tactacam Ethan A the
next day. Anyway, the mystery animal that tripped the camera was a bobcat…a
freakin’ bobcat! Here we’ve been
thinking it’s only been bunnies and coyotes coming through the ditch.
Two squadrons of
javelinas, bunnies, squirrels and several lone coyotes have either walked
through or stopped for a bite of potato or cabbage at the Nutt Rd. camera. It’s been another fun year of watching for
animals.
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Dust
devils are small, harmless whirlwinds that form on sunny, dry days when
the ground heats up, causing a pocket of hot air to rise and spin, picking up
dust and debris as it moves.
Here's a
breakdown:
What they
are: Dust devils are essentially tiny,
ground-based whirlwinds, not tornadoes, that are usually visible because
they pick up dust and debris.
How they
form:
**On a sunny day, the ground heats up, making the air above
it warmer than the air above.
**This hot air rises rapidly, creating an updraft.
**If there's a bit of wind, the rising air can start to
spin, forming a vortex.
**As the air spins, it picks up dust and debris from the
ground, making the dust devil visible.
Which explains why there were so many dust devils on a relatively calm day. There was one that swirled itself from a field on our left, across the road in front of us, and then grew in intensity when it hit the field to the right of us. We’ve seen lots of dust devils out here, big and small, but this was one of the few times that the whirlwind effect was so defined and visible. Fun to watch.
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We usually go to the movies once when we’re out here. Today marked our
fourth trip to Harkins theater…probably should have joined the Harkins Awards
program. It’s a free app and members earn points for qualifying purchases,
which include tickets bought at the theater and concessions. We do get a senior
discount on the tickets, but goodness knows, we’ve spent a fair amount of money
on concessions.
Kim suggested going to see ‘The Day the Earth Blew Up: A Looney Tune Movie’; I liked watching
No Bugs Bunny, no Elmer Fudd…just Daffy Duck and Porky Pig. Well, a Petunia Pig joined them, but I don’t
remember that character from back in the 60s’s. When the movie was over, Kim quietly said, “Well,
that was lamer than I thought it’d be.”
That about sums up the movie, except I’d add ‘loud’…it was lame and
loud. Of course, movies these days are generally too loud, but Daffy Duck was
loud as in everything he said is loud; he doesn’t know how to modulate the
volume of his voice. And I think the creators threw every over-the-top Looney
Tunes shtick bit from back in the day into that movie. The plotline confused me,
and the bad guy really thought of himself as a good guy, even though he’s a
typical cartoon antagonist, characterized by his evil laugh, and his desire to
take over the world by turning people into zombies when they chew his gum. But as
we found out later, it was all for a good cause. Sure, dude. There were
a couple of lines that were funny, but mostly I just wanted to take a nap, but
ya know, I couldn’t because of the loud Daffy Duck thing.
After the movie as we were walking out, I asked the three teenagers what
they thought of it. They all said it was a good movie. Either they don’t know what passes for good or
I’m too old for Looney Tunes these days.
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Got an evening update from Marshal: Power has been restored in town and
Great Lakes Energy has been able to restore some lines out in Marion township.
Black Road hasn’t been touched yet and that’s the line that we’re tapped into. Ice
has melted off the trees in the front yard and the ‘picture tree’ has sustained
some damage but probably isn’t a total loss.
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The wall clock has been keeping the time correctly today. Don’t know
what yesterday’s 15-minute slowdown was about but I’m glad it’s decided to play
nice.
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Kim is done imaging for the season, although the scope is still down in the corner. He accumulated over 9 hours of data on the Dolphin Head and is pleased with the way it turned out. The cleaning he did on the scope and the camera helped because the spot that vexed him is gone.
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