Friday, January 25, 2013

Hey birds! Fixed income here

A redpoll picks through the last of the seeds.
These feeders were all full to the brim Thursday morning.  The pictures were taken around 1 p.m. Friday (today).

This is always the first
one emptied.
While filling them, some quick guesstimate calculations came up with these numbers, the feed so far this winter:  black sunflower seeds, almost 90 pounds; sunflower chips, about 16 pounds; and thistle seeds about 5 pounds.  So, up until now these birds have eaten more than 100 pounds of feed put out for them.  Those are farm numbers for crying out loud.  Of course some of that poundage is what they spill on the ground,  but juncoes, grosbeaks and some redpolls, along with the grouse when they show up pick through those leavings.  Sometimes I will let the feeders stay empty for a day to force them to pick through what's on the ground.  Two days and they are gone for a while to somebody else's yard, I assume.  At times they can be
quite discerning diners.
A couple of redpolls aim at the remaining thistle seeds.

I remember years ago when in another climate we put out peanuts for the Steller's jays.  Several times we saw a jay land, puke up some sunflower seeds it had picked up somewhere else and then grab a peanut and take off with it.




Chickadees will come to the feeder while I
am filling it.
Today to refill the feeders, I opened the second 40-pound bag of sunflower seeds this season and another 4-pound bag of sunflower chips.  (The chips are expensive and go very fast so I only put a little out as kind of frosting for the rest.)

And what do I get for that?  I mean besides the pleasure of seeing them, and all the photographs I can find nothing else to do with except post them on here and facebook.

At this point it's a commitment. If I were to just quit filling them, I might have a real game of Angry Birds on my hands.

One thing I better get is well-fertilized soil when it comes to gardening in a few months.  That's why the biggest concentration of feeders is in the garden in the first place.

UPDATE: Just 24 hours later, had to refill them all again.

Tuesday, January 22, 2013

Another conversation with Patricia


The things you learn while editing:  Today, finally, I confirmed the meaning of "antebellum."  Without looking it up, over time I came to decipher the meaning at least in the United States as dating back to before the Civil War.  That is where the term is used most often. Who has ever read a novel about the South that doesn't have an antebellum mansion in it?

The real meaning came up today in a conversation with Patricia.  Now, if you have stuck with this blog over the years, you know Patricia as a writer friend with whom I carried on long electronic conversations about writing.  In time she developed cancer and she died last November, leaving me with a void in my life and three expensive tickets to a Lady Gaga concert.

She also left me with a chore.  At the time of her death, she was editing her book "The New Book of Goddesses and Heroines" for a new edition.  Mostly the editing was shortening the book.  She was unable to finish it and her husband asked me to complete the edit, a chore I at first resisted, but now have embraced as it is keeping me in touch with my friend, in part giving me an answer to the question I asked at the end of the post I wrote about her passing:  What am I going to do now?  What I am going to do, what I am doing is converse with her almost daily about word choices, antecedents, references and all the little details of writing craft.  Patricia is one of those writers who is difficult to cut.  It is a burden for editors, but a joyful one, because good writers like Patricia make it very difficult to leave anything out.

As I have gone through it, I find myself looking at the ceiling wondering what she meant here, and is this going to hurt the message if I take it out, and why did you say this instead of this?  I find myself often talking to her, explaining why this or that is a good cut and why I took it out, even sometimes apologizing for what I am cutting, sometimes shaking my head to chastise, noting something I know I told her about years ago.  I can almost see the smile on her face as she patronizes me, acknowledging that I am right, while at the same time stubbornly refusing to change it.

Along the way she is teaching me, exposing  a world and a perspective very new to my way of thinking.  I wonder how much of classical mythology reaches kids in schools today.  I know from what I am reading now that what little I received in world history and Latin classes was largely male-based, highlighting the gods and relegating the goddesses to consort roles.  That's the perspective Patricia is now in the process of changing for me.

I catch myself often saying, oh that's where that comes from, while reading one entry or another and connecting a name to modern word usage, or seeing the logic in the development of goddesses in native cultures, some of whom are still with us in one form or another.  Just look at the names of all the stars and particularly constellations.

And I so much want to tell her a story.  Often when dealing with ancient cultures there are varying opinions and interpretation of people and events that occurred before written history and even after for that matter.  As a result people writing about it and attempting to show all interpretations will use the term "Some say," this or that.  What I want to tell her is that while I was in college, in an age of change, black studies and particularly history courses were quickly added to curricula.  At the University of Kansas a black history professor from a small college in Missouri was flown in twice a week to teach a huge lecture class in that history.  Twice a week we had to sit and listen to this guy drone on taking all the life out of what should have been fascinating history beginning with origins in Africa.  His favorite source was a professor "some say" as I called it, for example (and he really said this) "Some say Cleopatra was black." Eventually I quit going to class except for the midterm and the final.  At the time I was also taking Recent American History, which began in the late 19th century.  An energetic young instructor taught it and he had wound black history in the with rest of it.  How good was he?  I got a B in black history and a C in modern American history.  But the younger fellow never quoted Dr. Some Say.  And, now whenever I come across Patricia saying "Some say..." I have to laugh and look at the ceiling and wish I could tell her why I want to change it.

So the conversations with Patricia go on, in an altered state, but allowing me to feel she is still at least influencing us.  I am sure, given our conversations about procrastination, she would be laughing at the machinations I go through to avoid sitting down and cutting more out of her beautiful piece of work.  But I do it, because it keeps us in touch, and pushes further into the future that day when I have to ask again "What am I going to do now?"

And, "antebellum?"  According to Patricia, Bellona was a Roman goddess who ruled conflict, diplomatic as well as military, and the Latin word for war, "bellum," derives from her name.


Earthmaker judges the world



Conversations with Patricia: Day before the election (with apologies)



Monday, January 21, 2013

'All we are saying ...'


Today brought to mind several songs. The National Anthem sung by Beyonce so beautifully and powerfully for one. John Lennon’s "Imagine" for another.  One that came up was Paul Simon's "Silent Night, Six O’clock News."  Looking over the day's news, of course dominated by the inauguration, that song resonated with what else was going on today. If you don’t know the song, he recorded it during the Vietnam War and he sang "Silent Night," while in the background a newsman announces news of war and other mayhem.

On a day we honor the greatest civil rights leader the United States has ever seen and on this particular one, we inaugurate the country's first African-American president for the second time, a day that should be one to glorify peace and understanding, like in Paul Simon's song, these headlines showed up on news sites reporting events other than the inauguration:

'Horrific' scene after teen allegedly kills family

'Ridiculous': Five shot on MLK Blvd. on MLK Day

SWAT team finds head, two hands after standoff

Fan stabbed after NFC Championship Game

Dad kills wife, self at daughter's 16th birthday party

1 shot dead, 1 stabbed after punk rock brawl

Feds investigate how Ohio felon obtained arsenal 


And elsewhere:

Insurgents launch 8-hour attack on Afghan traffic cops

Sahara hostage death toll will rise, Algeria warns

Algeria PM says 48 killed in gas-plant attack

Kony 'bodyguard killed in CAR jungles'

Hearings begin in Indian gang-rape trial

Bulgaria gun attacker charged

Suicide car bombing hits central Syrian town

And then this one:

NRA crosses line with diabolical ad featuring Obama's daughters

"... is give peace a chance."  -- John Lennon, The Beatles

and then there's Pete Seeger's "Where have all the flowers gone," performed by Peter, Paul and Mary

Friday, January 18, 2013

The poll of polls

An individual redpoll.
And this one's red.  These pictures might give a little indication why the birds have gone through about 75 pounds of seeds this winter and it's only the middle of January.  This group is made up of common redpolls and they fly in clouds.  I would guess I have had as many as 100 in the yard at one time.  They tend to push the other birds out of the way but amid the flock there are always the usual chickadees, nuthatches and grosbeaks.

Gathering at the sunflower hearts feeder.
Some snow finally fell, too.  So, it's beginning to look a lot more like winter, after about two weeks of bare, brown ground.

So, the poll.  How many redpolls do you count in the photo at the bottom, the big one.  Those are thistle seeds they are fighting over.



This is the contest. How many redpolls do you see.
Winner gets to buy the next bag of thistle seeds with their thank you.

Friday, January 4, 2013

To everything there is a season ...


It's been a while I know.  Blame it on a bad bout with the flu coupled with a major holiday disappointment within the family.  Also, it seemed this blog had gotten away from its original intended purpose and turned into something of a personal journal, which almost by definition is bound to bore a reader to tears, if not the writer himself.  So, with that in mind, as we on this rock start another voyage around the sun, maybe it became necessary to stop and take a little stock and find that original direction which was simply to be an outlet for writing, an outlet that was not offered on any other platform at the time.  Somehow I let it evolve from that into relating daily experiences and not even expressing those very well.  So, for a while, posts may be few and far between.  Anyone who writes knows sometimes the creative tide ebbs and floods and it has been ebbing for a while, but will come back, it always does.
So, with an ocean metaphor as a transition, some random occurrences came up in the past couple of days, the kinds of things that get that tide turned.

Oh the places you will go

Some time ago I wrote about the ocean storm we experienced aboard the Arctic Tern III several years ago.  That was the maiden voyage for that vessel.  Recently I came across another blog that detailed more recent voyages on that very same sailboat.  A couple of years ago this fellow blogged a trip on her down the West Coast to Cabo.  His account of that voyage is on Captain Howard's Blog here. I left a comment on his blog pointing to my own post about the maiden voyage and, twice now he has added a comment to mine.

The first:

Thanks for that comment Tim, particularly the website/blog_ ’60* North’. Readers; On the left hand side there is a posting on the ‘HMS Bounty’ with an interesting human interest note about one of the crew lost in the Bounty disaster… Claudene Christian.

Err… that would be the blog/website ‘Alaska with Attitude’. My step dad grew up in Alaska so I have provided him with the Link…thanks again for the post, Tim.

Then today came a second one, an update.

I just reread your experience on Arctic Tern III — somewhere between South Africa and the Caribbean at present I think.

That one put a chill through me; the boat is still adventuring and I want to be there.  So it goes.

A left-handed compliment?

In a couple of other older posts I talked about this new Iditarod book coming up in the near future.  An editor is now going through it and unfortunately the publisher has forced her into making serious cuts in the manuscript.  The book post is here.  Another taken from one of the articles I wrote for it is here.  The editor sent an email today suggesting one cut she would like to make in the piece about the musher in that post.  My precious prose?  Oh no!

Now to put this in some context, I am also involved in editing thousands of words out of a manuscript and I do sympathize with the Iditarod editor.  In fact the cut she proposed was fine with me.  It really took nothing away from the main part of the story and if that helps, great.  And after the first shock I went back and read the rest of her email and read something that makes me want to put my board up on a wave of that incoming tide and take the ride.  Here's what she said: "Your stories were very difficult (to cut) because they're so darned good."

I'll take that with a thank you.

So with that for a start to another orbit, it is time to bring up the quality of the effort here and get away from day to day life.  But, I am NOT giving up on the bird pictures.

... and a time for every purpose under heaven.

Best headlines ever

Naked pair fed LSD gummy worm to dog

Owners of a Noah's Ark replica file a lawsuit over rain damage

In Southcentral Alaska earthquake, damage originated in the ground, engineers say

A headline that could only be written in Alaska: At state cross country, Glacier Bears and Grizzlies sweep, Lynx repeat, Wolverines make history — and a black bear crosses the trail

Man kills self before shooting wife and daughter

Alabama governor candidate caught in lesbian sperm donation scandal

Sister hits moose on way to visit sister who hit moose.

Man caught driving stolen car filled with radioactive uranium, rattlesnake, whiskey

Man loses his testicles after attempting to smoke weed through a SCUBA tank

Church Mutual Insurance won't cover Church's flood damage because it's 'an act of God'

Homicide victims rarely talk to police

Meerkat Expert Attacked Monkey Handler Over Love Affair with Llama Keeper

GOP congressman opposes gun control because gay marriage leads to bestiality

Owner of killer bear chokes to death on sex toy

Support for legalizing pot hits all-time high

Give me all your money or my penguin will explode

How zombie worms have sex in whale bones

Crocodile steals zoo worker's lawn mower

Woman shot by oven while trying to cook waffles

Nude beach blowjob jet ski fight leads to wife's death

Woman stabs husband with squirrel for not buying beer Christmas Eve

GOPer files complaint against Democrat for telling the truth about Big Lie social posts

Man shot dead on Syracuse Street for 2nd time in 2 days

Alaska woman punches bear in face, saves dog

Johnny Rotten suffers flea bite on his penis after rescuing squirrel

Memorable quotations

The best way to know you are having an adventure is when you wish you were home talking about it." — a mechanic on the Alaska State Ferry System. Or as in my own case planning how I will be writing it on this blog.

"You can't promote principled anti-corruption without pissing off corrupt people." — George Kent

"If only the British had held on to the airports, the whole thing might have gone differently for us." — Mick Jagger

"You can do anything as long as you don't scare the horses." — a mother's favorite saying recalled by a friend

A poem is an egg with a horse inside” — anonymous fourth grader

“My children will likely turn my picture to the wall but what the hell, you only get old once." — Joe May

“Always do sober what you said you'd do drunk. That will teach you to keep your mouth shut.” — Ernest Hemingway

When I write, I feel like an armless, legless man with a crayon in his mouth. Kurt Vonnegut

“If you wrote something for which someone sent you a cheque, if you cashed the cheque and it didn't bounce, and if you then paid the light bill with the money, I consider you talented.”Stephen King

The thing about ignorance is, you don't have to remain ignorant. — me again"

"It was like the aftermath of an orgasm with the wrong partner." – David Lagercrants “The Girl in the Spider’s Web.”

Why worry about dying, you aren't going to live to regret it.

Never debate with someone who gets ink by the barrel" — George Hayes, former Alaska Attorney General who died recently

My dear Mr. Frost: two roads never diverge in a yellow wood. Three roads meet there. — @Shakespeare on Twitter

Normal is how somebody else thinks you should act.

"The mark of a great shiphandler is never getting into situations that require great shiphandling," Adm. Ernest King, USN

Me: Does the restaurant have cute waitresses?

My friend Gail: All waitresses are cute when you're hungry.

I'm not a writer, but sometimes I push around words to see what happens. – Scott Berry

I realized today how many of my stories start out "years ago." What's next? Once upon a time?"

“The rivers of Alaska are strewn with the bones of men who made but one mistake” - Fred McGarry, a Nushagak Trapper

Many people hear voices when no one is there. Some of them are called mad and are shut up in rooms where they stared at walls all day. Others are called writers and they do pretty much the same thing. – Meg Chittenden

A non-writing writer is a monster courting insanity. – Franz Kafka

We are all immortal until the one day we are not. – me again

If the muse is late, start without her – Peter S. Beagle

Substitute ‘damn’ every time you’re inclined to write ‘very;’ your editor will delete it and the writing will be just as it should be. ~Mark Twain Actually you could do the same thing with the word "really" as in "really cold."

If you are looking for an experience that will temper your vanity, this is it. There's no one to impress when you're alone on the trap line. – Michael Carey quoting his father's journal

Either write something worth reading or do something worth writing. – Benjamin Franklin

It’s nervous work. The state you need to write in is the state that others are paying large sums of money to get rid of. – Shirley Hazzard

So far as I can remember, there is not one word in the Gospels in praise of intelligence -- Bertrand Russell

You know that I always just wanted to have a small ship to take stuff from a place that had a lot of that stuff to a place that did not have a lot of that stuff and so prosper.—Jackie Faber, “The Wake of the Lorelei Lee”

If you attack the arguer instead of the argument, you lose both

If an insurance company won’t pay for damages caused by an “act of God,” shouldn’t it then have to prove the existence of God? – I said that

I used to think getting old was about vanity—but actually it’s about losing people you love. Getting wrinkles is trivial. – Eugene O’Neill

German General to Swiss General: “You have only 500,000 men in your army; what would you do if I invaded with 1 million men?”

Swiss General: “Well, I suppose every one of my soldiers would need to fire twice.”

Writing is the only thing that when I do it, I don’t feel I should be doing something else.—Gloria Steinem

Exceed your bandwidth—sign on the wall of the maintenance shop at the West Coast/Alaska Tsunami Warning Center

One thing I do know, if you keep at it, you usually wind up getting something done.—Patricia Monaghan

Do you want to know what kind of person makes the best reporter? I’ll tell you. A borderline sociopath. Someone smart, inquisitive, stubborn, disorganized, chaotic, and in a perpetual state of simmering rage at the failings of the world.—Brett Arends

It is a very simple mind that only knows how to spell a word one way.—Andrew Jackson

3:30 is too late or too early to do anything—Rene Descartes

Everything is okay when it’s 50-below as long as everything is okay. – an Alaskan in Tom Walker’s “The Seventymile Kid”

You can have your own opinion but you can’t have your own science.—commenter arguing on a story about polar bears and global warming

He looks at three ex wives as a good start—TV police drama

Talkeetna: A friendly little drinking town with a climbing problem.—a handmade bumper sticker

“You’re either into the wall or into the show”—Marco Andretti on giving it all to qualify last at the 2011 Indy 500

Makeup is not for the faint of heart—the makeup guerrilla

“I’m going to relax in a very adult manner.”—Danica Patrick after sweating it out and qualifying half an hour before Andretti

“Asking Congress to come back is like asking a mugger to come back because he forgot your wallet.”—a roundtable participant on Fox of all places

As Republicans go further back in the conception process to define when life actually begins, I am beginning to think the eventual definition will be life begins in the beer I was drinking when I met her.—me again

Hunting is a “critical element for the long-term conservation of wood bison.”—a state department of Fish and Game official explaining why the state would not go along with a federal plan to reintroduce wood bison in Alaska because the agreement did not specifically allow hunting

Each day do something that won’t compute – anon

I can’t belive I still have to protest this shit – a sign carriend by an elderly woman at an Occupy demonstration

Life should be a little nuts or else it’s just a bunch of Thursdays strung together—Kevin Costner as Beau Burroughs in “Rumor has it”

You’re just a wanker whipping up fear —Irish President Michael D. Higgins to a tea party radio announcer

Being president doesn’t change who you are; it reveals who you are—Michelle Obama

Sports malaprops

Naked pair fed LSD gummy worm to dog

Owners of a Noah's Ark replica file a lawsuit over rain damage

In Southcentral Alaska earthquake, damage originated in the ground, engineers say

A headline that could only be written in Alaska: At state cross country, Glacier Bears and Grizzlies sweep, Lynx repeat, Wolverines make history — and a black bear crosses the trail

Man kills self before shooting wife and daughter

Alabama governor candidate caught in lesbian sperm donation scandal

Sister hits moose on way to visit sister who hit moose.

Man caught driving stolen car filled with radioactive uranium, rattlesnake, whiskey

Man loses his testicles after attempting to smoke weed through a SCUBA tank

Church Mutual Insurance won't cover Church's flood damage because it's 'an act of God'

Homicide victims rarely talk to police

Meerkat Expert Attacked Monkey Handler Over Love Affair with Llama Keeper

GOP congressman opposes gun control because gay marriage leads to bestiality

Owner of killer bear chokes to death on sex toy

Support for legalizing pot hits all-time high

Give me all your money or my penguin will explode

How zombie worms have sex in whale bones

Crocodile steals zoo worker's lawn mower

Woman shot by oven while trying to cook waffles

Nude beach blowjob jet ski fight leads to wife's death

Woman stabs husband with squirrel for not buying beer Christmas Eve

GOPer files complaint against Democrat for telling the truth about Big Lie social posts

Man shot dead on Syracuse Street for 2nd time in 2 days

Alaska woman punches bear in face, saves dog

Johnny Rotten suffers flea bite on his penis after rescuing squirrel