Tag: nature

First Time in Ages

I just did something that I don’t think I have done since before Covid came along and mussed everything up.

As previously mentioned, it’s snowing today. Not a lot. We have about an inch on the ground. We might get another inch on top of that, but by no means is today’s storm anything to be worried or upset about, other than the fact that snow is always a pain in the ass. We are New Englanders. This is nuttin’.

However, I needed to go out and do the grocery shopping. My wife has been eating super healthy lately and she was out of all of the healthy things she needed for lunch. I had to go out and restock so that she could have a good lunch. That means I had to go out to the store before the snow stopped. Not only that, I had to go out before the snow removal crews started working. In other words, I had to drive in the fresh, untreated snow.

As previously stated, that was not a big deal. There was enough snow to make the roads a little slippery, but not enough to cause any real troubles for an experienced snow-driver. It made me think though… when was the last time I went out before the plowing started? I can’t remember. It’s been a long, long time. The last time had to have been pre-Covid lockdown. There hasn’t been a time since then that I had to be somewhere bad enough that I couldn’t wait for at least the plows getting one whack in. The only thing I could think of that would have made me go out right away was if one of my parents were in the hospital. If that happened I must have blocked it out of my memory. There was the drive home from Vermont a few weeks ago… does that count? I think the side roads might not have been hit yet, but the main roads had. I don’t know.

So I guess all I did today was spiritually renew my New England Winter Driver ID card. Yeah. I can still drive in the snow. Yippee for me, babie.

Rain is a Thing

So rain is still a thing. I mean this from a work point of view.

When Covid hit and we all started working from home full time, I learned to stop really worrying about rain. I didn’t have a commute anymore so I didn’t need to drive to and from work in the rain. I didn’t need to walk out to a parking lot in the rain. I didn’t even need to walk to the driveway. From the perspective of getting to and from work rain (and snow) stopped being a concern at all.

Now that we’re back in the office at least some of the time it’s a thing again and it sucks.

It is pouring rain today. I’m looking out the window and the parking lot looks like a small lake. I have to drive to a different building soon and that means I have to go out in this suck-fest of a rain storm and get drenched so that I can make the next meeting.

Working at home is so much better than working in the office. So much better.

Thus concludes this morning’s rant about rain. Thank you for your time and patience.

Froggie

I wrote about the karmic retribution I witnessed on the morning commute today, but I have yet to write about the other thing that happened during my drive to work.

I’ve yet to write about the frog.

On two past occasions, we have somehow found a tiny little frog hanging out in our house. Once our former cat, the late great Miss Patches, cornered a frog in the living room. Years later our current pair o’ kitties cornered a frog in the hallway between the living room and the bedrooms.

A little research lead me to believe that the frogs are a tree climbing variety of froggers who climbed a tree next to our house and then came inside via the chimney through the fireplace. Seems logical.

This morning while I was in the car stuck in traffic on route 93 South Jen called me. She was calling to let me know that the cats, Miss Robin and Miss Lily had once again cornered a frog. This time in the dining room. They had it underneath a piece of furniture where it was paralyzed with fear. It would hop a little, the cats would freak out, it would freeze. This repeated itself a couple of times.

Jen wasn’t sure what to do. I said to see if she could cover it with a bowl or a box or something. She was already thinking the same thing. She didn’t think she’d be able to do anything with it if she trapped it. She has a bad back and leaning over to scoop up a tiny amphibian would be difficult for her. I said to cover it with a bowl and leave it and I’d get rid of it when I got home.

Fast forward 11 hours and I come home to find a bowl flipped upside down on the dining room floor. I cut a piece of cardboard off of a box and slid it under the bowl and walked it outside. I flipped it over to see if I had anyone with me and sure enough there was a tiny little frog in the bowl. I let him go in the front yard. It’s very likely he will be eaten by some predator tonight, but it’s equally likely he will climb a tree and hide out and be safe. Assuming of course that he is not so traumatized by the experience that he just sits there in the grass in a state of utter shock.

However it turns out for our froggie little roommate, he was alive when I left him. Everything else that happens now is out of our hands.

Good luck, my hoppy little friend.

Top of the Mountain, Mom!

I took this picture this morning. Lily is on top of the mountain.

Now for an unrelated story that involves both cats. I have the windows open next to my desk. The cats have been hanging out, sitting on the window sill, enjoying the breeze and the warm-ish Spring air, and stalking the birds and the critters hanging out by the back yard bird feeders.

They were sitting there, minding their own business, and I was sitting at my desk working and minding my own business when BAM! Both cats ABSOLUTELY FREAKED OUT and ran out of the room as fast as their tiny, furry, little legs would carry them. What the hell, thought me?

I looked out the window and there were no creatures by the bird feeders. What there was though, and I only saw it for a split second before it disappeared into the woods behind our back yard, was the back of a red tail hawk. I think the hawk saw our bird feeder as a fast food take out joint and stopped in for a snack. I couldn’t tell if it had anything in its talons in the instant that I saw it, but if it had something I hope it was a squirrel and not a bird. The squirrels try to steal the bird food from the birds and for that they have earned my hatred. Jerks.

I fully understand why the cats went nuts. If I were a little furry guy I would have flipped my lid at the site of a hawk hunting for lunch too. Yikes, babie. Yikes.

Bertie Botts Every Flavour Plant Clipping

First there was a plant that belonged to my step kids’ step mother’s mother. When she passed away, their step mother took the plant home with her.

When my step daughter, Bellana, got her own place she took a clipping of that plant and used it to grow a new plant for her apartment. She named the plant Burt. I don’t know if the original plant had a name or not.

During the early days of the Covid lockdown Bellana took her plant, Burt, to our house. While it was with us, Bellana gave us a clipping to grow another plant. We named ours Bertha. Bertha is now gigantic and still growing, but much of her early growth is dying off. The plant is alive, but it doesn’t seem terribly happy. I got nervous about the plant’s prognosis so I did a thing.

I took another clipping and put it into a glass of water. Nothing happened for what seemed like a very long time and I was afraid that I was going to fail in my attempt to keep Bertha alive forever. Then, late last week, a new root grew! Then a second new root! Excellent! The new clipping is alive!

A few minutes ago I put it into a pot full of potting soil. Will it survive the transfer? I hope so, but I have no way to know. It has plenty of soil, food, and water. I will watch it like a hawk to make sure it doesn’t lack for anything until it proves to me that it’s thriving. After that I’ll just treat it like a normal plant and let it grow like crazy the way Bertha did.

Say hello to the new baby plant. I have decided to name it Bertie Botts Every Flavour Plant Clipping, which I will probably just shorten to Bertie Botts Every Flavor Plant… or maybe just Bertie.

Wish our new green friend luck!

I’m an Animal

Daily writing prompt
Which animal would you compare yourself to and why?
View all responses

Given the frequency with which I post pictures of cats, the expectation here may be that I am going to compare myself to a cat. That comparison works in some respects but not others. Cats sleep all day. They are often considered to be lazy. Well, domesticated cats are at least. Those are qualities that I feel are accurate descriptions of me. Unfortunately, cats are also known to be ass kicking hunters who are always down with killing everything around them. They are very much pro-slaughter. Those are not accurate descriptions of me. I’m a peaceful guy. Maybe even a pacifist (unless we’re dealing with Yankees fans… or fascists).

So no, cats are not animals that I would compare myself to. Sorry. I asked Google Bard, or whatever it’s called now, to give me a list of animals that might work.

Here is what I asked, “give me a short list of animals that are known to be slow and lazy and are easy prey for predators.” (note, the response is slightly edited as it included images and some links which I have removed)

Here are some animals that are known to be slow and lazy, making them easy targets for predators:

  • Sloths: These masters of hanging around are incredibly slow-moving due to their low metabolic rate. This means they spend most of their day sleeping or hanging motionless in trees, making them easy pickings for jaguarandi, harpy eagles, and even some snakes.
  • Pangolins: These unique mammals are covered in tough scales, but they’re also slow-moving and have poor eyesight. When threatened, they roll up into a ball, which can protect them from some predators but not from determined ones like tigers and hyenas.
  • Armadillos: While some armadillos can burrow quickly, they’re generally slow-moving herbivores. Their main defense is their bony armor, but jaguars, cougars, and large snakes can still break through it to get to the animal inside.
  • Koalas: Koala spend most of their days snoozing in eucalyptus trees. This slow lifestyle makes them vulnerable to predators like dingoes and pythons.

It’s important to note that being slow or inactive doesn’t necessarily mean an animal is defenseless. These animals have evolved other strategies to survive, such as camouflage, venomous bites, or prickly defenses.

https://gemini.google.com/app/855452ea7906df52

Those are all good. Well, Koalas are super cute so they don’t work. Armadillos and pangolins… I think their defenses are too good to relate to me. That leaves sloths. Full disclosure, I was planning on using sloths for this post even before I went to the Google for advice.

Sloths! That’s the animal I compare myself too. Slow… lazy… all they do is eat and sleep and hang around… kinda painful to look at…

Yeah, that’s me. Call me Robbie the Sloth. Best animal comparison ever.

(Non) Daily Haiku for You #139

Today’s haiku for you is undead……

Zombies are hungry,
But feeding them is stressful.
Does my brain taste good?

So I watched an episode of The Walking Dead last night. Season two episode seven, titled Pretty Much Dead Already. That is the episode that changed my opinion on the show from “I think I like this show” to “holy shit I can never miss an episode of this show ever.” To say it’s a good episode is a massive understatement. If you were to say it was one of the best hours of television ever aired then I probably would not 100% agree with you, but I would understand where you are coming from.

I wrote the above haiku during my lunch break today. Watch a great zombie episode on Monday night, write a zombie haiku on Tuesday afternoon. Makes sense, right?

I then thought it would be funny to ask the wordpress.com AI Assistant to “write a haiku about zombies.” Allow me to share the results the AI came up with:

Hungry Zombies Haiku

Zombies are hungry,
But feeding them is stressful.
Does my brain taste good?

Yes, kids. You are reading that correctly. It gave me the same haiku that I just wrote! What the hell, bro? I hadn’t even published it yet! The AI Assistant literally read the document I was working in and stole my haiku! What the fuck?

Okay… I am going to ask for another one. This time I will ask it to “write a different haiku about zombies.” Here’s the result:

Zombies in the night,
Moaning for flesh and delight.
Fear their endless plight.

Oh nice, it rhymes this time. Think it did that as an apology? Neither do I. What a jerk! What an artificially intelligent ass wipe!

I wonder… did the AI Assistant somehow misinterpret my initial request for a haiku as a request to format my current post? Something like that? It added the title. I centered the text myself after the fact. I wonder if it thought I wanted input on the text I had already written. I’m not sure. I did specifically ask for a haiku, but I did not ask for a new haiku. Who knows. The AI is a jerk either way. A plagiarizing, haiku stealing thief of a jerk.

If the second AI haiku was not stolen from me… where did the AI Assistant steal it from? I’m sure it just went to google and spit out the first zombie themed haiku it found.

Hide

Robin was behind me. She was trying to hide and didn’t realize that humans have the physical ability to turn around.

I took this one around lunch time today. It doesn’t have anything to do with the first picture but I am posting it because my cat is cuter than yours*.

*Okay, so maybe I can’t definitively say that my cat is cuter than yours, but I can absolutely say that at the very least my cat is equally as cute as yours, if not cuter.

Monster!

I had to step outside today to take out the trash and I saw this hideous monster. How can we live in a world where an evil like this exists?

29/365
29/365

Also, you’d think that living in the woods in New England would mean we’d have some cool fall colors. Not really. In our back yard the leaves go from green to ugly yellow to dead on the ground. Oh well.

DSCN2491

Jen and I talked about going leaf peeping up on the Kanc this weekend. It’s probably a smidgen too early, but it will be a fun day if we go.