Snow Melts, Dog Guards Her Territory, Ants March and Die

Posted on April 15, 2019 by admin

Sure enough, the inches of snow got busy melting this morning. By noon, it was warm enough for me to stand on my deck in my socks — on the parts where the snow was already gone — without any discomfort. Felt good, actually.

As the meltwater trickled from the roof into the rain gutter, it sounded like this.

The dog has spent a lot of time lately out on the deck, or on the ground near the deck, sniffing and pawing. Even when the snow was thick. My guess is that another animal has taken up residence under the deck. Strategies to block the holes leading under the deck never work from year to year.

Probably a new family of possums. Or raccoons. But not a skunk. I think we would have found that out already.

Speaking of wildlife invasions, little black ants were on the march this weekend, especially around the kitchen sink. I deployed ant bait. By this morning, they were gone, except those that died in the trap. Even so, it could be that Earth is the realm of ants, and they’re merely tolerating us vertebrates.

More October Scenes

Posted on October 10, 2018 by admin

Heavy rains today, but nothing like the Florida panhandle’s getting. Looks like heavy damage in the area.

I have some fond memories of the likes of Seaside and Apalachicola and Port St. Joe. I even think we stopped for lunch in Mexico Beach, which is where Michael’s eye came ashore today. That town is essentially a cluster of buildings along US 98 as it runs next to the ocean. Mexico Beach might not be there any more.

Here in the North, geese forage for food in the suburbs, making their noise and leaving their droppings.

Halloween decorations are going up. I haven’t spotted many inflatables, which is a welcome reversal of that trend. A deflating of it. Most of the decorations don’t involve lights, but there are a few on our block.

This particular house has always been decked out for Halloween, including the faux cemetery. The residents have never been inclined toward inflatables.

October Scene

Posted on October 9, 2018 by admin

Yesterday and today were unseasonably warm. They were also a Monday and Tuesday, so I didn’t have a lot of time to lounge around on the deck outside and enjoy it. In theory, I could take my computer outside and work there, but the charms of a warm afternoon are distracting when there’s laptop work to be done, and the screen can be hard to see.

But I did have a few minutes in the afternoon to look up at the sky.

That’s to the southeast. The puffy mass was moving fast and left my view pretty quickly, replaced by grayer clouds that dropped some rain about 30 minutes later.

Does the dog care about the weather?

Who can say? But when the wind is up, she does sniff vigorously.

Early October Debris

Posted on October 4, 2018 by admin

We acquired some pumpkins today.
For now they’ll be on the deck, at risk of squirrel attack. I suppose we’re aspiring to jack-o-lanterns, but the way things go, we might not do any cutting until October 30.

A recent press release I received said, in part: “_____ chewables are refreshing… tablets that ward off fatigue, foggy head and nausea.

“Using Japanese _____, an ancient detox extract with hangover prevention properties and anti-inflammatory effects, _____ also contains potent antioxidants that replenish lost electrolytes. They boost immune support, hydration and give your liver much needed love.”

That should be “much-needed love,” but I’m nit picking. Yet it’s true, we just don’t love our livers enough in this country. Think of all that the liver does for us, and what do we do to it (some of us, anyway)? Lacquer our livers with alcohol.

Even so, I decided to opt out of more mail from that source. I get a lot of email as it is.

The camera does odd things sometimes.
That or I accidentally recorded the dog receiving a telepathic message from her home planet. It’s well known that such messages generate a fleeting green glow at the back of the eyeball.

A recent dusk.

Not long ago I saw a rainbow at about the same time of day. I was able to tell Ann, “Rainbow at night, sailor’s delight, rainbow at morning, sailor take warning.” She’d never heard that. Modern education is pretty much a failure when it comes to weather proverbs. Or is it “red sky”? Both versions exist, as far as I can tell.

Labor Day Hiatus

Posted on August 29, 2018 by admin

Back to posting on September 4, after Labor Day. You’d think a holiday of that name would be time for “Joe Hill” or the like, though May Day’s really the time. Time to lounge around on the deck out back, provided it isn’t raining, which it has been a lot lately.

Actually, it’s the dog who uses the deck for its fullest lounging potential.

Use the deck while you can. Soon enough it’s just going to be a snow and ice collector.

San Antonio Riverwalk Views

Posted on July 26, 2018 by admin

Summer’s pretty pleasant here in the not-so-hot reaches of Illinois. Up in the sky.
And down toward the ground, where strange critters lurk.
So pleasant that I’m taking a week off from work and posting. Back on August 5.

Both of the places I visited in San Antonio recently were near the San Antonio River and thus the Riverwalk. So I took a few minutes each time to go down to the river.

Near the King William District, the walk was almost deserted.
Temps were in the 90s, of course, which might have contributed to it, but I suspect not many people come this way anyway.

A few do. Here’s a view of the Arsenal Street Bridge.

A view from the Arsenal Street Bridge, looking north toward downtown San Antonio.
The building poking over the trees, with the flag, is the Tower Life Building, though I’ll always think of it has the Smith-Young Tower, completed in 1929. One of the city’s finest office buildings. I understand that once upon a time, my civil engineer grandfather had an office there.

After visiting the Briscoe Museum, I walked over to the Riverwalk — it’s only a short distance away — at one of its more touristed spots.

This is the Arneson River Theatre.
The stage is on the north side of the river, while 13 rows of grass are on the south side for seating. Just another idea of the Father of the Riverwalk, H.H. Hugman, finally realized as the WPA built the Riverwalk in the late ’30s. Arneson was the WPA engineer who was to have been in charge of building the Riverwalk, but he died before the project really got under way.

Dog in Snow

Posted on February 11, 2018 by admin

Sure enough, a lot of snow fell Thursday night into Friday morning. Maybe a foot. But it was no blizzard, and no big deal. Even the side street on which I live was cleared by Friday afternoon. A little more of the same fell Saturday morning and then much more on Sunday morning. More shoveling and that was cleared too.

For the dog, this much snow means romping around in the back yard.

Every time it snows this much, a truck comes to clear the blacktop next to the school behind the house. Why this was necessary Friday, when school was cancelled, I don’t know, but anyway the dog rushes to the back fence to bark at it. And then along the fence as it drives nearby.

From the point of view of the dog, this must be effective. The truck goes away before long.

Mid-January Debris

Posted on January 18, 2018 by admin

Never mind what the Rossetti poem says, the bleak midwinter is about now, in mid-January, which is bleak, and which is smack in the middle of meteorological winter.

Dogs don’t mind, though. They’re already wearing coats.

One more pic from Mexico, a statue on Paseo de la Reforma.

“El Angel de la Seguridad Social,” a bronze by Jorge Marin, erected in 2013.

As gob.mx says, “Como parte de las actividades conmemorativas por el 70 Aniversario de la fundación del Instituto Mexicano del Seguro Social (IMSS),” the Mexican Social Security Institute. That’s the branch of the Mexican government in charge of public pensions and public health, established in 1943.

My brother Jay got me a Suprematist tea cup and saucer for Christmas.

On the bottom, something unusual: Imperial Porcelain – 1744 – St. Petersburg – Made in Russia. I’d probably have to look high and low around my house to find anything else made in Russia, and even then there might not be anything else.

Back Yard Flora ’17

Posted on August 9, 2017 by admin

Today was a mostly sunny, warm August day. The beginning of declining summer, though the grass and bushes are so green — there’s been a fair amount of rain this summer — that it looks more like June. The dry browns of August are missing this year. So far.

Around noon, I wandered around my back yard taking pictures of flora. Why? Why not?

I also spotted some back yard fauna, lurking in the greenery.
The dog chews on the plants this time of year.

Why? Why not?

Dogs Over the Decades

Posted on April 30, 2017 by admin

Our dog’s been with us four years this month. I won’t post another picture of her, photogenic as she is. I have other pictures of dogs I’ve known, or met.

The first dog I remember — barely — was Caesar.It’s impossible to tell in this early ’60s-vintage picture, but he had a spot of pink fur next to his nose. At least, that’s what I remember as a very small child. Being a dog that roamed parts of semi-rural North Texas, he encountered (so I’m told) a nest of young rattlesnakes one spring, and that was all for him.

This is my grandmother in the 1950s, holding a young Georgette.I remember Georgette well. She lived with Grandma in San Antonio until the late 1960s, when the dog died of natural causes. Caesar was one of her pups.

Jay and Deb’s dog Aloysius, with the young family in 1983. I met him a number of times during ’80s visits, when my nephews were small.Their dog Brynna. I think I took this picture during our visit for Thanksgiving 2001.
Jay’s current dogs, Holly and Chloe. I get to visit them when I go to Dallas. They spend a lot of time in this particular spot in the living room.And of course, Katie. The dog my mother had when I was in high school and beyond, 1976 to 1992, to be exact. This was the small dog that got a hold of a big bag of doughnuts, a half dozen or so, and ate them all. They didn’t stay eaten.My friends Rich and Lisa in Massachusetts had an Irish wolfhound in the 1990s named Charlotte. I remember her well during our visit for New Year’s 1993.My friends Ed and Lynn in Arizona had Bosco, whom we met during our visit in 1997. He knew some tricks, but I can’t remember what they were now.Late in his life, Ed had an elderly dog named Bert living with him in Washington state. Ed sent me this picture ahead of my visit in 2015, to show how much fur Bert shed.My friend Tom in Austin has a dog called Roscoe. He’s fond of jumping on you when you come into the room.Lilly’s friend Rachel has a dog called Riley.Finally, one cat. In Osaka, Yuriko used to have a cat named Michael. Picture ca. 1994.