The last flower in the butterfly garden provided free by O&R has
finally bloomed! It's been looking like a bud for a long time and
either today or yesterday, finally bloomed!

The others, doing well this late in the year.

Republicans get their asses whipped!

Hallelujah. The Republicans got their asses whipped! And what a
coincidence, Don Rumsfeld gets canned the day after. Whoo hooo!! I
look forward to congressional investigations on all kinds of subjects.

Do the happy dance!
(http://youtube.com/results?search_query=happy+dance&search=Search)

I've been doing the Soupy Shuffle but haven't found any video of it
on the net yet.

The suet feeder has been discovered! While it is around the corner
from my front door and side window so I can't see who's actually
eating there, I have seen a wren and a titmouse landing nearby then
heading for it. We're off and running then for the feeding season, to
have birds be seen so close to the house. The cat is pleased. Lots of
birdwatching to come on the widescreen tv otherwise known as the
front door or side windows.

And the woodpecker was pecking away at my house. See the sound file
in my Yahoo Briefcase for yesterday's pecking. (Link at the top on
the left of the first page of my blog.)

Got a DVR from DirecTV Friday. They say it is free. Good. Let's
hope it is. So far it seems kinda buggy. It's an R-15. At first the
guy set it up so the remote would turn the TV and the DVR on and off
at the same time. But he didn't set up the remote so that I could
change inputs on the TV, something I need to do when watching the
VCR. So I tried doing it. Now it's harder to turn on and off the TV.

- The software has frozen up once so far, when I was trying to move
around the menu while recording.

- The clock was a minute and half off when I first checked it. Now it
seems to be ok. It recorded at least one show after it started but I
am hoping the rest will be ok. The old set-top box was right on in
turning on EXACTLY when a show started and ended, the best
co-ordination I've seen with showtimes and the VCR. Let's hope the
DVR gets its act together.

Is it really free? That's what they said when they signed me up. I'd
only be charged if I break the 2 year contract. (Moving is ok.) I see
on their website that they charge $4.99/month for DVR service. Will I
charged for that? If so, I'm sending the DVR back...

- The forums say you can't record using the USB out. I will try. My
old setup, using the USB Vision $20 cable still works so I can still
do that. Wish it had a Firewire out.

- One show had some audio problems. Was that the DVR or did it
originate from the broadcaster? Could very well be from the
broadcaster.

- It has been handy to replay stuff. If you see something you want to
look at again, it is easy ot do so.

- How do you, when you are watching a program being replayed, go back
to the live version? The way I have figured out to do this is to
change channels. Seems kind of a stupid way to do things. There
doesn't seem to be any button to get you straight to the live
program. There should be. The Stop button doesn't do anything! (How
do you tell which version you are watching, the live or the replayed
version? You can go through lots of menus to tell but there might not
be a simple way. Maybe there is. I am still finding my way around the
menus and buttons.)

Somewhat related to DirecTV... WLIW Ch 21 on Long Island has been
broadcasting at a higher audio level than any other channel on
DirecTV for about a YEAR now. I've called DirecTV and written to both
DirecTV and WLIW about this and it's gotten nowhere. Will someone
please fix this? I'm watching Austin City Limits right now and as
usual, it is off balance as well, left lower than right by 2 db or
so. This too has gone on ever since 21 has been too hot, audio-wise.

Woodpecker heard banging away on the house again. Hear it as a sound
file in my Yahoo Briefcase, "Sounds from around the house" folder.

Suet put out for the first time this season. I'll do that until it
warms up again.

Saw a bird, not a woodpecker like before, checking out the birdhouse.
Let's hope it moves in. Looked like a song sparrow but couldn't
really tell. See the pic.

And I've seen my first piece of trash in my neighbor's back yard.
With the leaves off the trees, eventually I will see a scattering of
junk in the woods behind my house. My neighbors, apparently, like to
dispose of their trash in the woods. I see rusty buckets, plastic
jugs, metal things, other odds and ends. Disgusting. Pics to come if
they show them well enough.

I feel like bitching about Yahoo.

- The website is slow to respond. I have to click again and again to
get it to refresh pages or go where I want. I am using a cable modem
and every time I check I see that I am getting GREAT connection
speeds so it isn't the ISP or me.

- The web-based mail is stupid. You have to readjust your viewing
preferences Every god-damned time. I want my mail sorted by sender. I
have to do that with EVERY PAGE VIEW. Why can't their server remember
that?

More bitching to come.

And while I'm at it, Blogger is having its problems too. You can't
post messages today. Will keep trying, see how long this lasts. (Fixed by ~3pm. started trying to send via e-mail around 11am.)

- Also, when uploading pictures, I can't upload more than one at a
time. My browser, Camino, won't allow that. Others might and I use
them sometimes. Firefox doesn't either. Also, Blogger's setup for
uploading pics says "use this layout every time". Trouble is it
doesn't remember what setup you are using so despite having chosen
that option, I have to choose the justification (none) every time.
Bad programing.

Japanese (and other) maples are peaking!


A neighbor's Japanese maple. (Looked much deeper and stronger red than this pic.)


Yesterday was Halloween. A gorgeous day, warm and amazingly colorful with so many trees with their most vivid colors. It was surreal to walk outside towards the evening. And then we are treated to a half moon, looking properly spooky.

Rockland County's Board of Elections website s****

Good luck figuring out who the state and local reps are and what your districts are. Rockland County's Board of Elections website is a mess.

The website says I am in these districts (I've changed some numbers to protect my privacy):

Election district - A

Congressional district - 17th district

Assembly district - B

Legislative district - C

The sample ballot they provide says my:

Rep in Congress - 17th district

State Senator - 38th district

Member of Assembly - B

Translating all this then:

- Election district is how Rockland divides up all the county districts.

- Congressional district on BOE website (= US Senate) = Rep in Congress on ballot.

- Assembly district on BOE website (=NY State Assembly) = Member of assembly on ballot.

So, my State Senator is in the 38th district. I am in Rockland County election district "A", Assembly district "B" and apparently, Legislative district "C". Got it? So can I tell who I can vote for? I know my US Congressman is Eliot Engel and NY State Senator is Tom Morahan. I'm not worried about who's who in the the major races but the local stuff is a mystery.

What a mess! The website is no help at all. It's just a jumble of numbers without any help in making sense of them all.

In small print on the lower right hand edge of the page is this: "Congressional, Assembly or Legislative district lookup click here". (http://www.co.rockland.ny.us/BOE/districts.html ) This page leads to a page of numbers. How do you figure out which ones apply to you?

Then it says,

"Don't know your election district? Go to Polling Place."

What the F? No link to a page that shows the polling place? (Suggestion: Either have that be the link or add the word "above".) There are a bunch of links above that; one says polling place. The page that link brings you to asks you for some location info and then brings you to page where your polling location is listed, and in addition, your election district which turns out to be the key to unlocking your info.

But trying to figure out the rest of the info? Good luck...

One poorly designed website.

People ought to demand info that actually helps. The state's website isn't much help either.

Political endorsements (not that I have any influence!)

The League of Women Voters has published their voting guide. I've
read through it and have come to some conclusions about some of the
candidates. (Try it. Read each candidate's response. Slowly. Let each
sentence stand on its own. Do you agree with it or not? Is it
encouraging, flat-out wrong or indicative of leaning in the wrong
direction? Some say some good things. Others just beat around the
bush.)

The Greens have some good candidates. I was even impressed with some
Republican's statements but none impress me enough to actually vote
for any of them. (What, give them a signal that all the shenanigans
they've put us through for the past 6 years is ok? No way.)

Comptroller
Julia Willebrand - Green

Attorney General
Rachel Treichler - Green

State Supreme Court
Two democrats - Alan Scheinkman & Sam D Walker

State Senate
Nancy Low Hogan
tom Morahan has been acting nervous. His minions have bugged me twice
by calling and pretending to be an independent poll but as the poll
goes on, it becomes obvious that it is Morahan behind it. Morahan has
done some good things (mental health, possibly environmental) but he
is a a calculating, sleazy Republican so I hope he loses.

US House
17th District (my district) - Eliot Engel. He's been on the right
side of almost everything I have petitioned him about. One or two
votes were very wrong and inexplicable but overall he is very good.

19th District (not my district) - John Hall
Hall has a good chance to unseat Republican Sue (Bush rubberstamp)
Kelly. I hope he wins.

County Judge
Two Democrats - Victor Alfieri & Charles Apotheker

Rockland County Legislator
17th District (not my district)
Connie Coker - Democrat

6th District (not my district)
Bruce Levine - I like damn everything he said in the League's Voter Guide.
Alden Wolfe has also been responsive to an issue I wrote about but as
far as I know he isn't actually running yet remains on the ballot.
(And isn't in my district anyway.)

All gubernatorial candidates say they are against gerrymandering. So
why does it continue? Why aren't more people upset that the two
dominant parties rearrange the voting districts each time they get
the chance, so that they can remain in power. Wake up people. (And
while we're at it, let's open up the airwaves (cable too) to ALL
candidates for free. The price of TV ads are one major source of
corruption in the whole election/democratic process.)

A few more things to worry about:
- How may dead people will vote this election? The paper today said
that there are 75,000 in NY State? The election process is DEEPLY
flawed. Local Board of Elections (choose your locality) are nests of
incompetence and partisanship (whatever the reason why). Be
suspicious. Be protective of your right to vote accurately.

- Will election machines actually record our votes? Will any partisan
hanky-panky or volunteer poll-worker incompetence affect votes
near/in the election places?

Other endorsements will come before election day. My overall approach
- Republicans are de facto NOT worthy of a vote unless there are
extraordinary circumstances: What would make me vote for a
Republican? If they are actually good people. If they have
interesting ideas that will actually help society rather than
continue the status quo of their party. I haven't found anyone worthy
of breaking this rule this time around.

Oh, one last thing. Look this up on Spencer in the Journal News:
U.S. SENATE RACE A TRADITIONAL CONSERVATIVE
January 15, 2006 ** 2984 words ** ID: wst2006011610550993

He sounds like a perfect Republican candidate!

(Me, I'm a a proud Tax-Raising, Latte-Drinking*, Sushi-Eating*, Volvo-Driving*, New York Times-Reading, Body-Piercing*, Hollywood-Loving, Left-Wing Freak, I mean liberal. * PS I don't actually drink latte, eat sushi, drive a Volvo or have any body piercings but I agree with the sentiments.)

Saw two deer today. Perhaps the mother and her fawn. Mom? licking the
younger one, then mom? heading over behind my house to eat my
geraniums by the birdbath. I didn't want to disturb her so I let her
eat them. I should have left some water in the birdbath. She licked
it anyway, getting the dew.

I took some short movies but both deer are so well camouflaged that
they are pretty hard to see, so not worth posting here or in my Yahoo
Briefcase.

More pics of fall colors. These pics (my camera and my picture taking skills) don't show half the brillance of the colors this year. Several trees and bushes have been spectacular.

The dogwood, turning deep red.



Another shot reminiscent of the beauty of a Islamic art.

This pic doesn't come close to showing how vibrant an orange and red there is in these leaves.

Crimson vines rip up the trees like fire.




The ceiling of a mosque?

More, as promised. More to come.

Fall colors. Nice patterns like in Persian art. More to come.

Geraldine R Dodge Poetry Festival

Just got back from the Geraldine R Dodge Poetry Festival. As usual it
was superb. (Actually I thnk it wasn't as good as last time...) I recommend everyone go though. Trouble is, it won't happen for another two years.

Got there Saturday morning in time for the end of Celebrating Rumi's
799th birthday with Coleman Barks and Robert Bly who were backed by
the Paul Winter Consort. Some gems from that: (some are misquoted by
me):

Coleman mused, 'The dawn: What all human beings want'...

Rumi - 'There is a field, I'll meet you there'....
http://www.mowensculpture.com/poetry.html#Poem32
Check out the many other short (Coleman Barks translated) Rumi poems
on that page too.)

Rumi -
"I am so small I can barely be seen.
How can this great love be inside me?

Look at your eyes. They are small,
but they see enormous things."
http://www.nlight.org/A%20Sampling%20of%20Rumi's%20Poems.htm

There were many sessions on Allen Ginsberg. I sat under the Gazebo
Sat and Sun and listened to and read some myself. On Sat it started
off with

Hum Bom
http://www.caterina.net/paw/archives/000071.html

Howl was read through twice. I read one part, the extremely graphic
homosexual sex part. (I was the next reader in the circle and that part was next.)
I also heard some graphic homosexual sex described in someone else's poems at a later session and thought, we don't really need to hear about this. Honesty is one thing but we've heard this before. Do we need to hear it again?. It's better a private thing. Enjoy it on your own, whatever your sexuality. Someone touched on that as well. Talking about the government trying to find out what people did in the dark, which was funny.

Howl
http://www.poemhunter.com/p/m/poem.asp?poem=0&poet=6613&num=21

The footnotes to Howl
http://www.poemhunter.com/p/m/poem.asp?poet=6613&poem=30496

Others included:

A Supermarket in California
http://www.writing.upenn.edu/~afilreis/88/supermarket.html
(I heard it at least three times this weekend making it the most
popular poem heard at the festival.)

America,
http://www.writing.upenn.edu/~afilreis/88/america.html

Diane Wolkstein: Told the story of Inanna, a Persian creation myth,
wonderfully.

Ko Un: A Korean poet. Haiku-like short pieces. Some funny. One
paraphrased: A baby dragonfly rests on a ? leaf. The whole world
surrounds it, watching. (?)

Taslima Nasreen read the most depressing poems/prose about the
horrendous treatment of women in Bangladesh/India. Very depressing.

The Poets of New Jersey reminded me that not all poetry is good
poetry. Some less than inspiring stuff there. B J Ward read some
stuff. I'd seen him at a Rockland County Jazz Society event a few
years ago. His stuff was better than most of the others but not that interesting.

Ekiwah Adler Belendez was very impressive. At 18, he is someone to
look out for in the future.

I had never seen Brian Turner before but was impressed although I was
not sure what his political bent was other than all war is hell. He
did remind the crowd that we will have to prepare ourselves for more
violence at home at some point.

I only saw Kurtis Lamkin at the evening session. He was perhaps not
the most eloquent but was certainly spirited. I wish I'd caught the
session he did on jazz with Sekou. He did a very interesting piece on
language. How children go from making unitelligeable sounds to
communicating and how we then lose the desire to speak the truth,
hiding our feelings.

Sekou Sundiata was very impressive. I recommend seeing him if you get
the chance. He did a piece on his reaction to Sept 11.

Anne Waldman: A force of nature.

She read Selections from Marriage (There is supposedly video of that here

http://www.freespeech.org/ramfiles/waldman.ram but I can't get it to
work.)

She also did an amazing rant in two parts with the first part being a
take on a more familiar piece/song (title?) and then "Rogue State"
where she becomes possessed, by the spirit of the poem or possessed
like you'd see in a voodoo ceremony or The Exorcist. The poet that
followed echoed my sentiments when she said she was having a hard
time getting Anne's voice out of her head. I would LOVE to see that
piece air somewhere, either from the festival or another performance
of it.

Here is one version of Rogue State (at U of Penn), much more subdued
than what we heard.
http://www.sonicyouth.com/prmp3/Rogue_State.mp3

Here she is reading Global Positioning (at U of Penn) .
http://media.sas.upenn.edu/pennsound/authors/Waldman/KWH4-15-03/Waldman-Anne_Global-Positioning_UPenn_4-15-03.mp3

More sound files of her at U of Penn here:
http://media.sas.upenn.edu/pennsound/authors/Waldman/KWH4-15-03/

I think it was Jorie Graham who said that we needed to counteract
Anne's reading with something boring like some dead English poet's
rhyming poetry. Unfortunately, Andrew Motion followed her. He is the
British Poet Laureate. Self-depreciatingly, he joked in his
opening that he might be thought of by some as a dead British poet
but that he would read a really dead English poet. I thought was
tactless of whoever said that with Andrew coming up. Jorie was
beautifully soft spoken but her poetry wasn't memorable.

The next morning, I saw more Coleman Barks and Robert Bly reading

Rumi and telling about their trip to Iran. (They had mentioned going
to Afghanistan the day before. Sent by the State Dept! The rep told
Coleman to not say anything bad about W. They had their meeting with
academics in the morning and in the afternoon told Nasrudin jokes, Nasrudin being the stereotypical wise fool. One joke: Nasrudin heard that most accidents happen close to home so he moved away. That kind of thing. Would apply rednecks or any other stereotypical character we are used to making fun of.) See more here: http://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/Nasrudin

When asked about how these poems should be sung, Coleman offered that
Shape note singing was a pretty good way to do them. He had had a
dream where he and Joseph Campbell were sitting on his mother's bed
(He wondered what the significance of that was...), and Joseph said
that in Heaven we do that all the time (sing Rumi/Emily Dickinson to
Shape Note songs.)

This is all one big yes. Very inspiring. You miss it when you get
home and are not hearing it anymore.

At one point someone said poetry is (something to the effect of) the
one truth. It sounded reasonable when she said it but later I
thought, no, science is the one true thing in this world. Poetry
certainly tries to name the unnameable but it too falls short. It
does cover some areas other fields cannot touch and for that I like
it but it isn't the one truth.

Someone, Sunday, read Allen Ginsberg poem Kaddish Part1: "...Death is
that remedy all singers dream of"... Maybe. Is that what song leads
to?

People at the Gazebo read Stanley Kunitz's The Layers twice (and I
think another poet read it in the main tent, so I guess it is a tie
with Ginsberg's A Supermarket in California.)

Describing the little epiphanies is what interest me in poetry. This
weekend is full of them. Very addictive and inspiring. When Taha
Muhammad Ali said "the flowers bend down and sparrows (flew?)", it
was describing the feeling you have when someone you love reassures
you that they love you. You could say that in prose but the poetic is
so much more powerful although the meaning can be lost by using
metaphors.

Anne Waldman read, amongst other things on Sunday, Skin, Meat, Bones.
(read at U of Penn below)
http://mediamogul.seas.upenn.edu/pennsound/authors/Waldman/Battery/Waldman-Anne_02_Skin-Meat-Bones_Battery_1978.mp3

Sprachsong?: Pieces of "Pieces of An Hour" (for John Cage) at U of Penn:
http://media.sas.upenn.edu/pennsound/authors/Waldman/Alchemical-Elegy/Waldman-Anne_06_Pieces-of-an-Hour_Alchemical-Elegy_2001.mp3

I enjoyed Linda Paston's Minor Surgery:
http://www.ugcs.caltech.edu/~dalryaug/poems/index.shtml?98/103198.shtml
She and this piece were entirely low key. Used common phrases. When I
hear poems like this I wonder if common sense would rate as poetics
if rearranged just so. Still, I liked it.

Mark Doty's reading on Sunday was more memorable to me at this hour
than what I heard on Saturday night. He had a longer session and read
more interesting stuff.

Billy Collins repeated several poems I heard him read at the 2004
festival. Why did he repeat so many?

The Revenant
http://www.bestcigarette.us/2004/09/the_revenant.html

Dharma
http://plagiarist.com/poetry/7844/

Litany (look down the page for it)
http://www.poetryfoundation.org/foundation/release_100604.html

The Lanyard
http://www.bestcigarette.us/2004/09/the_lanyard.html
I do love this poem and want to give a copy to my mother but it
didn't do much for me this time around.

One I hadn't heard last time or at least don't remember. Japan
http://www.contemporarypoetry.com/dialect/poetry/collinsjapan.htm

Someone at the festival mentioned this Nelson Mandela quote: "It is
our light, not our darkness, that frightens us." This festival makes
you renew the light in yourself.

I look forward to it two years from now... Sigh.

C-Span 1 & 2 have looked different for years. Why? C-Span 1 looks like it has less contrast. C-Span 2 has richer, sharper colors. I use DirecTV now but this has been going on since I started using cable, about 15 years now.

Back when Bush gave his State Of The Union speech I took screenshots of each channel. Here they are. Same location, same feed. I would be very currious about any explantion.

Two things that are still not working with Firefox:

1) Even though I have the cache set to zero, I still have to force
reload a page to see changes made in it. Supposedly, Firefox, any
browser I would think, should compare the page to the cached copy and
if there is a difference, it would load the new page. Well, that
isn't happening even with no cache!

2) It still freezes often enough after a period of inactivity, so
that I can't write in a field on a page or in the address box (for
URLs). Very annoying. I have to either create a new page or restart
Firefox.

These two problems have occurred with previous versions of Firefox. I
am using 1.5.0.7 for Mac now, started with a pre-1.0 version. I'm
not sure when these troubles started.

As I was eating breakfast I saw some wild turkey's ambling about.
Overall I counted 15! (I count 11 in this pic). All seemed to be
adult and healthy. It's been a year practically to the day since I last saw some!
Then as I was watching them, I noticed a hairy or downy woodpecker checking
out the eastern bluebird birdhouse! Peeking in, again and again. Maybe he/she will make that its home. Haven't seen any activity by the birdhouse since July I guess. (Some song sparrows were using it then.)

And then a little later, I notice a caramel and white cat moving
through the woods next door. I picked up my cat to show her, which
she protested loudly about, squirming like crazy to get away, but she
didn't see it. An animal day today!

Went to the Arts and Crafts and Blues on Bedford concerts in
Stamford yesterday and today. Saw Lil Brian and the Zydeco Twisters,
Walter "Wofman" Washington, and Dr John Saturday, Bonerama, Syreeta
Neal and (I forget the name of her backup band), and Sonny Landreth
and the Goners Sunday, all playing what I'll call New Orleans music
although some are based elsewhere (but I think all are from LA). It
was pretty good. A bit disappointing actually compared to what I've
heard (many of them) do before but since I hadn't heard some of them
in a long time, Bonerama and Sonny Landreth are two New Orleans music
favorites of mine, it certainly was good to hear this kind of music again.

Here are some pics from Sunday.

Bonerama (4 trombones, I sousaphone, 1 electric guitar and 1 drummer)

Craig Klein and Mark Mullins

They played lots of rock (cover tunes and favoring a rock beat rather
than a New Orleans second line beat) which I see according to their
website, is how they bill themselves,

Syreeta Neal. Kenny Neal was originally scheduled as the main act for
that slot, with Syreeta as a guest. Her guitar was a little off key
which she realized a little too late but she was sweet, fun and a good
singer.

Sonny Landreth with an amazing drummer (who looked like Alan Caulter from the David Letterman show and who would twirl one stick in the air as
he was playing!) Lots of real hard slide guitar.

All were loud and good. And all of this was free!

Saw this guy on the screen the other night. Nice red eye, real, a
marking to convince prey that it has a big red eye, or the result of
the flash, whatever the explanation.

I just got back from a walk around the block. Saw a fawn that had
been hit by a car, dead on the side of the road. It was probably one
of the 3 I'd seen (and have pictures of earlier, see 6/29. I also
have a few I haven't posted.). Sad to see.

(Something to consider: We had the fallen tree, and two others, cut
down yesterday. Were the deer/fawns scared away by the racket,
causing the fawn to be hit? (I feel a little guilty but it is
admittedly a stretch.) I don't know how long the fawn has been dead
there. When I've walked in the bushes between the two houses I have
seen quite a few spots where it looks like some large animals have
been nesting. Will the trees that were cut down have wiped those out
when they fell? There are probably more that weren't affected but we'll
have to see. I also look forward to seeing the mom deer with however
many of the fawns there are.)

Cool. I can get right to the control panel so I can upload the pics
and edit my posts. I hope they have fixed things so we don't need to
go to that alternate URL to do that. Hope this lasts.

I may have to stop using Blogger. They won't let me log in or upload
pics. I can send posts like this but that's it. I was able to log in
once lately but had to throw out some cookies. I'm not going to keep
doing that.

Rev Michael Jacques of the St Peter Claver Catholic Church of New
Orleans made up a new word in his prayers for New Orleans at the
memorial service 8/30/06 (broadcast on C-Span). Shero. The female of
hero. Too bad it isn't a word. It should be.

Great horned owl

Heard a great horned owl a few minutes ago. Posted it's hooting on my
Yahoo briefcase. (http://briefcase.yahoo.com/lipwak)

(Still waiting for Blogger to let me sign in... Blogger has been buggy lately. Won't let me sign in.)

Cool spider

A cool spider seen today.

The best discussion of why Katrina wasn't handled better aired on
C-Span 8/22/06. With PJ Crowley, Director, Center for American
Progress, National Defense and Homeland Security; Robert Block,
Correspondent, [Wall Street Journal], Homeland Security; Chris
Cooper, Correspondent, [Wall Street Journal], White House; Oliver
ThomasJr., President, New Orleans, LA, City Council.

Watch it here:
rtsp://video.c-span.org/project/hur/hur082206_katrinabook.rm

Info here:
http://inside.c-spanarchives.org:8080/cspan/cspan.csp?command=dprogram&record=196946286

An equally good show, pretty much a rehash of what Robert Block said
before, interviewed by James Lee WItt, aired tonight on C-Span.

Info here:
http://inside.c-spanarchives.org:8080/cspan/cspan.csp?command=dprogram&record=196892632

--
***********************************************
renew orleans
the new orleans musicians hurricane relief fund
http://reneworleans.net/

At breakfast I see a mom deer then a baby/fawn, then another smaller
fawn, then another fawn (the same size as the first) walk in a line
through the side of the yard. I've seen mom and two fawns all spring
and summer but not three. I wonder what the smaller fawn's chances
are for survival.

Well. My computer is back from Apple. Keyboard had been replaced.
Let's see if that fixes the problem with it typing numbers instead of
letters or not typing at all.

Some pics;

Back when it was hot, a baby grasshopper on the front door screen?

A pretty red flower in the butterfly garden.

Comfrey?

This may be familiar to me but I am drawing a blank. Purple ajuga?

I've seen the deer lately. Got pretty close this time. Talked to it.
I'm wondering why it's eyes look blue rather than red. Blue-eyed deer?

Some interesting mold on a plant by the birdbath.

Finally. I noticed this pile of crap in the grass. Poking at it I
noticed it had bones in it. What kind of animal would make scat like
this? Awfully small bones. Too small for mice? Birds?

I don't eat much beef that isn't already processed. When I eat some hamburger I've cooked or better yet, steak, I sometimes notice that I feel like I am having the same reaction I'd have if I was taking medicine when having a cold. I suspect I am reacting to the antibiotics they feed beef. Does anyone else have this happen to them?

Thanks.

The Rockland County Times came today. Front page article, no press release, unsigned, from Sen Morahan about school tax rebate. Great. The schools don't have enough money and he is proud of giving some of it that was meant for schools back to the taxpayers. Good job.

Page 6: Free screening for vascular diseases. There will be free screening May 13 through 20 of this year. This is the August 23 paper. I guess not even the editors read it.

Miele's Musings: It's time to clean up Medicare fraud. In lieu of any any real progress on having health care be more affordable/available to everyone, Republicans/Miele are/is proud of their campaign to check Medicare fraud. Miele has these gems to offer: "We have the beaters of our government system doing drugs, hedonistic lives, aids, criminals, welfare cheats and so many more beaters of a good system meant to help people." Is that a sentence?

"They are the ones being taken to support the beaters of a great system that is meant to help their fellow person."

These people are idiots.

I really look forward to my subscription lapsing. This is one awful newspaper.

First signs of fall: football on tv and when it's 70 degrees out but
it feels cool/cold. Going down to the mid 50s tonight.

Saw a pretty yellow flower in the front today, yesterday. Took a pic
of it today but it was raining so I couldn't stay out to get better
pics. I wonder what it is.

Here is a pathetic pic of the stalk. The rain had knocked the flower off.

The flower lying on the ground, upside down.

There is at least one buttercup-like flower to the left, out of the
pic, like there were last year which I transplanted and which didn't
take in their new location.

Saw the mom deer and a fawn as I went out to get the mail. On the
other side of them were the lawn crew buzzing around with their
seated lawnmowers and leaf blowers creating the usual din. The deer
were gone when I came back. Where did they go? Further into the
corner where there are some trees and bushes or into the woods or
over by the bushes between my house and the neighbor's where I bet they've nested before?

Mom deer (pic to come). Talked to her today. I think she realizes I am not someone to fear.

I've been thinking that it's been a long time since I've seen an ant
in the kitchen, so long that it must surely be ok now to put
ant-accessible food back out on the shelves rather than keeping it in
the refregerator, when lo and behold I see a little black ant
crawling around the sink edge. I mop it up and wash it down the drain
(my soul will burn in hell) and smirk that of course it isn't time to
leave food out. (Have found a larger black ant in the bathroom
recently but other than these two haven't seen any to speak of.

I have lunch outside on this beautiful day. A fly lands on the pork
fat I scraped off of my sandwich. I moosh it around with my fork,
gently. It stopped moving altogether. I lift it out with my napkin,
using surface tension. It is lifeless on the table. Did the pork fat
kill it? What does that say about Hormel pork roast? I laugh. It is
probable that my mooshing it caused it to drown in the fat juices but
I I like the other explanation better.

(And yes, I have felt chest pains after eating this pork (not today
but a few days ago) but my doctor says I'm ok so if I die, it's his
fault.)

I think it is safe to try life without air conditioning but we'll see.

First thing today I see the mom deer eating near the bird bath.
Probably eat at least one geranium flower, the rest are ok. I didn't
have to reprimand it as it moved on around the corner. I then watched
from the kitchen window. Fawn #1 was eating dead weeds in the
"garden" and as mom walked by, bounded out, tail wagging and attacked
her belly for some milk. Fawn #2 bounded over as well and the two
were stuck to her, tails wagging. Mom didn't stay still very long and
soon after I lost track of them. But, it's nice to see them so
regularly.

Hmm. It's only 71 out now, at about 11:30 pm. Very few bugs inside the window.

So, this is a function of heat? The more heat there is, the more bugs? Weird.

I watch the mom deer eat to her heart's content in the "garden", the
area where a fence remains but other than the raspberries and the
mint I've planted, there isn't anything I care about. I took some
pics, saw the hummingbird but don't know if the pics of it came out,
probably not. Then when I check back on the deer, I see it eating my
raspberries. I bang on the window and it looks at me. I talk to it.
It goes back to eating the raspberries. I open the window and talk to
the deer again. Say hello to it. I don't know if it recognized me. It
went back to eating the raspberries. I clap my hands. It stops but
begins again. I clap my hands again. It finally bounds away. I see a
fawn head in the other direction further back. Nice to see the
fawn(s) still.

Awhile later, they are still camping out a little further back, like
they have for years.

Thunderstorm dropped the temperature 20 degrees but it is still quite humid.

I've had the windows closed for two nights now, with the a/c on cuz
it's so hot and humid. As soon as it gets dark the inside of the
window gets swarmed with all kinds of little bugs that are getting in
through the screen or whatever edges I haven't sealed. It's
disgusting. These guys must get in when the window is open too. That
many little bugs get in? Jeez. And most of them will die when they
can't get out the next day, cooking inbetween the window and the
screen. That many every night? And those that get in when the window
is open end up, I guess, flitting around the bright lights inside. I
hardly ever see them the next day or their bodies. Makes you want to
keep the window closed from now on.

I'd tried taking pictures but none of them show the bugs at all. It
really is disgusting.

One encouraging thing though is that they all disappear the next day. Maybe one or two moths can't get out but I don't see any small bugs. I'm guessing they see the sun rise and fly off towards it. Or do they hang around for the next night? (If so, most die cuz it is so hot out and they don't get any water or food.)

I don't look forward to opening the windows...

A cicada? seen on the screen last night. Is this a June bug?



The temp yesterday. The readings are NOT reliable...

Today, ~110 in the shade!

No butterflies at the butterfly garden O&R gave people seeds for.
Little flies, yes. Butterflies? No. Not yet at least. Some nice
pretty flowers, all miniature but nice. Might take more time for it
to appeal to the butterflies.

Wow, Senator Morahan really wants to be re-elected. He's sent out an
e-mail warning us to be careful about the heat. Funny how politicians
advertise how they pretend to care about the general public when they
need to be re-elected, when they are threatened with losing!

Sorry. I'm not impressed.

Gazillions of little bugs against the window last night. It was too
hot to have it open and I had the a/c on but you could see them light
up the outside of the window as they reflected in the light. Hundreds
of them. All of these little guys get through the screen, that's
discouraging. I don't know how I can do any better at trying to keep
them out.

You might be able to see some of them here:
http://us.f13.yahoofs.com/bc/43e90c12m3cb1ecef/bc/movies/P8010002.MOV?BCiiO0EBvzFtdHVS

Got up to 95, 105 on the thermometer in the shade by the kitchen window.

A hummingbird chirped twice nearby as I was taking pictures of the
agastache (aka anise hyssop) and all the white butterflies twittering
about it. I couldn't get a good shot of the hummingbird but I am glad
I was able to get close to one. All the others fly away as soon as I
appear.

Pic of the white butterflies (potato moths?) that are going nuts at the agastache
despite the heat.

Also, saw this milkweed like seed coming out of what I think is comfrey. Cool.

Will possibly upload some white butterflies-at-the-agastache movie(s)
to my Yahoo briefcase. (Search elsewhere on my blog for the URL.)

First daddy long legs seen in the house today since I sealed all the
screen edges (in May/June). I'm glad that has worked so well.
Usually, I get a bug a day that I escort out and see something large,
a moth usually, flying around inside at night. Haven't seen anything
to speak of since I sealed things off. Hallelujah. Sealing off the
spaces where the pipes come out of the wall in the bathroom helped as
well. I usually get spiders in the bathtub. Haven't seen ANY this
year. Ok, one small one the other day but it's MUCH better than it
ever has been.

Of course as soon as I said that, I find an ant in the kitchen
checking out the one piece of cat food that isn't in the bowl, so I
escort him outside. As I do that I noticed a nice brown wolf spider
so I decide to relocate him too. Might as well relocate the little
black spider I saw in the bathroom too.

Done. He rolled up into a little ball once I shook him into the cup I
use to relocate insects found in the house. Cute. Playing dead.

About 4 pm, I see a deer walk into my back yard. I watch as it heads
to the side yard. As it approaches the plants on my table I bang on
the glass and off it sprints into the bushes and then looks around.
It then walks over to my landlady's back yard. It looks into the
bushes there, looking for/at something. A second or two later out
bounds a little fawn and it begins to suckle her mother. Aww. I take
a movie and might post it but it is pretty far away so isn't very
sharp. So, the older deer I've seen with the fawns is Mom. I think
the fawns were staying in the thicket of bushes between my landlady's
house and our next door neighbor's. Cool.

I posted some good pics of that big orange bug seen a few days ago.
Much better pictures than the earlier ones. Apparently, this bug
didn't like having his picture taken. As soon as the first flash went
off, he roused himself and started to amble off of the door pane.

third try to post this

(Blogger wouldn't post my e-mailed posts for two days. Now it works. Good)

Sunday 7/30
I see the two fawns as I drive in. One is kinda curious so I try to appraoch it after I've parked. It gets bored I guess and goes back to eating. (What's that called in human psychology. Avoidance?) Anyway, it is nice to see them on a regular basis. I hope I can approach one of them at some point. It'd be nice to gain their trust considering their probable fate of being hit by a car at some point.

Saturday 7/29

First daddy long legs seen in the house today since I sealed all the
screen edges (in May/June). I'm glad that has worked so well.
Usually, I get a bug a day that I escort out and see something large,
a moth usually, flying around inside at night. Haven't seen anything
to speak of since I sealed things off. Hallelujah. Sealing off the
spaces where the pipes come out of the wall in the bathroom helped as
well. I usually get spiders in the bathtub. Haven't seen ANY this
year. Ok, one small one the other day but it's MUCH better than it
ever has been.

Of course as soon as I said that, I find an ant in the kitchen
checking out the one piece of cat food that isn't in the bowl, so I
escort him outside. As I do that I noticed a nice brown wolf spider
so I decide to relocate him too. Might as well relocate the little
black spider I saw in the bathroom too.

Done. He rolled up into a little ball once I shook him into the cup I
use to relocate insects found in the house. Cute. Playing dead.

About 4 pm, I see a deer walk into my back yard. I watch as it heads
to the side yard. As it approaches the plants on my table I bang on
the glass and off it sprints into the bushes and then looks around.
It then walks over to my landlady's back yard. It looks into the
bushes there, looking for/at something. A second or two later out
bounds a little fawn and it begins to suckle her mother. Aww. I take
a movie and might post it but it is pretty far away so isn't very
sharp. So, the older deer I've seen with the fawns is Mom. I think
the fawns were staying in the thicket of bushes between my landlady's
house and our next door neighbor's. Cool.

I posted some good pics of that big orange bug seen a few days ago.
Much better pictures than the earlier ones. Apparently, this bug
didn't like having his picture taken. As soon as the first flash went
off, he roused himself and started to amble off of the door pane.