A bat visits

I had a bat in the room at 3 am. I heard a fluttering of wings by my
head repeatedly. Thought it was a moth. Eventually I see it, flying
just like in the Abbot and Costello movie with Dracula. I put the cat
in the closet and closed the windows. (All have screens on them.) I
then waited by the open front door as that was the only fresh air
coming in, which is what the bat was going for. In a little while,
the bat came to the front door. It was hard to see but I saw it crawl
around the screen. I opened the door. I wasn't sure but I thought it
flew out. I closed the door and opened the windows again. What an
adventure. How did it get in? From the screen by the kitchen vent?

Furnace causes this?

P8080009, originally uploaded by Lipwak.

Yesterday I filled the birdbath with clean water. Last night it rained. Today, as often happens, the birdbath is full of this dirt.

I used to think it was from whatever animals were using it (raccoons, woodchucks, who knows what). Now I think it is soot from my furnace. The furnace would have run during the rain, causing the soot to not get far. (The furnace really smells when it runs. It ought to be replaced.)

Nyack Jazz Week, Tuesday, 7/24

Saw Steve Bernstein and the Millennial Territory Orchestra again last
night. They played at Memorial Park in Nyack. I'd seen them back in
2005 at the Hopper House and once before then at the Nyack Center
either in 2003 or 2004.

I was disappointed. They played the almost all of the same repertoire
that I heard back at the Hopper House. Why don't they change it? They
opened with the same two tunes, St Louis Blues and The Boy In The
Boat. St Louis Blues was done reggae style which at least was a new
twist. Darling Nikki, which is one of my favorite SB/MTO tunes, a
Prince cover tune actually, was not as well played as was at the
Hopper House. (I think they also played that at the Nyack Center too
but I can't be sure.)

Some of the players were different from the last time I'd seen them.
Matt Munisteri, who's played with them for awhile but wasn't at the
Hopper House gig, played nicely but I don't see what makes him so
special. His other gigs and CDs are probably more interesting. Peter
Apfelbaum played sax tonight but I was more impressed with Michael
Blake at the Hopper House gig. Ben Perowksy was truly inspired at the
Hopper House gig. Not last night.

Charley Burnham wasn't that amazing as he has been. He was incredible
at the Hopper House gig and when I saw them at the Nyack Center.
Absolutely amazing. Here he didn't quite get all his notes in when
featured. I'll let him slide. He still is a hero of mine so one night
won't lower him in my eyes.

I was hoping the score Steven created for the Laurel and Hardy movies
would be truly amazing. It wasn't. (Only "Sugar Daddies" was played.)
I didn't really get it but will hear it again as I had taped it.
Maybe it will make more sense then. I hope the rest of it works
better at the other gigs.

DirecTV is now airing the Ovation network. Great music, dancing and
other performance. Awful ads. Why is that? Great art and they can
only attract awful sponsors?

Still, I am going to LOVE Ovation. Gabriel Yared! The TIger Lillies!
Harry Smith!

Sigh. There IS something worth watching on TV at last.

I've seen the house wren sitting on a fencepost near the bee balm today. I am wondering if it is defending its territory from the hummingbird(s) that I've been seeing lately. While I love having the house wrens nesting in the birdhouse in the garden, I am hoping that it won't scare off the hummingbirds!

Twice now, hummingbirds have checked me out as I have stood by the bee balm. I've been wearing bright colored shirts that probably make them think I am a tall flower! They hover around briefly but very close. I haven't been able to take pictures or movies of them yet but I hope to asap. I think I have seen two, one yellow and one green but I'm not sure they were really different at all.

I happened to notice when CNBC had their telePrompter feed go out
over the air last night. I don't see anything else on the web about it.

Saw this fawn today, racing back and forth just past the garden. Thought it was a mountain lion perhaps. It stopped racing back and forth and then appeared on side of the garden and walked into the woods. Here is part 1


The fawn in the back yard now, looks at me (perhaps) and heads into the woods.

I've been bored with what's on tv lately. So, I thought I'd go
through my videotape library. I have at least 360 (numbered) tapes
(and many more that are titled and otherwise filed). That's 2160
hours of video. If I watched them 24 hours a day, it would take me 90
days to get through them all. (I recorded pretty much all of them at
EP, the slowest speed. Well, now that I think about it, when I had
my first VCR I used the LP speed, so those would be 4 hours long.)

Let's see. I saw two woodchucks and a fawn yesterday. A cottontail
rabbit and a young deer today. Didn't get any pics of the first three
as they all ran away quickly and I didn't have my camera handy anyway
(and seeing deer other than fawns is no big deal so I didn't need to
take a pic of that.) It is nice to know there is wildlife here.
Haven't seen any wlld turkey yet this year, (I wonder who the fawn
came from...)

Two YouTube videos about the great Camellia Grill in New Orleans which has reopened.



Good to see Harry. God bless you.

One of the most beautiful scenes in music videos I've seen, the aparks going up into the blue sky. Thank you, Severa Nazarkhan.

Today's bug

Today's bug, originally uploaded by Lipwak.

Found by the cat, her staring at it clued me in to there being something there. I have seen these all summer long inside. Might be a lightning bug. Haven't seen any flying around inside at night glowing away yet though.

What is it? The brown line may be his antenna but might also be something in the cup, I don't remember. Probably antenna.

Wild strawberries! (fraise du bois)

P5280008, originally uploaded by Lipwak.

Wild strawberries are appearing in the lawn! How cool is that!

Bloosoms on the wild rose

P5280006, originally uploaded by Lipwak.

I hate wild rose but at least the flowers are nice.

Two bugs I had to remove from the house today, before breakfast!

P5280003, originally uploaded by Lipwak.

P5280002, originally uploaded by Lipwak.

I am stopping refilling the suet feeder today. I have already had a
few birds come by to check it out to find no suet in the feeder. They
may be disappointed, I don't know. Woodpeckers get all excited when
I've had suet. I hope they aren't too disappointed now but it's
getting hot enough that the suet gets all over the place when they
peck at it. It's getting to be a mess. There are plenty of bugs for
them to eat. I don't think too many birds will be disappointed.

Spring afternoon sun

P5240005, originally uploaded by Lipwak.

P5240004, originally uploaded by Lipwak.

AT&T New Orleans Jazz Fest 2007 video

WHEN will AT&T have the archives from this year's Jazz Fest
available? It's been two weeks since the fest was over. When will we
get to see anything? Why does it take so long to do this? They could
have been ready the next day...

See here:
http://blueroom.att.com/events/jazzfest.php

Fox talking heads dismissed Ron Paul's performance minutes after the
Republican debate tonight in South Carolina but Fox's own text
message poll has Ron Paul in FIRST PLACE!

Bravo! Ron Paul's comment that we have to answer for why we were
attacked on 9/11 are words we need to hear more of. I like Ron Paul.
I don't like Republicans but so far, hearing Ron Paul tonight, I like
him. The others are trying to prove they are tougher SOBs than the
rest, a path we shouldn't have gone down in the first place.

birds and ants

Interesting bird behavior seen today and yesterday at breakfast.
Yesterday I noticed, as I sat down to breakfast, that there was some
activity at the birdhouse. I've seen sparrows lately using it.
Yesterday, One was going to the honeysuckle bush, getting something,
a seed? a flower part? and then flying back to the top of the
birdhouse, SITTING on top on the other bird who would stick it's neck
up and have it's mouth open and then fly back to the bush again. It
looked like it was hitting the bird, flying back to the bush and then
flying back again, hitting the lower bird again. Or maybe it was
mating. I don't know. Whatever it was it was funny to watch. I went
and got my camera but by the time I'd done that they'd stopped doing
it.

Today. I noticed two sparrows on the birdhouse. A third larger black
bird swooped in and was repelled. Then, what appeared to be the
previous tenant was rebuffed by the sparrows on the birdhouse. The
rebuffed bird, could have been a sparrow but might have been a wren
with its longer beak and stubbier tail, chirred from the fence post
as one of the new sparrows sat right next to it and preened itself,
confident that they had one. The old resident moved further away,
chirring, and the new residents passed a piece of tissue paper they'd
found for nesting material (litter is never too far away in this
property despite my efforts), into the nest inside the birdhouse.

I went to get my camera and looking glass for this too but when I
came back, they had finished.

This birdhouse is supposed to be for Eastern Bluebirds ONLY. I have
only seen sparrows using it, and only a few, at various spring and
fall times of year.

Also on the topic of birds, we have had geese in the neighborhood
lately, honking away. I don't know what is attractive to them here.
There might be someone's pool. Maybe someone's lawn? Both morning and
night (not so much during the day) one or two will be honking alot,
fly around and eventually come back. Something to do with the mating
season? (See also the goose on the roof story a few days ago here.)

As for the ants, I have stopped seeing the little sugar ants. I now
have, a few a day in the kitchen, larger black ants. Is the Combat
working? Is it attracting the new ones? I am happy the little ones
have stopped but wonder when the large ones will too. Ever?

The large ones are easy to capture and throw outside. They often sit
there, probably asleep and you can get very close to them without
their moving. They do run faster, and respond quicker, than the
little ants but since you can creep up on them more easily, are more
easily rounded up in cups I keep strategically near me in both the
kitchen and the living room. I open the kitchen window and band the
cup on the side and they are dropped out into the lawn below, or I go
out my front door, tap the cup on the railing and they get dropped
out onto the lawn or landing below.

For some reason, many will be attracted to my legs. Once a day it
seems I will feel one crawling up. I then walk out the front door and
shake it off. What IS the attraction to my leg? Sweat? Soap from my
shower? I don't know.