Sunday, February 13, 2011

Posting again already.

Looks like I have some new neighbors moving into my front yard. A pair of magpies have decided to open house in one of my trees. We have quite a few of them in the neighborhood, along with mourning doves and (in summer) a ridiculous amount of robins and finches. I sometimes get hummingbird nests in my trees, and always welcome them.

Picture 1: View of nest from the street.
Picture 2. View of nest from my yard. That black thing is the tail of one of the magpies while it is working on the nest.
Picture 3: Nothing to do with birds, just happy to see the daffodils coming up, finally.


















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Looks like Swiss have decided to stay free; they voted against government restrictions on their right to keep and bear arms.

"If the 'Yes' goes through, it really risks destroying the country," Xavier Schwitzguebel, an army reservist officer, was earlier quoted as saying by the AFP news agency.
"If we take away the weapon, which represents this trust, that means that we are breaking the sacred union between democracy and citizen."

That explains it better than just about anything; a government that does not trust its citizens has drawn a line between the people and the government, and they become subjects rather than citizens.

"When you disarm your subjects you offend them by showing that either from cowardliness or lack of faith, you distrust them; and either conclusion will induce them to hate you."
--Niccolo Machiavelli - The Prince


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Some of you have probably already seen this; I just wish we would bring them all home. If you can watch this without feeling moved, then you have an empty spot where your heart should be.
H/T to Borepatch and Life and Times of An Average Guy



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Some of these should be familiar, depending on your age and what type music you like. I tend to listen to a broad range; about the only kinds I won't listen to are disco and rap.


"Magic" by Olivia Newton-John
"The Wanderer" by Dion
"Not Fade Away" by Buddy Holly
"Take the "A" Train" by Duke Ellington
"It's Only Make Believe" by Conway Twitty
"Mama Tried" by Merle Haggard
"Exodus" by Ferrante and Teicher
"You Know What I Mean" by The Turtles
"Fallen Hero" by Vixen
"With You There to Help Me" by Jethro Tull


One of my favorite bands from the sixties.







Another great band from the sixties and seventies.












Friday, February 04, 2011

I'm surprised anyone is still visiting, considering how infrequently I blog.


I was hoping to be posting before this, but it seems that stuff kept coming up.  I'm still planning on blogging more often.

I've been watching the action in Egypt in the news for a few days now; I'm not certain where they are going to be once the dust settles. I just hope we don't get people in DC who think we need to go poking our fingers into that hornet's nest; I'm still waiting for them to bring our soldiers back from the mess they've got them into in Iraq and Afghanistan.

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Went out to my mom's last week to do a bit of repair at her place. The fog was interesting that I ran into at spots on the way. The thickest was at the last leg from Grantsville going south to her place.  Once I got onto higher ground, I came out of the fog, and it was sunny the rest of the way.
Click on pictures to enlarge.
The first two pictures are taken halfway through the fog; the first one is facing south, the second is facing north.
The third picture is right after I came out of the fog, but you can't really appreciate the size of it from the photo.  It was a vertical wall, several hundred feet high, and it flowed along the ground without breaking up, like watching a tsunami in slow motion.
The last three pictures are taken at my mom's place, where the sunlight had not burned away the rime yet.














































































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Very cool; check it out.




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Any of these look familiar to anyone?

"Hang On Sloopy" by The McCoys
"Fallen Hero" by Vixen
"Moon River" by Andy Williams
"No More Words" by Berlin
"The Tide is High" by Blondie
"Midnight Rider" by The Allman Brothers
"Moonlight Seranade" by Glenn Miller
"Sitting at the Wheel" by The Moody Blues
"Renaissance Faire" by Blackmore's Night
"With You There to Help Me" by Jethro Tull