Morning Hike

I decided this morning to check on the blackberries. Eddie was very upset when he saw me get my boots and backpack out then didn't get out his car harness. Poor Eddles.

I arrived at 10:20, parked low and went directly to the tadpole. I took the tadpole north, stopping just before the final trek to the 1st pond on the left. The blackberries are so red I could see them from quite a distance. A few canes were by the trail, and about 4-5 berries were black, juicy and sweet.

I took 109 pics, and wasn't quite finished when my CF card filled up. Total hike was 1 hr, 40 min. I didn't go far, so obviously I spent a lot of time standing around waiting for the wind to die down, a bug to get in a better position, a butterfly to land, etc. I saw a few things I'd never seen, or at least noticed, before today.


Those black ones are now gone!


Hmm. I've never seen one like this before. It's a tarantula, but small, maybe the size of a half-dollar, legs and all. I saw 2 of them.


I've never seen this before, either. My guide says it's a cuckoo wasp - they don't have stingers


The wind gusts kept bending its wings forward, but it kept clutching onto its stick.


This is my 1st pic of an American Lady


I call this the valentine bug because of the heart shape on its back, but it's really a delta flower scarab, so named because of the delta shape on its back!


This is my 1st red admiral at TM


A nicely laid clutch of eggs. I've never seen this before



This bird almost waddled while dragging its tail and wing tips. I thought it was injured, but it did finally fly off a pretty good distance. Cranky tells me it's an indigo bunting. I had never seen one before.

Rule Follower

I've always been a rule follower and I am sick of that. I can go to sleep at night but otherwise I get nothing for it.

Sunday my mom's car locked up on her. She barely got it into a parking lot, then it wouldn't start. Had to be towed home (it being Sunday) then on Monday towed to her station. Then towed again from there to an engine specialty shop. Her car won't be ready until mid-next week. No problem.

We have an extra car right now and I told her she could use it as long as necessary, and that we'd be right over. The car wouldn't start. I could tell it was the battery, so I got out the jumper cables but before rigging it up wanted to review the sequence. I couldn't find my cheat sheet anywhere, but the book that came with the car was in the glove compartment and it had 2 1/2 pages on jumping. Yea!

I was puzzled when I read that after a,b,c... the last thing I do is clamp the black onto the battery strap (the strap that goes over the battery to keep it in place.) I've jumped before and distinctly remember clamping the black on to something metal in the engine, away from moving parts. I read it 3 times, and following those instructions it said DO NOT CLAMP THE CABLE ONTO ANY OTHER PART OF THE CAR, ONLY THE STRAP. Well OK then.

I hooked it all up and turned the key... uhhhhn uhhhhnn uhhhhhnnnnn. It was the same as when I first tried to start the car. I unhooked, re-read, rehooked, and nothing. So I got Daughter B to help. A 3rd time and still nothing. I wondered about the strap, but being a rule follower I obeyed the rules and didn't try to clamp it on to anything else.

Tuesday I called Pep Boys, where I believed the battery was purchased. Their computers were down all day and they had no way to look it up. I decided the problem must be the old crackledy up jumper cables, and stopped by the Hell Hole (Walmart Supercenter) on my way home from work to buy newer, longer, stronger jumper cables. All they had were thin short cheap little things. But I noticed next to the cables were some battery-jumping charging contraptions.

After standing there and reading over both boxes several times I decided to buy one, took it home, read the rules, plugged in the adapter to charge the contraption so I could charge the car battery. By 9:30pm the contraption was fully charged, but I had to wait 30 minutes (because I follow the rules) after charging to use it. So at 10 pm I took a deep breath and took it to the garage.

The instructions for the contraption said the black clamp would go on a non-moving metal part of the car. Huh. Just what I originally thought. I got a screwdriver and tapped and scraped on the battery strap. It's hard plastic, NOT METAL. No wonder the jumpers didn't work. I decided to keep and use the contraption anyway and hooked it up, the green light came on immediately, I started the car, turned off the contraption and unhooked it. I went for a 30 minute drive to charge the battery a bit more. The drive included a stop at McDonald's drive-thru for a cone and food for my daughter.

Today after work the car started just fine, so I took it to my mom's, we went out to eat and she dropped me off at home.

I'm mad at myself because I allowed my rule-following gene to over-ride my common sense gene, costing me $42 and a trip to the hellhole, plus an extra day of mild angst.

On a good note, all the walking in the hellhole parking lot and self-contained city really upped the step count on the pedometer, and I reached 6,000 yesterday. Today I shot for 7,000 and made it. Right now I'm wearing 7015 steps on my waist! I've drastically upped my steps at work by going out one door, going around the building and in a different door to get to the bathroom or another office, then back out again to get back to my office (when time allows.) This will work until it gets too hot. Or rains. Or I don't have time.

I love my pedometer! I'm pleased with my contraption! Need a boost, anyone?

Photoshop Envy

Over 2 years ago I took a Photoshop class and purchased Photoshop CS2. And I actually read the pages and pages of licensing agreement jargon as I was installing the CS2 program on my computer. I understood it to say I could install it on other computers I owned. For college use my mom and I had recently given both daughters laptops. They were purchased and registered in my name.

After installing PS on my computer I moved next to daughter B's computer. All went well. Then I began on daughter A's. It wouldn't load. I called Adobe and found out I was allowed to have it on only 2 computers, even if I owned more and they were in my house. So daughter B, who had taken a photography course at a tech center, really did deserve to have it. Wait...

Shortly after arriving at OU for her 1st semester she did something to her computer and had to have help from their tech support to fix it. The 'fixing it' wiped off PS. That was
over 1 1/2 years ago. This past weekend she took photos at a friend's wedding and assumed she could use PS on my computer in order to work the pics. But yesterday something happened to my computer and I've temporarily lost all my programs and files.

She found the original disks and tried loading them on her computer, and it worked. I guess the program recognized her computer as an 'approved' one. So all this time she has been without, and it was so easy to fix. So this evening, as she's working with the photos, I mentioned that I was thinking about getting Photoshop Elements for daughter A.

B stopped working and glared at me. "What is that?" she demanded. "Is it the same as this one?" "No..." I replied, and before I could continue she started spinning and twirling about A getting better and newer stuff than she had. After she settled down I had the chance to explain that she had the full-blown CS2 creative suite, while elements was just part of what the real photoshop could do - just a cheaper, lesser version. Well, OK then.

I guess the rivalry never ends. By the way, I selected their laptops since I was buying them, and I wisely got identical ones. You know what she said then? Guess...

"I always have to get the same thing as A gets! Hmph!"

I don't know why I haven't given up, and I don't know why I'm not in jail.

The Pedometer

Two Christmases ago I gave each daughter a cheap pedometer. They are young adults yet love more than anything to have cool little stuff in their stockings - it has always been their Christmas day highlight. Seven months later, in July 07, I wanted to use one. Neither daughter could find hers. Neither daughter had used hers.

Fast forward about a year, and by this time we have all lost any mental contact with any pedometers. The evening Sunny was digging a nest to lay eggs, rather than fight mosquitoes throughout the evening while waiting to see if she were going to lay, I got an idea! She was just outside daughter B's bedroom window, and I could just go in there, look out the window and check her status. Wrong!

You've heard of path houses, haven't you? Those people who collect so much stuff, boxes of nothing, boxes that have never been opened, thousands of telephone insulators, old cereal boxes, that kind of stuff? And they have it all sitting around their house, on top of tables, obliterating furniture, making doors impossible to close and such and leaving only a narrow path for navigating the rooms? Well, that was almost the state of my daughter's room. I couldn't even get to the window. Here are some examples of true path houses:

http://www.idexter.com/the_house/01_den.html

http://forums.somethingawful.com/showthread.php?s=e9744d33e932f0de0ec1d35d23523a44&threadid=830487&perpage=40&pagenumber=1

First I had to kick back piles of clothes, move 2 guitars, remove a broken floor lamp that had the top half dangling on her bed, move a desk chair which caused another pile of clothes and stuff (which were precarious to begin with) to fall in my path, etc. When I finally reached the window it was dark and I couldn't even see Sunny by shining a flashlight out the window.

But I digress. In the midst of reaching the window I spied the pedometer, lying lonely and useless under a pile of something. It still worked! I clipped it on! It was fun!

I wore it, even to work, for 2 days, making sure to take extra steps here and there, marveling at how it could be possible that I took more steps in 50 minutes getting ready for work (and going outside with Eddie and the turtles) than I did during the entire 9 hours I was at work! I became determined to change that.

On the 3rd day I was moving more, going down to other offices more, walking further from my car, etc. Then I went to the bathroom. I forgot I had it clipped on, and somehow the act of unbuttoning/unzipping made the pedometer fly off my pants. I was in the "big stall", the one that a wheel chair could pop wheelies in because it's the size of a small bedroom. In other words, plenty of safe space for the pedometer to fall. But no. It chose to fall in the toilet, an area about 1/40th the size of the stall.

I watched as it rocked down in slow motion, sinking all the way until is was partially hidden by the throat at the depths of the toilet bowl. Then I reached in and got it. Yes, I did, I reached down into a public toilet with my bare hand to retrieve a $4 pedometer!

I dabbed it with wads of toilet paper, wrapped it in a paper towel after washing my hands and arm for about 20 minutes, and carried it back to my office. The LCD screen was blank. Little bubbles of water kept oozing out of unseen crevices as I shook it, squeezed it, and blew on it. Water came out of the crease around the LCD screen, around the crease where the 3 rubber operating buttons were, out of the perimeter crease where the front and back were stuck together.

Then I opened the battery compartment and removed the battery. It was wet. Inside, where the battery sits, was wet. I kept dabbing. I found a tiny screwdriver and removed the 2 screws that appeared to be holding the front and back together. They weren't. I couldn't pry that thing apart, but I blew forcefully in the bit of wedged area where I could lift it up a bit. Toilet water spat out on my desk.

After letting the battery and compartment air dry I put the battery back in. Still no LCD. I waited... still nothing. I pronounced it dead and threw it away.

Later I was telling a co-worker about it and she wanted to see it. I got it out of the waste basket and the LCD was on! I shook it lightly, simulating a gait, and it counted! I clipped it back on and it still works today!

And the broken lamp? It wasn't actually broken, the metal base for the bulb had worked its way out of the pole. I worked on it a bit and got it fixed. My daughter did thank me the next day for fixing her beloved lamp. I didn't say a word about her pedometer. I'm keeping it.

How I Met His Parents

The day began with a bit of a fright. I couldn't eat all my banana because it was over-ripe so I went out to toss it in for the turtles, who love over-ripe bananas. Elwood, Mark, and Sunny were milling around near the front and were immediately happy to receive banana chunks. I peered around a small tree to find another turtle and saw the frightening thing: Rehab was in one of the water pans upside down! I could tell she had been trying to stick her neck way back to flip over but it couldn't reach the ground because the water pan sat just a bit higher. I rushed in and righted her, saving her life. She looked petulantly at me then ambled off toward a banana chunk. Hmmph!

Sunny's eggs are showing small signs of distress - they're beginning to dent inwards just a smidge. If Rebel still isn't fertile then there's nothing I can do about it.

A month ago my daughter decided it was time for me to meet her boyfriend's parents. We finally all had a plan to meet for dinner at Chili's earlier this week. Somehow I arrived 15 minutes early, sat in my car until I couldn't take it any more (it was about 90 outside) and finally went in.

I told the hostess I was meeting 4 other people who were on their way, and asked if it would be possible to be seated early. She was happy to do so, but when I asked for a table instead of a booth she hesitated and began to scrunch her face to tell me why that wouldn't work. I told her I was meeting my daughter's boyfriend's parents for the first time and that I would feel awkward, you know, in that squished together sort of way, in a booth, and that's why I asked for a table. I then said I would just deal with it in a booth.

She said she thought she could find someone to cover a table in the "can't-sit-here-yet" area and showed me to a table in a great location. Within a couple of minutes a waiter appeared and I first thanked him for agreeing to cover the table. He winked, said she explained the situation to him and he would make sure everything went smoothly! I ordered appetizer chips and water (I'm cheap, I know it, and I'm proud!) and began to wait. And wait. Suddenly I realized I was wringing my hands! But wait, I wasn't nervous. Not me. Not I.

I was by a window and in a few minutes I saw a couple about my age walking toward the entrance. I knew it was them. I began to act all cool and casual, and heard the hostess say, "I think part of your group is already here", and took a deep breath. As soon as they walked into my area the dad said "You must be SallySue!" right behind them was the hostess, and behind the hostess was the waiter, and behind the waiter, peering around a post, was another young lady. They were ALL WATCHING the introductions!

The parents took seats across from me, and I swear I don't know how this happened, but after he was seated the dad somehow managed to knock over the chair on the end and it tumbled and scooted across the floor. He kind of looked at it funny, and bent over to get it upright. The mom didn't bat an eye. I wanted to snicker and make a joke. They acted as if it were no different than picking up a glass of water and taking a sip.

We began a conversation and in just a few minutes my daughter and her boyfriend arrived. The chips finally arrived, 2 baskets of them, and the waiter caught me eye and gave me a thumbs-up that no one else could see. Then he took their drink orders and as he was leaving he turned and gave me another thumbs-up.

We visited, not uncomfortably, but not easily either. The dad picked up a chip and took a bite. And somehow, I was watching this and I don't see how it happened, the remainder of the chip, which was gripped by his thumb and finger, flew out of his hand like a fly ball to center field, in a perfect arc, and landed in the middle of the basket of chips. He stuck his neck out a little and puzzled over the basket, cocked his head and squinted a bit, as if trying to decide if a spider was poisonous or not, then picked up a small piece of chip from the edge of the basket, pulled it out, looked at it, I mean turned it over and looked at it on both sides, then put it in his mouth.

What happened next was even funnier. No one said ANYTHING, no one gave a reaction, smiled, nothing. I was pretty sure the mom saw it, and she just sat there like someone was taking a sip of water. I wanted to roar and talk about it, you know, give a blow-by-blow instant replay, but had to stay there, quiet and stiff in my seat. It took great restraint.

The rest of the short evening was uneventful, except for the waiter catching my eye and giving me the secret thumbs-up every single time he came to the table. He gave the 2 checks to me and to the dad, and we each immediately handed them to our respective children who were paying for dinner. We did get excellent service.

I didn't see my daughter until the following day, and found out she was, indeed, a witness to the flying chip incident. She said it was all she could do not to bust out laughing. We talked about it and can't figure out why everyone just sat there like it was normal. It was hilarious, the way it happened. She thinks maybe stuff like that and the chair are common, so in that family it's just normal. Or maybe they were nervous. We don't know.

At least I've met his parents and I like them just fine. Next time will be easier and more comfortable.

A few shots from this evening:

I don't know what this spotless leaf beetle is, but it likes the dayflowers


It rained this afternoon and I spent some time looking for stretching water on the canna leaves. I didn't find any


More raindrops, this time on a spontaneous redbud


This is the same long-horned grasshopper as the other entries. I swear it is


And a close-up of the little fellow

Backyard Wildlife

This evening while playing with Eddie I saw the little green metallic fly and the larger orange one. I dashed in to get my camera and I never saw them again. So I took pics of other things playing around the dayflowers.

I had pretty good luck for not using a tripod. I took photos at the top of the retaining wall, which is about 4 ft high.

This is the cute little long-horned grasshopper from the other day. OK, I realize if there's one there can be a dozen or more, but I'm pretending it's the same one. They are especially adept at scurrying around to the opposite side of the leaves to escape the full monty. I cropped it weird like this so you could see how long the "long horns" are. They are sometimes over twice the length of the body.


Stinkbug


I finally got a decently clear shot of neolema. I took many pics last summer, but no matter what the face and eyes are always blurry. I'm pretty pleased with this one, and BONUS! She's grooming!


And I also got a decent shot of the oulema.


This thing was even tinier than the beetles. It might be a hyaline grass bug. Or at least some kind of grass bug.


Here it is in profile


My favorite is this one - a really cute spiderette!

The Eggs Look Good

So far Sunny's eggs appear to be good. I brushed a little vermiculite off and they are still nice and plump. Her nesting site was all covered and disguised today. What a good mama.

I didn't go out to see the turtles until around 7 this evening, and the only ones up were Twyla and Mark. Twyla was again showing she-man dominance, this time over Rehab, who had bedded down among the thickness of the wild strawberries. Twyla was in position but all clamped up by the time I got to them. I've had box turtles since 1979 and I've never had a female like this.

I had taken some nice chunks of nectarine out to them and gave one to Mark, and put one in front of Rehab and Twyla (who I had moved over several feet.) A little later, noticing the stirring, Blocky had come out of slumber and was sharing Rehab's chunk. Even Twyla had stuck her face out a little and was nibbling on hers. I went back in and got the rest of the chunks and put them in areas where I suspect some of the turtles sleep. After mowing I went back out to clean their water pans and every morsel of nectarine was gone, and all were in bed somewhere!

Today I decided that my goal will be to hike up and down the steepness of TM, from bottom to top, 5 consecutive times. This will be in preparation for a hiking vacation my daughter and I will take in the fall. I told her of the plan and she agreed. I don't know if this means I'll get up early on some weekends and start working towards it, but I do know this: I want to enjoy our vacation and not have to stop and gasp for breath on the inclines. I will have to prepare.

Here are a few pics from TM on 6-3-07:

This is one of about 11 - 13 ponds. It's just east of the tadpole, where the empty turtle nest was that I posted several entries ago.

Going south from the taturmobile, this largish lizard kept running ahead, then looking back at me. Click on the photo for a much larger version

A winding trail on the low part, just north of the lower lot

Sunny Side Up

Tonight Sunny is preparing to lay eggs. I first noticed her in the very back of the compound about 8 pm, already with a good-sized hole going. It's now close to ten and she's still perfecting the little dirt womb. I'm going to try to stay up and collect them tonight, which means a very groggy morning for me. Waa-waa.

So now a few pics from the evening:

Eddie loves his prized miniature soccer ball

Twyla is just so freakin weird! We rarely get even a glimpse of her. This evening, after the turtles' usual bedtime, she was just sitting here, out in the open, all clamped up tight. FYI, turtles sleep in a somewhat relaxed position, never clamped up. I moved her because this was my path to and from Sunny and I didn't want to stumble over her in the dark. Weird turtle. PS FYI, she doesn't appear to be sick, but then how could I really tell?

Sunny busy with her nest

OK, so I finished this post about 10:05 and went back out for my every-quarter-hour egg check, and she had already laid (lain? I don't know) 4 eggs. She laid 2 more, and I caught the last one with my scissor fingers! Egg catching is fun! I moved Sunny, who was in her egg-laying trance, over to the side, then retrieved the rest of the eggs. They all look good, which means squat. Finally I put Sunny back over her nest so she could finish filling it in.

I slightly covered the eggs and put them on the shelf in the toilet room. I didn't think about taking a pic of them before covering them up, and it's probably a sure thing that these will be the ones that hatch. I'll wait 10 - 12 weeks, 3 months, or 90 days, plus a little longer. I am hopeful.

Hiking Substitutes

Because of itchy bug bites I will severely limit my summer hiking, going only when I can no longer stand not going. A and I are going on a hiking vacation in the fall, so I'll really have to keep with the workouts at the fitness center to be ready.

Since this blog is basically a way for me to make notes about my hikes, and since I won't be hiking much, I will use it for random thoughts and pics throughout the summer. Regardless of what the calendar or astronomers say, I consider summer to be June, July, and August.

Mark's eggs are not fertile. They all collapsed in on themselves within 3 days. I'll keep watching for the other girls to lay and hope that Rebel is doing his part. Hmmm, Rebel and 5 girls... does that make my turtle area a polygaturtlemist compound? I hope Texas doesn't find out about it.

You can see how all the eggs have a large sunken-in area. Since I know they aren't fertile and I'll be discarding them, I turned them to show their sunken in part

Elwood is my daughter's turtle. Here he is on a retaining wall and eyeing Eddie, who is reaching up to look at him

Sorry about this one - for some reason Elwood gets a bit excited when A. holds him. Here he is just beginning to stick it out. His tail and cloaca area are a bit wet because he, uh, squirted on himself

So many things like the little day flowers! Here is a 2-for-1, and as usual I didn't even notice the extra in the photo because I was concentrating on the slug. It's some kind of assassin bug nymph.


I have never ever been able to get a pic of neolema or oulema with the head and eyes sharp. I was about to discard this pic when I realized it's pooping, and has already left a couple of tiny neolema turds on the leaf. This beetle is about 1/8 inch long and maybe 1 1/2 rice grains in girth. So the poopettes are really tiny.


Tiny, green metallic fly. I think they are pretty. Probably they are really nasty little things. I think the little metallic ones are called dancers


Orangish/bronze metallic fly, about twice the size the of the green one


Small long-horned grasshopper trying to evade the camera, and doing a pretty good job of it!