Musing Aloud

Yesterday I went outside to do two small chores:  spray the tomatoes for worms, and quickly pot up two little pieces of some really pretty plant that I filched out of a nursery and rooted in water.  Well.  Two hours or so later, I had done both of those, plus re-potted about 6 new purchases that I have sadly let die.  Why would I re-pot them if they're dead, you might ask?  Well, a couple of them did have one or two sad looking little stems on them, and two others seemed to still have healthy roots, and the other two had healthy enough stems that I think might re-root with fresh soil.  Well, they're probably all lost causes, but it doesn't hurt to try.  Plus I cleaned up my potting bench, moving all the junk accumulation off and sweeping it clean and then organizing all my rocks.  Yes, I've been collecting rocks.  No, I do not know what kind they are besides pretty ones.  Or unusually shaped.  Or ocean-washed pieces of tile or shell. Or they've got little barnacles attached to them.  Or holes.  I've been collecting them to use in my miniature gardens, but of course I have more than I'll ever use, but I also have a dry creek bed I can throw the leftovers into.  And after I organized my rocks, I replanted and re-rocked some of my miniature gardens.  And even though I meant to spend 15 minutes out there and really didn't have 2 hours to spare, well, it was all to the good.  My tomatoes are doing so much better this year than last year.  I think the weather has been nicer, while we had a week or so of 100+ temps earlier, it's dropped back since then.  I guess the east coast and everyone else is getting our 100+.  Sorry about that.  At least out here we're equipped to handle them better -- everyone has air conditioning.  I can't imagine having to deal with that weather PLUS no electricity.  Wow, Mother Nature is really slamming it to us this year.  Crazy stuff.  At least out here in CA we're used to the heat plus we have a dry heat with little humidity. 

After I finally came inside, I spent a couple hours clearing off my desk (are you seeing a trend, here?  Yes, I let things pile up and then have to take hours to UNpile them.  But at least I do, eventually.) and paying bills and organizing my greetings cards drawer ( I LOVE me some organizing!).  And then as I was gathering up old VCR tapes to take to transfer to DVD before the coupon for $5 off expired, I realized that I have a combo VCR/DVD recordable.  So, duh!  I made 3 DVDs last night.  Years ago the hubby and I both had old super 8 mm film from our childhoods transferred to VCR.  So now that VCRs are things of the past, I guess we need to transfer them to DVD.  Wonder how long before I have to transfer them yet again?  We watched them as I transferred them, and it was so cool.  I saw a quick glimpse of my grandmother, who died when I was 6.  And my granpa and great-granma.  I barely recognized my mom looking so young.  It was kind of sad, but very cool.  The quality of the tapes wasn't very good at all, so the images aren't very clear.  But at least we have them. 

Well, we R home.  Is always good to be home.  Today for our anniversary we went to see Abe Lincoln, Vampire Hunter.  It was pretty entertaining.  I actually enjoyed the story more before he was elected President.  It got a little draggy after that, but all in all, we liked it, even though horror/suspense movies where the suspense builds and then something jumps out of the screen always make me jump.  I like reading horror, but I don't like slash and hack horror movies much.  Ok, at all.  It's not that blood and gore bother me, it's t he suspense that puts me on edge.  But this one wasn't bad in that department.  I give it a thumbs up, but not E for Excellent.  But I have to say, I LOVED the premise.  I didn't read the book, but the idea of Honest Abe being a ninja-like axe-wielding vampire hunter is crazy good.  Wish I'd thought of it. 

Am gone.  Will return.  Am reading flist.  Probably not much commenting.  Play nice. 

ETA:  Sorry, didn't mean for anyone to worry.  That terse message just struck my weird humor sense as funny.  Am on an anniversary vacation.  Have internetz, but staying busy and then have almost a full travel day here and back again (on Sat.).

Happy Father's Day to all you Fathers!  You know who you are!

(If this post comes up twice, apologies!  I thought I set it to post this morning, but I can't find it, so I dunno what happened.

I got a Kindle Fire for Mother's Day.  Did I tell you?  I'm not really using it for reading, yet, as my pile of TBR paper books is so huge and overwhelming, I'll probably never finish it in my lifetime.  In fact, I have to say I'll probably give in and not read some of them.  But anyway, I have a regular Kindle for reading, I think the e-ink or whatever they call it is much easier in my eyes than the Fire screen, so that will most likely be my reading vehicle.

The older grandson loves the Fire and I have a lot of games on it for him.  And quite a few for me.  The Sudoku game is awesome, and I think I like it better even than the paper ones.  And then I found Tetris!  Yay, I spend many hours playing Tetri on my son's Nintendos.  The Fire Tetris, you use your fingers to tap to flip the blocks, and I get confused sometimes on where to tap or flick, but it'll come easier soon, I'm sure.  

I also like a Gems clone, not sure what the "real" name of it is.  I picked up a jigsaw game the other day, but haven't had a chance to try it out yet.  Not using it for music or videos yet, but I expect I will, eventually.  I tried a seek and find type of game, it was okay, but not as immersive RPG as I like, but a lot of that was a learning curve in using the Fire.  I finished that game and got another by the same publisher, so maybe I'll like the next one better.

I picked up a RPG game that is very much like the original Dragon Warrior.  I loved the SNES game, and today I got the chance to play the Fire one (I think it's called Gaillardia), and it is VERY similar.  I prefer the kind of fighting where it's all computer generated, not having to time your hits and jumps, because I've never been good at that type of thing, so this game is right up my alley.  I do wish there was a map within the game though, I don't like wandering without knowing where to go and my memory is no longer good enough for me to remember the exact way to go, but I expect I can find one online when I get the chance.  It's all good.

So far, most of the games have been free, which is awesome.  I think I've spent a couple of dollars on a game or two, but Amazon offers a lot of the fee games for free every so often, so if you wait, it might swing around for free. 

A couple of awesome stories in this months Clarkesworld.  First, by Shimmer's very own Editor, E. Catherine Tobler, "You Were She Who Abode,"  HERE .  I wish I had Elise's talent for titles, because I love lyrical titles like this, but it's something that I'm just not very good at.  But the story is so moving, I really enjoyed it, and I hope you go take a read, too.

Then, LJ's very own Aliette de Bodard (aliettedb) has a story, Immersion, HERE .  Actually, I have to admit, I haven't had a chance to read it yet, but no matter, I will read it, and I feel confident in saying that the story is going to be riveting.  Aliette has an entry on the story behind the story on her LJ, so go read that if you haven't already.

Our BlueJay-Dove saga

Every year, we usually have doves nesting in the planters in my patio.  They're not always successful in laying eggs, however, as we are outside a lot and the doves end up getting scared off.  When they start building nests, it's still cold here so we're not out as much and I guess they think they've found this perfect spot -- until the weather warms and we're underneath their nests.  And then Easter and Mother's Day comes along and we have a lot of people over and the doves fly off, never to return.  But one year, we actually had a baby.  And one day when we returned home, the baby and momma both were gone.  We figured a cat had gotten the baby.

Last year, we actually had two babies hatch and make it all the way through.  And then came the big day when they left the nest.  They just hung around on the patio for most of the day and we were worried sick a cat would happen along, so we watched over them from the windows all day.  Success!

This year, the dove set up a nest again.  One egg.  A chick hatches.  Hubby sees the baby, still fluffy with new feathers, on the edge of the planter that morning.  We're both gone most of the day and when we return, baby is gone.  We keep seeing Momma in the bushes as the edge of the patio and decide maybe the baby fell out of the nest and the Momma and baby were hiding in the bushes.  But then the momma leaves and we think, oh no, the baby must have fallen from the nest and ended up dying.  I even poked around in the ferns and hellebores to see if I could find the dead baby, but no luck.

A few days later, a dove starts building a nest in another planter.  This one is in a spot where we have to pass by on our way to the garden, but the dove seems really calm, even when we're only a couple feet away from her.  So it soon becomes apparent that this dove might be the same one and is already used to us.  Mother's Day comes and we have about 20 people and little kids out on the patio, and the dove doesn't budge all day.  So we're pretty sure this is the same dove.  But what happened to the first baby?

Then the next week, I hear a squawk and I turn to look out the window and see a bluejay on the edge of the planter where the momma dove is nesting.  It flies off, but a few minutes later, I see it there again!  I run outside and chase it off and then it occurs to me what happened to the earlier baby dove.  You see, a couple of years ago, I heard this awful ruckus out back-- birds squawking and chirping.  I look out the window and see a robin swooping back and forth to the ground, and when I go to look closer, I see a blue jay on the ground, pecking at something.  I run outside and see a baby robin on the ground.  The blue jay is holding it down with one claw and pecking, HARD! at that baby robin's head.  I ran the blue jay off, but the poor baby robin ended up dying.

I'd heard that blue jays were mean, but I'd always liked them and thought they were so pretty.  Well, no longer!  And now, thinking about that blue jay killing the baby robin, I'm pretty sure that the blue jay saw the baby dove in the planter and came along and killed it.  

The point of my whole story?  There is sometimes cause to allow your husband to get his pellet gun and shoot at pretty blue jays.  Yes, there is.  If they're that cruel as to kill other baby birds that aren't harming them at all, then I'm sorry.  And besides, the pellet gun doesn't pack a strong enough punch to kill them.  But maybe they'll think twice about coming into my yard and killing baby doves!  

The second hatching has occurred.  There were two eggs, and today I saw one baby dove poking a head out from Momma.  Don't know if there's another one hidden under there yet or not.  I hope we can keep the blue jays away.  I saw one in the yard today, but I'm watching!  

Yes, I've been oh so bad.  I haven't posted in almost a week.  I've written no new words.  I didn't even clean my house or cook much. Looking back on my week, even I wonder what the heck I was doing!  But I was busy, really I was.  Next week, back on the treadmill.  And we finally get to go back to the coast.

Originally posted by alaneer at Help Us/LJ Support Planned Parenthood