escape yourself and gravity

Had a pretty nice Mother's Day, and Mom says she did too. She woke up with a migraine, and Dad and I both woke up with a headache. Weird. But anyway, skipped church, slept in, and had a casual lunch. Then Mom and I headed to town. We stopped by the library, where I picked up a couple of books about Linux, and then headed to our nearest state park, Prophetstown.

We've always been a bit disappointed by the park, mostly because there's not much in the way of hiking. It's a prairie habitat park, with some river flood plain. Not a lot of trees, and very flat. But they did a very nice job making it a family-friendly park, with miles of paved bike trails and several nice playgrounds and picnic shelters. It's just not a great place for gung-ho hikers the way we are.

Today, though, we were pleasantly surprised by some changes to the park. They've expanded a trail into some woodlands, so we were able to see some new parts of the park. The new trail goes down along a small stream and boggy area. At the furthest developed part of the park, there's a nice viewing platform over the slough. Between that and our hiking in the prairie area, we were able to add some lifelist birds today.

We did a day-trip up to the Indiana Dunes National Lakeshore Friday (and one last Friday as well--they're taking off scheduled snow days at her work) and this past Friday I saw a Common Yellowthroat, but Mom didn't. Today, she got a very good look at one, so she was able to add that.

We also saw a Great Crested Flycatcher, which I have been wanting to see for a while now. Gorgeous yellow belly and cinnamon-colored wings and tail, with a gray crest. He gave us a very good look and did some hawking for bugs while we watched him. We also saw a couple Brown Thrashers and a Gray Catbird, both of which we have at home, but love to see anyway. There were Eastern Bluebirds flying around. We've had a couple of those at home too, but we never seem to get them to stick around. This weekend we put up a second bluebird box (the wren moved into the first one we have) and are hoping the pair will nest here this year.

Other birds we saw were American Redstart (both male and female), and a pair of Dickcissels. They are striking birds. At first we thought they were a type of sparrow with yellow on the head, but then they turned and we saw they were bright yellow underneath with a black bib. Gorgeous little things, and I got some very good shots with the long lens, I think. We also saw an Eastern Meadowlark, Indigo Buntings, Mallards, a Great Blue Heron, and a bird we're tentatively calling a sandpiper. We're wavering between Solitary Sandpiper and Spotted Sandpiper, but until I get the pictures downloaded to the computer and we can compare them, we won't know for sure.

Then our last bird, after we left the park and were driving back towards town, was a gorgeous adult Bald Eagle that flew right over our car. That was exciting! We know they're growing in number and even had one in our own back yard once this winter, but it's never any less exciting to see one. It's good to have such proof they're coming back so strong from the DDT crisis back in the 70s and 80s.

Over the past two weeks, I've added probably a dozen birds to my life list, including five migratory warblers. I honestly think our trip to Trinidad & Tobago taught us to be better birders. We're more willing to take the time to really get an identification. I'm doing a better job at learning to bird by ear (though for whatever reason the Northern Cardinal fools me a LOT). My Audubon iPhone app has really helped, too. I still use my books to flip through for a tentative identification, but what really nails it for me is being able to listen to the bird calls on the app and compare them to what we're hearing. Seeing witchety-witchety-witchety in the bird book is one thing. Knowing for sure you're hearing it is another (the Common Yellowthroat, for instance, says witchety, but I think the American Redstart's teacher-teacher-teacher also sort of sounds like it.)

Anyway, we finished up with ice cream from Coldstone Creamery, and then came home to watch the Baskerville episode of Sherlock on PBS. A pretty good day, for sure!

I shouldn't probably be this tired on a Monday morning, eh?

Saturday not much happened. Went to the hardware store with Mom & Dad, and they were both feeling bad (Dad is still not recovered from being ill like three weeks ago). We stopped at Blockbuster for some movies, went home, watched Hot Fuzz, and then I got online for a while.

Yesterday woke up with horrible headache. Went back to bed, got up around noon. Mom and I were going to go to the hardware store (again) because Dad's farming cousins hit our mailbox with the combine and utterly destroyed it. We got ready, loaded stuff in the truck, and...I couldn't get the truck started. Despite that we'd been driving it all weekend.

We managed to jump it off my car, but as Mom and I headed to town to get the battery replaced, I noticed a weird, high-pitched whining sound that changed pitch every time the transmission shifted. This was something new, and I needed to get my sunglasses anyway, so we turned around and headed back home (we were abut half a mile away, no biggie). When I stopped, all the instrument panel lights came on, and I said, "Nope, we're not driving this today. This is an electrical problem, not battery."

Dad and I drove the truck around for a bit so he could listen to the noise, though the lights never did that again. We got home, he turned the truck off, and immediately it wouldn't start again. It was holding a charge, though, because the radio would come on and stay on.

At that point thesnapelyone called and we decided to go hiking. Dad went inside and discovered the power supply he'd replaced still wasn't working, so we worked on that for a bit. Thank God, we got the computer working properly again. (Did I neglect to tell the story of the power supply two weeks ago? After all that shit I went through with Dell where he was trying to buy a new computer, he got home from vacation, turned on his computer, and his power supply went up in smoke. LITERALLY. Anyway, it was still under warranty, so we got it replaced for free, aside from the $50 it cost him to ship the bad one back.)

Anyway. Mom and Dad took the truck up to leave it at the dealership while thesnapelyone and I went hiking at Shades. We had fun, though I ended up quite muddy thanks to low water. Yes, low water. I don't usually try to cross the stream at that point because it's usually about 8 inches deep there--but it just looked like it was a bit muddy. I sank in about four inches and ended up with mud splattered up my legs. Sometimes I think I'm more Gryffindor than I want to admit--I just barged ahead without really looking. *snort*

So this morning I had to get up earlier than usual and take Mom up to work so Dad could drive my car. Of course, Mom's car doesn't have dim lights, just bright ones, which I didn't realise. I swear, these people. And yet Dad, since he has a GM Mastercard with $3000 worth of points on it, insists on buying another Chevy. I tell you, I'm done with Chevy. Never again.

Now I'm halfway through a 32-oz Dr. Pepper and I just want to crawl back into bed. *sigh*

But hey! I have another installment of Redemption ready to go to beta, and I have my Pervy Werewolf fic in beta, and I just have Snupin Santa to finish and get to beta in the next week and a half, and then OMG NaNoWriMo starts! *holds head* Maybe I shouldn't look ahead...

Hot drinks huddled over to keep from freezing at my cubicle: check
Jack-hammers running: check
Welding over my desk: check
Haze of dust in the office, lobby, and cafeteria: check
Acrid tang stinging back of throat, eyes, and nose: check
Allergies acting up all weekend to make me come to work already miserable: check
Work to keep me busy:


Ah yes, just another exciting Monday here at the construction site from hell. Seriously, why don't they just crew us all out for the day?

As soon as I've finished with the mail for today (as soon as it shows up) I'm outta here.


The weekend, at least, was good. Saw a bald eagle yesterday at Harding Lake and did some hiking. Despite the allergies and sinus headache, it was fun.