More Random Wild Life. For My Mom.
Chipmunks.
Rabbits. This is the mom I believe. She looks kind of beat.
Those ears kill me. They are gigantic. Is this technically a “hare”? Or a jackrabbit? Or just a plain, old, midwest rabbit? Probably doesn’t matter. I have a few more:
This was before babies. She (?) would be sitting out there in the rocks every day when we would leave and sometimes when we would come home. I can only assume it was a nice warm spot by the house. Our walls are literally brick and drywall thin. And our crappy metal windows basically blow air in all year round. It only makes sense that the hot air was coming through just as well. On the upside, I tell my family that we will never die of accidental carbon monoxide poisoning. Too many leaks in the infrastructure. One less thing ya know?
The nest of babies. We found it by mistake. The one closest to the front obviously did not make it. But the other two were squirming around. There may have been three at one time but we have only seen two in the yard on a regular basis. Here’s one:
Isn’t that precious?
This is like one of those “find-the-rabbit-in-this-picture” pictures. Highlights magazine. Or am I the only one out here old enough to know about this?
Frog.
Another frog.
Let’s keep working this water theme. Ducks. And baby ducks.
Mom and dad ducks.
City ducks. Chicago Lock Ducks. That’s prob a good name for some kind of team. The Chicago Lock Ducks! Swimming into stadiums near you! Eh. Let’s just post the pics.
To wrap up this very long segment, I will end with the fish and turtles inside of our house. The time is ticking away and my daughter wants to go out. Here is the old stuff and current stuff. Oscars, from young to old. Then the turtles, in order of growth.
When you come up to the tank, they swim to the glass to see you. So friendly like. We had 4. Now we only have 2. Sad. What’s really sad is that we are kind of waiting for the other two, to, ummm, perish, if you will. They live forever and you can’t put anything new into the tank with them because they will attack and kill it. Not all, Great White shark attack killing, or gnashing teeth piranha swarming blood bath, no, they just head butt and try to clamp down with their giant mouths and take pieces out of the other fish until the poor sucker cowers into a corner, sinks to the bottom of the tank and die. Nice fish huh?
Awwwww. So cute.
Turtle as art. This is how they look now.
All awkward and on top of each other. Their tank is really too small now.
Just as an extra note to anyone that has turtles and a turtle tank that gets really dirty: Spend the 8 dollars on this moss ball thing. It really works. It looks ridiculous, and you are basically paying for something you could scoop out of a creek at the Forest Preserve, but hey, nature isn’t always pretty.
So there ya go mom! I saved all the squirrel pictures and the skulking black cat that prowls around our backyard for their own separate posts. And there is A LOT. The squirrels we have in our yard are very crazy, so they need their own special column here. And the cat is just a cat, but I have various pictures of it doing predator-like things that I feel make it worthy of its own posting too. Plus, this is like 3 pages long. It’s enough. And I found more birds and flowers. And inanimate animals. I really like taking pictures of statues and fake animals too apparently. It’s a disease. It’s also 85 degrees and Saturday afternoon, and my day off. I need to get up out of this house and hit the streets. There is shopping to be shopped, dinner to be gotten, and drinks to be drank. Everyone have a safe night and I will post more. Later.
All the possibilities…
And all we can do is play around with the camera and its distortion capabilities. I think we almost have it covered now. The fish tank does look cool. I wish I could find orange water with green fish. My phone is also very helpful for telling me the exact time and what the weather is like in my town. Small steps.
News from the armpit of America
As I fondly refer to the state of Arkansas. And for all you about to jump on the comments, just know that I call it the armpit out of love (and because armpit starts with an A, and I like the repetition of it all). My daddy moved there, lived there, died there, and is buried there. I have been to Arkansas several times and don’t plan on going back anytime soon. It’s pretty and country and closes early. It has modern parts and really backward parts and now it has alot of dead parts. Unconfirmed, of course, as to what is causing the deadness. I think it’s very interesting so I reposted the article I found that kind of summed up the birds and the fish, with links I believe, in case you want to explore further and don’t have anything else to do tonight (especially since football is no longer an option—sad face). The whole thing is below. My favorite explanation so far is the end-of-the-world thing. I personally have been talking about it for some time, ever since I saw the special on Krakatoa (the volcano) and its part in the destruction of life as we know it. It’s one small reason why I wanted to be a nurse. I plan on living. So I have to start my shelter construction and supply gathering as soon as I graduate in May. I’ll have the money to do it, the knowledge to keep us alive for awhile, and access to hospitals and medicines. The kids are used to it. They think I may be crazy but these dead animals should change their minds! I realize that other stuff has happened lately that’s much cheerier, like Christmas and New Years, and I have stuff like pictures and things, but the mass killing really grabbed my attention and felt post worthy, especially with my close, personal, family connection. I have to hurry because my 4 shot vodka martini is kicking in and it’s getting hard to type. Don’t worry the kids are gone with their dad for the evening. It’s all good. So enjoy the article!
Thank you to “The LookOut” a Yahoo News source, and Brett Michael Dykes for writing it. I haven’t altered it, just re-posted it for more people to read.
Oh yeah! And Happy New Year!
Mon Jan 3, 12:10 pm ET
Thousands of dead birds and fish in Arkansas leave many
scratching heads
(sorry I don’t know what the hell that is below there, or why I can’t get rid of it)
Maybe the Mayans were on to something?
That’s surely what students of the famed Mayan 2012 prophecy for the end of the world had to be thinking with the news of recent eerie wildlife die-offs in Arkansas. Just as the calendar nudged a year closer to that fateful date, birds began falling from the sky in Arkansas and a massive fish kill occurred some 125 miles to the west.
[Rewind: Mysterious bee deaths explained]
Roughly 5,000 red-winged blackbirds fell from the sky over a mile of land near Beebe, a small town in northwest Arkansas, and observers spotted the fish kill near the town of Ozark. You can watch a video report on the blackbirds below, courtesy of ABC News:
CLICK HERE FOR THE ARTICLE WITHOUT SEARCHING THE SITE
And here’s a CNN report on the incidents:
No one seems to know just yet what caused the two die-offs. But theories abound.
In a statement Saturday morning, the Arkansas Game and Fish Commission quoted staff ornithologist Karen Rowe as saying that such events have happened before around the world: “Test results usually were inconclusive, but the birds showed physical trauma and that the flock could have been hit by lightning or high-altitude hail.”
[Rewind: Haunting images of Gulf Coast oil spill]
Because it happened New Year’s Eve, some officials suggest that revelers shooting fireworks may have spooked the birds, to the point that they died en masse from stress-induced cardiac arrest.
“It is unlikely they were poisoned,” Rowe said, “but a necropsy is the only way to determine if the birds died from trauma or toxin.” Tests were to begin Monday.
Click image to see photos of the dead birds
Daily Citizen/Warren Watkins, via AP
Meanwhile, wildlife officials say that the estimated 100,000 drum discovered by a tugboat captain over a 20-mile stretch of the Arkansas River appears to be a natural occurrence that isn’t tied to the bird kill in any way.
[Photos: Massive fish kill hits Louisiana]
“The fish kill only affected one species of fish,” Keith Stephens of the Arkansas Game and Fish Commission told CNN. “If it was from a pollutant, it would have affected all of the fish, not just drum fish.” He added that fish kills in the area are common, though this one was larger than most.
UPDATE: A state veterinarian tells NBC that preliminary necropsy results show that the birds died of “multiple blunt trauma to their vital organs.”
(Screengrab via CNN)
Big O Albino
He’s about 11 inches long and 6 inches top fin to bottom. He’s in a 125 gallon tank with some other random fish. These are the survivors of a long standing community tank. These pictures and information will make more sense once you read the next post.
I just like the way he looks here. Mason took good pics. Read on….
I blame the booze
And messed up cosmic bowling. And a million people all driving towards the mall. And a long line at the liquor store. And that first, delicious, vodka martini with garlic stuffed olives (pretty good, not as over powering or breath killing as you might think). And the movie Elf. And the bottle of wine that I bought the other day. And the other bottle of wine that I bought today. And the sore muscles that prevented me from getting up and moving in a timely fashion. And the Wizard of Oz, with commercials, so that I could struggle to my feet and exercise my way to the kitchen for more drinks in between.
But not actually exercise. Or not eat. The moment I said I would just drink and not eat, all I could think about was food. So we ate pretty much all the leftovers in the house. And then some other stuff too. Sorry Mason, we ate the cheese sticks. I’ll buy more this week.
And then it was so late. I could stand and walk enough but I was not doing, like, a workout. And now it’s morning. For the record I slept like crap. And I had a headache all night long. And I was really thirsty. And I had strange, weird dreams about working in a hospital. A giant, multi-level, spread out hospital that doesn’t exist in real life. I had to put eye drops in a long list of patients scattered everywhere, and measure their pupil dilation. But I couldn’t find the rooms. And the patients were listed categorically by disorder and it seemed most were psychiatric. It took me 15 minutes just to get near the hospital rooms. There was a huge, 2 level, narrow, oddly stepped staircase I had to go down (and back up) and my kids were following me and I was wearing my school uniform. AND I was drinking in my dream too! IN the hospital. All the other nurses and doctors were too. I don’t know what that means but it’s probably not good. In the end I could only find one person on the list and he refused.
Thank god I woke up. I’m drinking coffee now without anything in it, although I bought something for that yesterday too. I’m going to wait until later. During football, to start drinking again. And I must try to exercise even though just trying to cough hurts at this point. That’s the problem with irregular exercise. Those muscles hate stretching out after you let them sit for awhile. Then they punish you big time by not letting you move faster than sitting and not lifting more than a fork or a glass. Thank goodness I can type, right Amanda??
I suppose I better get up now and do something. In celebration of school being over I got myself some fake nails. But I am not skilled on managing alot of personal hygiene things yet. Takes practice and some different moves. Like, for instance, it took me half an hour to put in my contact lenses. It’s stupid. I don’t know how the fancy girls do it 24/7. But in a week or so, I’ll have naturalized myself to the whole concept and I’ll be fine. I let my daughter get some too, but her’s are probably all broken and chipped by now. 2 days would be a record. She likes to tap them on everything and pull at them all the time. Anyway…my point was that it takes longer to do less.
And I have a crazy fish to deal with. My son’s Oscar has taken to swimming around the tank in circles. Not like around the outer edges, literally swimming in fast circles like he’s a dog chasing his tail. We can’t figure out what the problem is. One site said water issues, one says nutrition, one said maybe he broke the heater and he’s getting electrocuted continuously. Well, there’s another fish in the tank and he seems fine so I doubt it’s that, but we unplugged the heater anyway. Still spinning. He also likes to attack the surface and throw water out. He just did it again. The other things are not easily fixable so I say just move him out. I think he’s too large for where he’s at and needs to be moved to the big tank. There are a variety of fish in it already and one giant Oscar. He used to be really aggressive, but he seems to be tamer now. I think it might be ok. It’s a pity though, because Mason’s fish is nice and smooth with no scars or damage and he’s probably going to get beat up a little bit if we switch him.
Anyway, these are the problems of a Sunday morning stall. Type long enough and something else will come up to do other than exercise. Like your mom calling you and asking when you planned on coming over. Hi mom! Thanks! Did you read all this? It’s funny huh?? So, since I didn’t make it clear when I called her earlier, and she won’t drive her scroungy butt to me, I guess I better really go get dressed and haul it out there! See? No exercise! Yay fat me!
I am posting a picture of the big Oscar that Mason took as companion to this fine piece of writing, except that its at the top, so you’ve already seen it. And I still have lots of Christmas pics I took from around my house when I was goofing around with the camera. And hopefully, I’ll have really old pics to post from when my dad was alive later too. Pretty exciting stuff. You do want to see those, I promise. In the meantime though, here’s a picture of Mason’s crazy fish:
He’s not as clear as he could be, but you get the idea. He’s about 8 inches long and 5 inches top fin to bottom. In a 36 gallon bow tank and looking mean, but we’ll see.
Kentucky Kids. Arriving at 8:05 AM Friday Morning
Catching the first fish....4:45 PM Friday afternoon.
Hanging out on the boat at about 6 PM. Life is good!
I should not be here. And, belated, posted, birthday wishes.
I should be doing mad blood pressures and apical pulses.
Another week of school, another set of tests and skills! Today is the written. Complete. Passed. Still in A category. It is only fourth week though…I feel good and I love this stuff! Tomorrow are the skills. And a mini-written test. That was a surprise, but I am prepared. I got pulses down. Blood pressures can be tricky, especially if the equipment is bad or I make a sudden move! All the noises blob into one big bump! And that ain’t right!
At any rate. Yesterday was the sissies B-day!
Happy Birthday N.!! (Sorry you had to be lumped in with my news!)
I have two sissies. This was the closer-aged one. The whole family was there for the par-tay and the whole family let me practice squeezing them and pulsing them. Sounds so dirty and yet it was not. I think I did pretty good considering the noise level (loud) and the activity going on around (crazy loud) and the participants unwillingness to be quiet and calm for one minute in a row! Love!
It all worked out perfect. The real world is not quiet and willing to sit still for me. And it makes me better(?!?) TBD.
Here’s a picture of an Oscar, probably wishing for freedom (or death). Fish are calming.
just shy of pretty 