Thursday, March 25, 2010

a dose of Reality

This morning you were awakened by your alarm clock powered by electricity generated by the public power monopoly regulated by the US Department of Energy. You then took a shower in the clean water provided by the municipal water utility. After that, you turned on the TV to one of the FCC regulated channels to see what the National Weather Service of the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration determined the weather was going to be like using satellites designed, built, and launched by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration. You watched this while eating your breakfast of US Department of Agriculture inspected food and taking the vitamins which have been determined as safe by the Food and Drug Administration.

At the appropriate time as regulated by the US Congress and kept accurate by the National Institute of Standards and Technology and the US Naval Observatory, you got into your National Highway Traffic Safety Administration-approved automobile and set out to work on the roads built by the local, state, and federal Departments of Transportation, possibly stopping to purchase additional fuel of a quality level determined by the Environmental Protection Agency, using legal tender issued by the Federal Reserve Bank. On the way out the door, you deposited any mail you may have to be sent out via the US Postal Service and dropped the kids off at the public school.

After work, you drive your NHTSA car back home on the DOT roads, to a house which has not burned down in your absence because of the state and local building codes and fire marshal's inspection, and which has not been plundered of all its valuables thanks to the local police department.

You then log on to the internet, which was developed by the Defence Advanced Research Projects Administration and post on freerepublic.com and Fox News forums about how SOCIALISM in medicine is BAD because it's impossible for the government to do anything right.

-Anonymous


Would my beloved friends in the US of A please stop panicking? Please? Take a deep breath... a valium or two if need be... you're gonna be fine!

Monday, March 22, 2010

I'm getting old...

I get a kick out of my bird-feeders.

A) It provides hours of entertainment for my cat...

B) It provides hours of entertainment for me - although I'm in no way 'a Birder' yet - it's fun to see the different varieties of birders and their species personalities.

It’s also a hoot to watch the squirrel acrobatics as they try to raid the feeders.

I know that it's 'good' to feed the birds over the winter months when food is scarce. But it was really rewarding to see how much this actually helps

A few weeks ago I went out to slap another block of suet into the suet feeder. In the tree I noticed a small distinctive (lop-sided red cap) but sad looking woodpecker - its feathers were all scruffy looking and it didn't budge even when I got close, it looked exhausted. I'm not sure whether it was a juvenile or just some poor little guy who'd had a rough go of it.

I went back inside and made a point of watching it carefully just in case we had to do a woodpecker rescue.

Eventually it hopped onto the suet feeder and it was there for a "long-time". It hopped back into the tree and sat there for a time and then made another trip to the feeder, then back to the tree, and then back to the feeder... later in the day it had disappeared. I noticed it back at the feeder in the evening, and I’ve seen it fairly regularly over the past few weeks.

It is quite gratifying to see it now – it’s perky and alert and its feathers are healthy looking. It flits around just like all the others and it even “hangs out” with them now
*happy sigh*

Saturday, March 20, 2010

Spring has sprung...

Spring Equinox, Vernal Equinox... equal day and night.
Enjoy...

Don't know about where you live, bust the last few days of Winter were warmer and sunnier than this first day of Spring.

Friday, March 19, 2010

Dear Internet,

I'm having an affair with the real world, but things should calm down soon...

in the meantime:

Shark-Bitten Crocodile Poop Fossils Found (No, Really)


Enjoy your weekend my darlings!

Wednesday, March 03, 2010

In the dark blue sky so deep ...

When it is dark enough, you can see the stars.
Ralph Waldo Emerson



The sun will come out tomorrow but until then yours is the night, with all her stars.