It's going to be a couple of rugged years while building part of the school in the baseball field and parking lots, moving students, razing part of the old school, building pedestrian tunnels, completing the rest of the school, the rebuilding the athletic fields and parking on the site of the old building. Through all of this, our auto shop building will remain untouched, a constant through all the chaos. Although the Auburn Performing Arts Center will also remain, it will be closed for a year while the interior is totally renovated, something it badly needs.
Back on the home front, Bob is busy trying to get all the warning lights fired up on the Jaguar XJS convertible. The thin little piece of plastic threaded with tiny copper paths is a foreign language I can never hope (or desire) to understand. Bob has spent countless hours reading, studying, tracing, and researching the secrets this little gem holds. Finally he decided to replace it instead of continue to chase problems. When he bought the used one to replace it, the voice on the other end of the phone assured him would be the correct one. It is not, so Bob has had to figure out the subtle differences and wire it to work in our car. This is compounded by Jaguar's documented "Secret until lit." policy that is stated clearly in all it's documentation.
I am a sucker for a crow in a stark and barren winter tree. Add a cool sky and I've got my camera out. Here a couple of crows catch my eye while sitting in a tree at school on a foggy day. They are waiting for the inevitable french fries and leftovers abandoned by overfed and/or sloppy students during their lunches.
In the evening the crows school up in the trees near Emerald Downs Race Track. Did you know that a flock of crows is called a murder? I read that whole families of crows gather together a couple of hours before sunset and join up with others before going somewhere to roost for the night. I don't know where they go after their rendezvous since they aren't to be seen later in the evenings. It's hyper-creepy to see thousands of crows swirling around the evening sky squawking to each other. What are they talking about? Where to eat? Maybe they are discussing who knows the best places or where to stay for the night. Who knows what lies in the minds of thousands of crows?
Large families of crows like to stay together. There is a family of crows that like to gather at a tree down the road before they head for their evening roost pow wow. I walk Bear to this tree so he can watch them. Bear goes insane when he sees crows in our backyard and races out at top speed to git hisself one. I'm not clear sure what he'd do if he ever caught one. The crows all yell warnings around to each other when they see Bear in the yard. I'm sure Bear's picture is on the crow equivalent of their post office wall.
A lone crow confidently struts around our foggy backyard knowing this is not Bear's weekend to have custody of the backyard.
I have two African Pygmy frogs, Axel and Deezel, on my desk at work in the auto shop. I feel bad for them since they only get froggy MRE's of dried worms and never get fresh meals. One evening while watching TV, I bought some brine shrimp eggs to hatch up a nice home grown meal for Axel and Deezel. Here Nitro checks out the first batch.
According to the instructions the eggs are supposed to be grown in aerated, heated hatcheries but I remember growing these Sea Monkeys in a simple jar as a child, so I'm giving that a try first. The instructions say to add 1 teaspoon brine shrimp eggs per quart of water. This is 1/4 teaspoon in a spaghetti jar. Wish me luck. Aeration consists of screwing the lid on tight, shaking to insert the air into the water then placing the jar back on top the fridge for heat while hoping for the best. Here is my spaghetti jar shrimp hatchery.
Yesterday morning we went to Second Use Building Materials, Salvage, and Deconstruction to get a door for the cabin utility room. Most of our projects at the cabin have been done using re purposed materials. A lot of them have come from Second Use and stores like it. Second Use has changed locations and have a much larger facility so we had to look carefully at all the neat stuff and we darn-near froze while doing so. Although I was wearing flip-flops, it was my hands that were frozen while my feet were fine. We finally found our door, loaded it in the truck and went looking for a place to eat since I was feeling a bit peckish. Thus we pointed the truck toward Renton and Five Guys Burgers.
Since Five Guys Burgers and Fries is President Obama's favorite place to eat, I had a small burger with everything, including fresh jalapeno peppers in recognition of Obama's inauguration on Sunday. Now if I only had my own Presidential fitness team to help me work this burger off.
Since the exit of our big roll top desk from the family room, my sketchy filing system had to be re-established in another location. That location ended up being in the kitchen cupboard which had to first be emptied of it's varied and sundry old phone books, catalogs, and reference materials whose contents can now easily and more accuratly be found on the Internet. My last filing system was created when Kyanne was in middle school so it's time for a rebuild. Armed with a tub, labeler, new file folders and Nitro, I got it done. Once again, it's amazing how the Internet has cut down on filing hard copies. Everything can be tracked, looked up, priced, printed, and referenced from the Internet saving wear and tear on my filing system.
Did I tell you I've figured out how to print from my phone also. I don't know why I'd need to, but it's cool to know that it can be done.
While I was out in the backyard watching Bob pick up storm rubble, I noticed that my Starbuck's cup of water left outside from the last time I watched Bob work was frozen solid. It's weird. If it's so cold that a cup of water freezes, why isn't the fog freezing and falling out of the air? Why?
The brine shrimp/Sea Monkeys did hatch, but they are sooo tiny they don't show up in a picture. We'll revisit them next week if I haven't killed them off by then. I had expected one of two outcomes for this venture: to not have a successful hatch or for them to be big enough to immediately feed to Axel and Deezel. I did not expect them to be so darn near microscopic that I can barely see them, let alone to a species of frog that is nearly blind. Both of these outcomes lead me to the belief that I need not bother to factor food into this experiment. Now the question is:
WHAT DO I FEED THEM?!?!?
Life can be dicey around here if you are a primitive arthropod.
WHAT DO I FEED THEM?!?!?
Life can be dicey around here if you are a primitive arthropod.
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