Woodpecker

Awkward pose for this stately Pileated Woodpecker. I've never seen one on the suet feeder before. Maybe he's feeding young and that's tempting him to go for the fast food.

Belinda calls him the prehistoric bird for his resemblance to a Pteradactyl. She's thinking of mounting a suet feeder on a tree so he can get at it more easily. I think he should have to work a bit for this fatty snack.

Bees

Monday when I was sitting on the deck, barefoot and wearing a tank top, I realized I've been clenching my teeth for four months. It felt great to relax and read a good book.


Yesterday when I noticed the apricot tree blooming I was worried that it was too cold and windy for the bees to be out. So, I was happy to notice that bees were busy in the apricot blossoms.

In fact, there were several kinds of bees.

Easter Decorations

Easter decorations got a bit out of hand. The amaryllis survived from past years. But I didn't pay much attention to dormancy or keeping the in the dark. So, they bloomed in their "normal" spring time. I remember seeing them in gardens in the spring in South Carolina.

Then I couldn't resist these small yellow lilies at Wegman's. $4 each and the bulbs cost nearly that much in the garden catalog. Of course, Bill brought me an Easter Lily. I found some daffodils and brought in some Forsythia to hang the eggs on. See Easter 2007 for closeups of some of the eggs.

The View From My Office Window

Some of my favorite things: icicles and snowdrifts.

The ice on the left is an icicle that's been growing for weeks. There was an office pool on when it would reach the ground. Can't say for sure it's on the ground yet, but it's joined up with the snowdrift under the window.

It was a challenge getting to work. By 8:15 we'd fed the animals and cleared the long driveway, but the County plow hadn't yet touched the road. Seriously. Not touched. It was 18" of fresh snow marred only by the tracks of one vehicle that had managed to drive by without benefit of the plow. By the time I was dressed for the office, the plow had gone by and, of course, filled in the end of the driveway.

I had interviews scheduled all day with applicants for our job opening. I admire the committment of the person with the 9:00 appointment who politely declined an offer to reschedule for 1:00 saying she'd be fine getting in to Dryden. I warned her I'd be a little late.

New York

Last Monday in New York. Lots of interesting people and discussions at the Association of Towns of New York State conference. There are more than 900 townships in New York and 1,600 people representing townships came together to talk about strengthening local government and doing good things for our towns.



It was nice to hear from Senator Gillibrand. Embarrassing to hear the AOT President inroducing her consistently pronounce the Senator's name "Guilderbrand."


Tuesday Morning in New York. At the breakfast meeting Senator Schumer spoke about all his efforts to save and create jobs in every imaginable industry - except agriculture and education, Dryden's two largest industries.

Very nice dinners and lunches and chats with Maggy. I'm glad to be back in Dryden. But I miss Maggy.

I Have Confidence in Sunshine

Why doesn't the word "confidential" have anything to do with the concept of "confidence?"

In my department we have job titles for "Confidential Bookkeeper to the Supervisor" and "Confidential Secretary to the Supervisor." Confidential is all about secrecy. I have to say, in local government, there's really not much room for secrets.

I'm in the process of replacing the Confidential Bookkeeper. I don't know which of us lost confidence in the other first, but it was a rapid downward spiral. I'm glad I can trust my Confidential Secretary (secretary - get it?) not to blab too much about how we're laughing at some of the resumes I've gotten. But bookkeeper? I think I want to trust him/her to be completely open.

I definitely want to have confidence in both my bookkeeper and secretary. My secretary told me yesterday that she remembers that in her interview I asked, "Is it ever okay to tell a lie?" Like many people, she thought maybe it's okay when someone asks, "Do you like my outfit?" With practice, she'll find ways to answer even those questions honestly and constructively.

I want to have confidence in my entire staff to cover my back. And I know that to earn their loyalty, I have to be sure they never have to lie to defend me. Idealistic? Yeah. But still a good goal.

Kitty on the Keyboard?

I can't think too much about what the cats are doing when I'm at work. They outnumber me four to one. It's like leaving four teenagers home alone. The news at the end of the day is never good. This is what my monitor looked like when I got home. Maybe they were working on their tax returns. But I'm worried about the Windows Diagnostic message.


Further evidence? I may be careless in many areas of my life, but I'm in awe of the friend who takes care of my computer. I don't spill stuff on the keyboard.





White has a reputation for sleeping on my desk. But I haven't seen him do it in a long time. This picture is from 2007.




The current suspect in the keyboard caper is Magda, who's been pretty weird lately. I've spent a fair amount of time trying to create special places for the cats: cushions, boxes, blankets, old t-shirts - all in an effort to keep cat hair off the furniture and my clothes. No luck. Magda insists on grooming on my treadmill and sleeping on my charger station.

Metaphor for Life

This is what happens. As soon as one bit is out of place, it's only a matter of days- sometimes minutes - before the whole system collapses. This is Magda thinking, "What the hell happened here?"

Sometimes I see the metaphor as continually trying to stuff ten pounds of crap into a five pound bag. It only recently occurred to me that someone keeps adding more crap to the pile when my back is turned. Stop it!

When Bad Things Happen to Good People

My neighbor lost his house today. He's a gruff guy and he gives me a hard time every chance he gets. But that's not what comes to mind first when I think of him. I remember when he patiently brought my wandering horse home last spring, following the horse slowly and carefully with the red lights on his truck flashing.

Those red lights are meant to help his neighbors in quite a different way. He's one of the wonderful volunteer firefighters in Etna. This picture shows how we fight fires in the country. We have no fire hydrants. Tankers from all nearby fire departments - some ten miles away - line up to supply water. In addition to our own Etna Fire Department, I saw Freeville, Dryden, Lansing and Cayuga Heights trucks and rescue vehicles. I know other departments were standing by covering the stations of the departments at the scene.

I know there's no way to make this right for him and his family. But already planning to help in any way we can.

Winter

Who doesn't love a snowy day to celebrate the New Year? Two days earlier we were taking pictures of fog rising from the garden. Now this.




The snow was exciting enough to inspire Maggy to make a snow angel.




The real reason we were out there was to clean the barn. Maggy's thinking, "Same stuff, different day." Tho' this is a far cry from her Fifth Avenue office.









She's still the chic-est stableboy I've ever seen. Happy New Year!

New Phone

I have a new phone. And I have mixed feelings about it. Apparently I'm still able to make a phone call - which is the main point. And I'm able to do about a thousand other things it never occurred to me were even possible, much less desirable. I've been intimidated by the iPhone. When Maggy said, "I'm glad you chose a smart phone," I answered, "It didn't look that smart." It looks like a phone with a keyboard and pictures. But I fear it's still considerably smarter than I.

Remember my year long non-adventure with the iPod? I've had a Verizon phone for about 10 years. Verizon has the "new every two" concept where they let you have a free or discounted new phone every two years. That's definitely more for their benefit than for mine. I imagine the technology on every phone I choose is outdated long before I learn how to use it. I'm about eight months past the date when I was eligible for a new phone and Verizon's reminders have been getting more frequent and - um - encouraging. Now it's like, "Upgrade the damn phone NOW. Please."

Yesterday, when the phone was brand new, I read the "Read First Poster" and the 64 page "Tips, hints and shortcuts" book. Neither can be called an instruction manual by any stretch of the imagination. But on the "Welcome" page, it says: For more details, refer to the Owner's Manual that came on the Getting Started CD with your wireless device. Today I figured out which disk has the manual on it. Okay. I'm all about paperless. the PDF manual has 102 full size pages instead of the sixty-four 4"x 4" pages of the Tips booklet. The first ten pages are disclaimers and safety warnings.

• SAFETY PRECAUTIONS FOR DIRECT SUNLIGHT
• PREVENTION OF HEARING LOSS
• SAFETY PRECAUTIONS FOR RF EXPOSURE [I know what RF is from months of talking to people about cell phone towers]
• INTERFERENCE WITH MEDICAL EQUIPMENT FUNCTIONS
• NONIONIZING RADIATION [I really don't know what nonionizing radiation is]

The warning get a little less dire - which I can tell 'cause they're not all caps.

• Avoid hot areas
• Avoid wet areas
• Avoid using your device after a dramatic change in temperature
• Avoid applying excessive pressure to the device ... remove the device from your pants’ pocket before sitting down [Excuse me? Excessive pressure!?]
• Do Not Use the PC Functions of Your Device While Driving or Walking [or chewing gum]

Okay. I'm bored enough with the warnings to stop paying attention to any of them.

I'd go on to page 11 but I'm way beyond what I allotted on my schedule for this task.

And, like the manual, this post has too many words, too few pictures.

Christmas Morning

Christmas morning at 2:00AM when Maggy and I finished wrapping. We like wrapping paper. In our defense, it's mostly plain white Kraft paper with reuseable fabric ribbons.


















Christmas morning about 11:00 AM when we finished unwrapping. We like wrapping paper.


For cats, it's just all about the boxes.

'Twas the night before...

I don't understand how red-eye works. Murphy has one blue and one gold eye. The red and green is an interesting novelty.

Okay. It's kind of Charlie Brown. It's just the first of many house decorations. It's Maggy's color choice challenge: purple and gray. Not silver, mind you. Gray.




Christmas tree starts out a bit Charlie Brown-ish, too.



I swear, I'll never make fun of Maggy making a mess in the kitchen again. I should remember to stick to making one thing at a time. This is the chocolate pie and the blueberry upside-down cake in progress simultaneously.

Tigereye

Jake reluctantly models the Tigereye necklace I made for B's mom. Seconds later, I was chasing him to retrieve the necklace.

Thanksgiving

What can I say? We were thankful.

While the turkey cooked, Maggy and I went to the garden for fresh parsley, carrots, onions and Brussels Sprouts.

Travis was there, along with Andy, Joe and Greg. It was great.

Halloween 2009

Once again I was invited to judge the Halloween costume contest.




There were clowns and angels.

Pirates and a unique lobster.

Little Sungiva and her tall, beaming daddy, Simon, taking a break from campaigning. Doesn't it look like his head is brushing the ceiling?

One lovely little Dorothy.

I worry a little about the anxious faces waiting for their numbers to be called for a prize. But everyone gets a ribbon and moves on to refreshments and fire truck rides.

Welcome [Unwelcome?] Neighbors

I appreciate skunks for their relentless search for grubs in the lawn. But I'm a bit uncomfortable with seeking one under my deck. There's really no way to warn the curious cats not to investigate.

[Editor's note: A few people have asked me what happened to the blog. Fact is, I don't know. But when I downloaded my Christmas pictures today, I found 120 pictures from as far back as mid-October. So, I'm going to start catching up today.]

Sisyphus v.2

Maggy: "Really? This is how advisor Today chooses to portray corporate women?"




I doubt she'd like the photo on their website any better.

I fear this is just the rock tumbling back down the mountain. I can't see how Maggy can show anyone in her company how inappropriate this is.

Columbus Day?

Holidays seem to fall into two categories: ones we care about and ones for which we get a paid day off from work. I'm surprised how little overlap there is. The ones we care about have special customs for celebration - sometimes far removed from the original reason for the holiday.

New Year's Day is a paid day off. I'm unaware of any common celebration ritual tho' I imagine many people sleep late to recover from New Year's Eve celebrations. Memorial Day, Independence Day, Labor Day, Thanksgiving and Christmas are paid days off with important meals to celebrate. Where do Columbus Day and Washington's birthday fit in this pattern? No traditional meal. No parade (except in NY). No presents.

I don't know how much of my mental image of Columbus sailing for the New World is myth. Still I think setting off in a sailboat on a trip expected to take months is pretty admirable. So, Columbus is somewhere on my list of people about whom we should know enough to have a certain amount of respect. But couldn't we have the day after Thanksgiving off instead? Or Halloween? Or even Spring Equinox?

Overheard On Twitter

From DM at the Farmers' Market:

'swiss chard is beautiful' ... 'twitter is stupid'