Author: turndoozie

Happy St. Patrick’s Day. I missed posting on the other recent days of note like Pi day (March 14 or 3.14) and The Ides of March. So, we take on St. Pat’s. This is the day the Sons of Erin, and those that wish they were, celebrate their Irish ancestry. By turning an Irish religious day into a drunken party. We on the other hand are just having a nice family dinner of corned beef and cabbage. I’ll be the only one drinking Guinness and just one of them.

Spring seems to be coming, although you wouldn’t guess it by today’s weather. We’re seeing the birds change from their drab Winter plumage into Spring mating plumage. And they’re much more vocal too. We’ve had a flock of over 15 turkeys just on the other side of our fence all winter. We throw corn and sunflower seed over the fence to feed them. The past couple weeks the males have been strutting their stuff while the females ignore them and eat the seed. I bought a photo blind to try and get some pictures but the person owning the field started clearing out brush. We’ve only seen the turkeys occasionally since he started clearing. To make life interesting for our feeder birds, a bird-eating Cooper’s hawk has started staking out our deck. Seed consumption really drops with him on sentry duty.

Immature Cooper’s hawk staking out our bird feeders. Taken through a window screen.

Next week Molly defends her PhD at Temple. We are going back for the defense and most of my siblings are also coming. Mitchell’s family is coming too. In a testimony to how well-liked Molly is, she has people coming from Indiana, Michigan, Wisconsin, Minnesota, Pennsylvania, Washington DC, and South Carolina. I was very pleasantly surprised when my siblings all said they wanted to come. Defending a PhD thesis is not in our family history. Her committee will not even think of rejecting her thesis when they see that crowd. I don’t think physical desecration of them, or the Temple campus, would be out of the question Think Philly sports fans. Philly may need to grease the lamp poles on Broad Street when she passes.

Molly’s research consisted of performing genetic analysis on Caribbean lizards. Her work has resulted in the delineation of 18 new species. Her thesis is over 800 pages. Einstein’s PhD thesis was 24 pages.

For your reading pleasure I have included the abstract from here thesis.

Title: Evolution, systematics, biogeography, and conservation of Neotropical forest lizards

Abstract: Research on island biodiversity has played an integral part in our understanding of speciation, biogeography, and adaptive radiations. The islands of the Caribbean provide an ideal location to study evolutionary hypotheses because of their proximity to species-rich mainland source areas while being sufficiently isolated to preserve an endemic biota. Most of the more than 1,000 Caribbean reptile and amphibian species occur nowhere else and are typically restricted to a single island. However, anthropogenic pressures resulting in habitat loss and degradation threaten biodiversity, leading to the loss of undescribed and unstudied species. Few studies have been conducted on the phylogenetic relationships and biogeography of Neotropical forest lizards (Diploglossidae) because of the rarity of most species. Before my work, there were 3 recognized genera and 53 species of these lizards, found in Middle America, South America, and on Caribbean islands. I gathered and analyzed sequence DNA of 3,232 genes and 642,775 aligned base pairs in 30 currently recognized diploglossid species and conducted phylogenetic, phylogenomic, biogeographic, ecological, and morphological analyses. I found that Neotropical forest lizards are older and more species-rich than previously thought. Based on this, I described 2 new subfamilies, 4 new genera, and 18 new species. I also resurrected four genera and elevated 17 subspecies to the species level. The family Diploglossidae now contains three subfamilies, 12 genera, and 91 species. I assigned all 59 Caribbean celestine species to IUCN Redlist threat classes, with the primary threats being habitat loss and introduced predators. Of these, fifteen (25%) are Critically Endangered, seventeen (29%) are Endangered, one (2%) is Vulnerable, and twenty-six (44%) are Least Concern.  Four of the Critically Endangered species are extinct, or possibly extinct. My biogeographic analyses indicate that forest lizards reached the Caribbean islands by at least two dispersal events, in the Oligocene and Miocene, likely by floating on flotsam from northern South America. Past and present ocean currents facilitated these initial dispersal events and subsequent dispersals among Caribbean islands. Finally, I assigned the species of Neotropical forest lizards to six different ecomorph classes based on ecology, morphology, and statistical analyses. Several of these ecomorphs appear multiple times in my phylogeny, indicating that convergent evolution has occurred within the family.

Greetings on Valentine’s Day. A day that somehow shifted from being a celebration honoring a martyred saint to becoming a Hallmark holiday. Anything to keep the economy going I guess.

No surprise here, but I haven’t been writing much lately. Sometimes it’s just hard to sit down and write. At least to write anything intelligent. Usually, one needs something to write about. But lately there hasn’t been too much in our day to day lives to write about. We’re just doing the usual drill. It’s not like I have nothing to do. I’m plenty busy with any number of projects going on. And they all take longer than I think they should take. Which should be no surprise to me after close to seven decades of this planet. I would preach it to my students that everything will take longer than you think it will so plan accordingly.

Given that I’m not gainfully employed, one would think I have plenty to time to ponder the larger things in life and share my thoughts with the larger world. Not so. I always have multiple woodworking projects going on. There are always household projects, like fixing the garage door opener that took it upon itself to violently fall apart. And, since I apparently have too much time on my hands, I decided to take up learning Irish Gaelic. Something really useful that should benefit my family and society as a whole. AT least it does keep me off the streets.

The last time I wrote we had just visited Philly during the Mummer’s Parade. During that trip we got in some play time in Philly and Delaware, before heading back to Indiana. Coastal Delaware is a great place to start your yearly bird species list. We got 50 or so species, without trying terribly hard.

Northern mocking bird grooming.

After a couple weeks back in Indiana we did a birding trip to Goose Pond. The trip was great for a couple reasons. For starters, just getting out is good. This time we met up with a couple friends from Bloomington that we haven’t been out with for a good twenty years. Then to top it off we find out that Goose Pond now has the largest wintering population of the endangered whooping cranes outside of Aransus, Texas. A breeding population has been established in Wisconsin and those birds now winter here in Indiana at Goose Pond.

Very distant whooping cranes at Goose Pond.

Goose Pond is an area that people have been trying to commercially farm since about the time of European settlement. And everyone that tried eventually failed. Despite best efforts to drain it, the area is just too wet for agriculture. About the time we left Indiana for Michigan, state and federal agencies finally stepped in and purchased the land to restore for wildlife. It was a stunning success. Being close to the Central Flyway, Indiana now gets birds that I cannot ever remember being in Indiana. White Pelicans, white-fronted geese, snow geese, and a host of others are regular visitors. Now, the whooping cranes. Goose Pond is truly an example of, “if you build it they will come”.

Thousands of snow geese congregating at Goose Pond.

And we recently did our annual eastern Upper Peninsula winter birding trip with our friend Joanna. As a bonus, on the return trip we stayed in our old stomping grounds of Okemos to visit with friends. Always a fun trip. The birding was OK but not great. The winter has been mild so possibly the more northern species didn’t feel the need to come south. And the species we did see were in reduced numbers. Last year we saw over twenty snowy owls. This year we had less than ten. Not complaining. Seeing just one snowy owl makes the trip worthwhile.

Typically uncooperative Bohemian waxwings.

Also typically uncooperative pine grosbeaks.

The first day of 2023 found us in Philadelphia. And those in the know, know that means the annual Mummer’s Parade. For those not in the know, I will explain what the Mummer’s Parade is.

The Mummer’s Parade means that this kind of dress and behavior is allowed, accepted, and even expected. And, though this may shock you, alcohol plays no small role in this endeavor.

Mummers.

The Mummer’s Parade has a history going back to the 1700s. European immigrants would celebrate the new year wearing costumes, visiting friends and parading around. Traditions from several different European groups ended up blending together to become an extended rowdy revelry. Apparently, George Washington participated when he served as President and Philly was the capitol.

As usual with happenings of this nature, things started getting out of hand. Revelers started demanding free drinks from public houses and vandalism started occurring. The City of Philadelphia tried banning events and, as to be expected, Philadelphians responded in the same manner as they do today. They ignored the bans. This is Philly after all.

The City of Philadelphia eventually recognized a lost cause and instead of banning the parades decided to regulate them. To make sure everyone played by the rules they resorted to bribery by offering cash prizes. That at least helped reign in some of the worst problems.

The marching groups are clubs mostly headquartered on Philly’s south second street. That’s “two-street” in Philly speak. The clubs participate under one of five categories: Comics, Wench Brigades, String Bands, Fancies, and Fancy Brigades. The Fancy Brigades are large and have elaborate costumes so they only march for a short bit and then go into the Philly Convention Center to have their costumes and performances judged. Some of the clubs are just out having a fun time. Others put a lot into their costumes and do great performance routines. Unfortunately, my cheap hosting services does not allow me to upload videos.

Simple costumes

Elaborate costumes and performances.

The parade has had its problems. For a long time, racism was pervasive. I can remember as a kid seeing marching clubs parading in blackface. Black marching clubs were systematically discriminated against, and never won the judging or cash prizes. There has been misappropriation of other ethnic cultures like Hispanics or Native Americans. For a long time, the clubs did not allow women.

Past problems aside, it is a day of fun and revelry. Open alcohol container laws appear to be suspended for the day and the whole thing turns into a five-mile-long party. And no surprise here, the partying continues long after the parade. I spent part of the time on top of a solar powered trash compactor taking pictures. Spectators would stop and chat with me. I had someone ask me to take their dog’s picture and group of ladies asked to pose for me. A parade participant saw me had a spectator take a string of party beads to me.

Me on my perch. Note the nearby police car. Some of the police were wearing party beads.

Dog picture

Gals posing

Mitchell and Mummer

Later that night from Molly’s apartment. A club leaving their bar of choice and walking down South Street on their way home.

With this kind of revelry there is plenty of opportunity for problems. I’m sure there are some residents that hate the whole affair. The parade runs from 9:00 Am to 6:00 PM. The route is long and plays havoc with Philly traffic. Probably every police officer for a hundred miles around is on duty.

But despite the drunken revelry, everyone I saw was relatively well behaved. Right below my perch were trash cans, one for garbage and one for recyclables. I was pleasantly surprised to see people go out of their way to put their empties in the right container instead of just dropping them on the ground. At one point the trash cans were overflowing. A gentleman that looked every bit like a Hells Angel very carefully balanced his empty beer can on top of the pile. When another can slide off the pile, he picked it up and carefully got it back into the recycling container. He could have just as easily crushed his empty on his forehead and dropped it on the ground.

With due deference to Clement Clarke Moore.

‘Twas the night before Christmas, in West Lafayette.
Nothing is stirring, that’s a safe bet;
Stockings were sent to those that we care.
Everyone’s scattered, we wish we were there.
I hope they’re snuggled, safe in their beds,
While visions of scrapple dance in their heads.

And Lise in PJs, and I with a nightcap,
Had just settled our brains for a long winter’s nap.
When out of nowhere my brain filled with clatter,
Reminiscing the year, what did it matter?

Then came a glimmer, a really quick flash,
It’s all about family, our gang so brash.
Everyone’s scattered like new falling snow,
Getting together is tough now you know.

When what to my wandering brain did appear
Oh yes, New Orleans, for Thanksgiving this year
With Molly and Mitchell, so lively and quick
We all went native for the cocktail schtick

More rapid than eagles the cocktails they came,
We wanted them all, and called them by name
Now Sazarac, now Roffignac, now Absinthe Frappé
A Ramos Gin Fizz, on to Vieux Carré
Out on the porch, or lean on the wall,
A dash of Peychaud’s brings life to them all

They all were great, with the Hurricane exception,
Now mass produced, it’s a cruel deception.
The food and the coffee, an epicurean delight,
Street music everywhere made everything right.

And then in a twinkling I heard a voice call
only one trip this year, that’s all?
The thoughts in my head were turning around.
Then it all came with nary a sound.

Measuring lizards is Molly’s research,
To find the answers she travels the earth.
With Mitchell her wingman, they’re on the go,
They’re not ones to live their lives too slow.
The K.U. Museum had lizards to view.
We joined her in Lawrence until she was through.
Lindsay did grad school, ‘twas really a grind,
We sent her to Philly to help her unwind.
Upon Molly and Mitchell, we all did descend,
And poor Pepper the cat, his peace to upend.
With all of us there, we did celebrate,
Christmas in July, regardless of date.
Now Lindsay’s a teacher in Stockbridge no less,
Her students now know, with her you don’t mess.
In all that she does, she’s one of the best,
She’s met every challenge when put to the test.

We’re proud of our gang, they’re doing great work
We travel to see them; from that we don’t shirk.
They’re all doing well, beyond all belief,
And we can rest easy. I thought with relief.

As I spring into bed, to our gang a salute
We’re pulling for you guys, that’s absolute
In peace I exclaim, as I fade from the light,
Happy Christmas to all, and to all a good night.

We did a different Thanksgiving this year. We met Molly and Mitchell in New Orleans for some fun times.

Lise and I had never done the deep south, so we went a couple days early to do some Gulf Coast birding. Birding was so-so but we did pick up six new species for the year. The highlight of the first couple days was getting carry-out barbecue from a Shell gas station convenience store in Moss Point, Mississippi. There was a Jaguar sitting in the parking lot with the driver’s window open and the car running. If you are ever in the Pascagoula or Moss Point area, do yourself a favor and get some Tays Barbecue. You will not be disappointed.

All in all, we were less than impressed with the Mississippi and Alabama Gulf Coast. It was OK, but not an area I would be in a rush to go back to. There were some interesting things, like the sign that warned of marine pests. Can’t say I’ve seen that before. Or the mailbox on the causeway out to Dauphine Island. No buildings around, just a mailbox on the causeway.

Marine pest

Mailbox in the middle of nowhere.

The coastal area is highly developed. Apparently, the recent nasty storms and the promise for more of the same due to climate change are just things that happen to other people. We drove the length of a small peninsula going out into the Gulf. It wasn’t much wider than a box store parking lot. Houses were being built right to the edge of the water. Putting them up on stilts may help during a storm surge but one good hurricane and that whole peninsula, and all those beach houses, will disappear faster than a barbecued rib from Tays. I guess they don’t realize that hope is not a strategy. Those nice beaches give them plenty of sand to bury their heads in.

Pictures of beach houses.

Oil rigs

But then there was New Orleans. New Orleans is a world unto itself. A world that is all about music, food, cocktails, and coffee. And we took in our fill of all. Starting with a Cajun deep-fried turkey with sides including crawdad dressing, oyster dressing, shrimp stuffed eggplant, and shrimp etouffee for Thanksgiving dinner. That little feast would not go over well in the Penn Dutch portion of Pennsylvania I hail from, but it was spot on down there.

Thanksgiving dinner

A sign for Mello Joy, “the original New Orleans coffee”. My preference is Community Coffee. Hot, black, and bitter.

Oysters in the Garden District.

There is music everywhere.

The tourist mecca of Bourbon Street is a place to avoid. It’s full of tourist bars that have no purpose other than selling to-go drinks in plastic containers. Some of them stay open 24 hours a day, seven days a week, 365 days a year. Some with half priced Happy Hours from 7:00 AM – 10:00 AM. Bourbon Street is a bunch of tourists walking around drinking disgustingly sweet drinks in plastic containers and getting wasted. Every street corner had a police presence including New Orleans Police, Sheriffs, and State troopers. And still there was a shooting on Bourbon Street while we were there. There are better places to go.

Saturday morning aftermath. The green containers are a drink called a Hand Grenade. I guess because its sole intent is to get you blasted. Real classy.

Peychaud’s, a block off of Bourbon Street.

Stepping a block or so off Bourbon Street in any direction one can find better places. Quiet cocktail bars with no blaring television where you can quietly talk with each other and consume superb drinks. For me, Bourbon Street only had two places of interest. Jean Lafitte’s blacksmith shop and Arnaud’s French 75.

Jean Lafitte was a boyhood hero of mine. He and his brother Pierre were pirates, using the blacksmith shop as a front. Not liking the British, he supplied arms and information to Andrew Jackson’s army that helped win the Battle of New Orleans. His piracy eventually became a problem, and he sailed off to parts unknown. There are numerous rumors about his end but, nobody really knows. He lives on in legend and that’s what matters. Built in the 1720s, the blacksmith shop is now a bar. Go figure, it’s on Bourbon Street. It’s a small, low ceilinged, dark building lit by candles and a fireplace. The bar itself is a mediocre bar, but who cares. This was Jean Lafitte’s. If the records are correct, he was quite successful as a pirate, but he took what he had and disappeared. I sat in there and could feel his spirit. To quote the History Guy, “All good stories involve pirates”.

New Orleans has been known for cocktails since the early 1830s. Good cocktails. It was a pleasure to taste some of the best cocktails in the world, some in the very establishment where they were invented. Like at Arnaud’s French 75 on Bourbon Street. With their signature French 75 and Arnaud’s Special cocktails served in a nice quiet bar with no televisions. Until recently they had a coat and tie dress code for men. All their cocktails are individually hand made without mixes by bartenders in black tuxes. Mr. Arnaud, in a white tux, presides over everything.

New Orleans is a major melting pot city. The French founded it in 1718. It went to the Spanish and then back to the French before the U.S. acquired it as part of the Louisiana Purchase. It was a major port for the slave trade, leading to a large African American population. It’s a wild blend of culture, architecture, music, food, accents…. One can find a Voodoo or witchcraft store right next to a storefront church. The French Quarter, or Vieux Carre, is known for the balconies adorned with wrought iron. We stayed in the Marigny Neighborhood that had a lot of historic cottages, shotgun homes, and double barrel shotgun homes. Shotgun homes are so named because all the rooms are connected in a straight line. You go through one room to get to another. If you fire a shogun through the front door the shot will pass through all the rooms to the back door. The double barrel shotguns are a duplex with a common front porch, and two front doors sandwiching two front windows. Both residents get a front door and a front window. We stayed in one and there was minimal insulation and sound barrier between the two households. The Garden District was antebellum mansions and above ground cemeteries.

Same street, different name.

Multiculturalism.

There are also plenty of Voodoo stores.

Part of the balcony culture.

Shotgun home.

Shotgun homes.

Double barrel shotgun homes.

I liked New Orleans. Not the same as I like Philly, but I like it. I would like to go back. Granted we were in the tourist areas that weren’t devastated by Hurricane Katrina as the Nineth Ward was devastated. Where we were, if you didn’t know better, you wouldn’t know Katrina happened. Eighty percent of the city was flooded but they seem to have bounced back.

The place isn’t perfect. The French Quarter has plenty of homelessness, graffiti, blight, crime, and all the usual grittiness associated with large cities. Other areas may be worse. Most of the city is below sea level. The levees will hold back disaster for now, but eventually there will be another storm that takes them out. But there is a funkiness to it that you’re not going to find anywhere else. Even in Philly.

Putin and the Pussy Grabbers. A register to vote poster. Ya gotta love it.

Yesterday we did the hour and a half drive up to the Indiana Dunes area to chase a fork-tailed flycatcher. This is a South American bird that likes to make occasional wanderings northward. Most years one shows up somewhere in North America with no rhyme or reason to where it appears. This year’s bird was in the Great Marsh of Indiana Dunes National Park. We heard about the bird on Friday but couldn’t break free until Sunday. Unfortunately, it decided to leave Saturday night. Talk among the other chasers was that the bird was harassed by a Cooper’s hawk Saturday evening. Not liking the Hoosier hospitality, it took off for parts unknown. We and other hopeful birders hung around the area for a couple hours, but it never showed up. We “dipped on the forked flycatcher” in birding terms.

Searching in vain.

The big guns.

Hope springs eternal.

The Indiana Dunes area is an interesting place. This is where Henry Cowles did his pioneering studies on ecological succession. Cowles was the first American to use the term ecology and demonstrate ecological succession in natural communities.

The Dunes are located in what is affectionally called “da region”. This is a densely populated area right next door to Chicago with a lot of heavy industry. Gary, Hammond, La Porte, Michigan City…., all those lovely cities. So, it’s surprising to find any natural areas. It’s really surprising to find intact wetlands. Indiana has tried it’s best to drain every wetland in the State. There’s only something like 4% of the original wetlands left. If it’s wetland you can’t farm or build houses on it. I’m guessing the soils were too poor for agriculture to make it worth the effort to drain them.

Some views of the Great Marsh.

Not only did we dip on the fork-tailed flycatcher, but our favorite restaurant in the area was closed. Like boarded up closed. Probably another victim COVID. To console ourselves we drove back and went to the Teays River Brewery. The Teays River is a huge pre-glacial river system that was as large as the Ohio River system and ran through the Lafayette area. The last ice age wiped it out. I’m guessing the brewery was started by a couple of out of work geologists. They make good beers and hey, how could they not be good with a mammoth in their logo.

Something interesting has happened in my life. I contracted COVID, probably while flying back from Philadelphia. I tried keeping up on the vaccine boosters. A couple weeks before my trip back east I thought I got the most recent booster. Later that day the Meijers pharmacy called me and said something to the effect of, “Sorry, our bad. We accidently gave you the original COVID vaccine, not the booster you need. You’re not protected against the most recent variants, and you can’t get the booster you need until December”. That one was their bad. My bad was not wearing a mask in crowded airports and airplanes. I got complacent since I don’t wear one in my daily goings on about town anymore. I remember looking at the crowds in the Philly airport and thinking it looked like a mass spreading event. I didn’t even have a mask on my person.

A few days later I started getting symptoms in the afternoon and woke up the next morning with what I thought was the mother of all sinus infections. My sinuses felt like they were trying to exit my body through my face and somebody was standing on my chest. Fever, cough, the works. And I was really tired. Woke up, ate breakfast, had a couple cups of highly caffeinated coffee, and then went back to sleep for another ten or so hours. When I did a home test it immediately went positive. No need to wait twenty minutes. Via a telemedicine visit my Doc prescribed Pavlovid. That little wonder drug knocked back the symptoms in short order.

So, I had to raise the yellow flag and do the isolation thing. Lise and I coexisted in parallel universes. I slept in one bedroom and Lise in the other. I used the bedroom bathroom, and she used the other one. She used the office, and I hung out in my shop. She ate in the dining room, and I ate at the counter. We wore masks whenever we were together. Yeh, it was a pain, but it could have been a lot worse.

I tried to be productive and knocked off a couple projects in my shop. Did some clean-up and equipment re-arranging and made a couple cutting and charcuterie boards. I’ve made a number of cutting/charcuterie boards, but I try to do something different with each one.

Double sided cutting or charcuterie board. Maple, black walnut and Osage orange. With a fun profile.

Asymmetrical serving board of mostly black walnut, maple, and bloodwood with some thin cherry accent lines.

And now I can strike the yellow flag. I finally tested negative and haven’t had a fever for a couple days. I still have some symptoms like sinus issues but I can go out amongst the general population again.

Since I last posted, Fall has come on hard and fast here in Indiana. The trees are dropping their green to show their colors before shedding their leaves. Temperatures have dropped, but not into the freezing range. Those things I like and kind of enjoy. What I don’t like is the loss of light. Now, it’s dark when I go to bed and dark when I wake up. I like this not. And it’s only going to get worse for a couple months.

We’ve been travelling a bit since I last posted. I just can’t find the time to write when I’m traveling. I guess because if I’m writing, I’m not doing something else. When I’m visiting some place, I want to spend every minute enjoying that place. Not typing.

One trip was meeting up with our friend Joanna at Limberlost Lodge north of Thessalon, Ontario. That was mid-September and Fall was already moving in. Weather was cool and rainy, with dragonflies pretty much done for the year and a lot of bird species already heading south. We got in some kayaking, hiking, and birding, and a fair bit of just sitting back and relaxing with an old friend. Not a bad thing and time well spent.

View across Chub Lake.

Rapids on the Mississagi River.

White-faced meadowhawk. One of the few remaining dragonflies.

Going back to Indiana we took an hour and a half detour to Plath’s Smoked Meats in Rogers City, Michigan. A smokehouse that has been in business since 1913. We loaded up on smoked sausages, fish, chops, and bacon. Plath’s bacon isn’t as good as Weaver’s from Easter Petersburg, PA, but it’s still right up there. If you’re a carnivore and passing through Rogers City, Michigan, Plath’s is well worth a stop.

My other big trip was a jaunt back east. Unlike the laid-back trip to Canada, this one was a tad more hectic. I had two main reasons for going. One to do a fundraising walk with my brother Snapper in Washington DC, and the other to deliver a car to Molly and Mitchell in Philly. I also figured I would do a couple days at our trailer in Delaware. To add to the driving fun, Molly and Mitchell were returning from London, so I had to pick them up at the Baltimore Airport and drive them to Philly.

On the way back east, I spent the night at my sister Lynn’s house in Jonestown, PA. Before heading down to Delaware, I met my brother for breakfast at a local diner named Heisey’s. I think Heisey’s is older than I am. I can remember it from when I was a kid. I’m not so sure the frying grease has been changed since then. To fuel me up for the four-hour trip to Lewes, Delaware, I loaded up on hunky eggs. Hunky eggs are a staple in the Lebanon-Lancaster County area. Every diner makes them. Fried peppers, onions, and potatoes mixed in with the eggs. Plus, whatever the cook wants to add. My Dad always finely chopped up bacon to include. To really make sure they reside in your aorta you can add cheese. White American of course.

Hunky eggs.

The fundraiser walk with my brother Snap was for pulmonary fibrosis, a disease he has. Essentially his lungs are slowly turning to leather. The average post-diagnosis lifespan is five years, which he has beaten. In addition to me, he was joined in the walk by his wife Kathy and his daughter Katie. It wasn’t easy but he did the mile in under 40 minutes, stopping three times. With almost no lung capacity this was like a marathon for him.

Snap and Katie.

The walk was at National Harbor in DC. An interesting place with a very bizarre bit of artwork. In the harbor there is a large statue of a drowning man. As the tide comes in you can watch the water swallow the poor blighter up. In my book that’s kind of weird, bordering on sick.

Drowning guy statue.

I needed the couple days spent at the trailer in Lewes, Delaware. We have not been there for months. Did some work in the trailer and got out for a little birding. One warm idyllic afternoon I was in an observation tower in the coastal marshes at Prime Hook while kettles of vultures and hawks would slowly circle overhead and drift southward.

Coastal marshes.

That area has developed tremendously the past twenty years. I can remember when most businesses in Lewes and Rehoboth Beach shuttered for the winter. It was nicknamed Lower Slower Delaware (LSD) for a reason. Now the coastal highway between Lewes and Rehoboth is jammed with strip malls and outlet stores. The area is overrun with soulless subdivisions packed with condos, McMansions and starter castles. To alleviate traffic issues on the coastal highway the powers that be keep adding lanes. Which only seems to encourage more development. I’m not opposed to change. Change is inevitable and controlled growth is good. A rising tide floats everyone’s boat. But there’s a name for uncontrolled growth – cancer. That’s what is happening there.

But there is still the ocean and Delaware Bay, beaches, coastal marshes, and enough protected areas that make it worth going there. And some great food. Like Thrasher’s french-fries in Rehoboth. A small French-fry stand since 1929. These are the best fries you will eat. Fried in peanut oil and no ketchup allowed. The only condiments they will supply are salt and vinegar. Get a bucket of fries and sit on the boardwalk to watch the tourists or gaze at the ocean.

Thrasher’s fries, a must try.

And there’s some cool places to hang out, like Crooked Hammock Brewery. In their yard they have a bunch of games and activities for the kids. As the name implies, they also have hammocks where you can get a great beer and laze away the afternoon. A fun place to chill.

Crooked Hammock Brewery.

Then there was Philly. If you can’t find good food in Philly there is something seriously wrong with you. None of it will be very healthy but you will die happy. Two quick examples. I read an article where a food critic said the two best places in the country for fried chicken is a place in Texas and Federal Donut in Philly. There’s a Federal Donut about a block from Molly’s apartment so I gave it a try. This was a life changing experience. I don’t think I can ever eat fried chicken anywhere else. Any others will pale in comparison. And the donuts are good too. They include one with the chicken.

Federal Donut.

The second is a Termini Brothers cannoli. Termini Brothers has been in business since 1921. They still use some of the original equipment. These cannoli are divine. Five bites of heaven. Molly’s friend said it was the best thing she ever put in her mouth. We ate them for breakfast.

Termini Brothers.

So, all good things must end. Coming back from Philly I flew American Airlines chattel class. Which means the last to board the plane and the last to disembark. Indianapolis does not connect directly to any major airline hub. To get here from Philly I had to fly to Charlotte, NC, and get a connection to Indy. It took the same amount of time to fly from Charlotte to Indy as it took from when we touched down in Indy, the plane taxied around Marian County, we finally docked at the terminal, I disembarked, and I got my checked baggage. I spent as much time on the ground in Indy as it took to fly to Indy from Charlotte. Something seems wrong with that.

Lots happening since last I wrote. We have done several trips; quick overnighters to Charlestown and Spring Mill State Parks,  and a longer one to Lawrence Kansas. The State Park trips were for Lise’s work. Not too much to report on them except that I got to do some dragonfly photography. 

Blue-fronted dancer.

Black-shouldered spinylegs.

Illinois river cruiser.

The trip to Kansas was to spend some time with Molly. As part of her research she has to measure lizard specimens. The KU Natural History Museum has a large collection of the lizard family she is studying so she had to spend a week there. We jumped on the opportunity for a road trip. 

We really liked Lawrence. We visited the chapel on campus where Lise’s parents were married. There were plenty of coffee shops, restaurants and brewpubs. We had a great time visiting with Lise’s cousin Katie. 

Kansas is inland. Very inland. One T-shirt store had a shirt that proudly proclaimed “No Coast USA”. Not the East or West Coasts, not the Gulf Coast, not the Third Coast (Great Lakes), but No Coast. Right by the T-Shirt shop was a restaurant advertising oysters. Unless they were of the Rocky Mountain oyster type I would be highly suspicious of their freshness. Oysters need to be right out of the salt water. This boy doesn’t eat any oysters more than a couple hours from the coast or ones labeled Rocky Mountain oysters. 

I was totally surprised by the Kansa landscape. I went there expecting miles and miles of open flat wheat fields full of tRump banners. To my surprise there was more topographic relief  than in the corn belt of Indiana and Illinois. And it was surprisingly void of tRump posters. We did an excursion to Konza Prairie in the Flint Hills and it was way hillier than here in West Lafayette. 

The Flint Hills.

Blue dasher.

Twelve-spotted skimmer.

Smoky shadowdragon (I think).

Collared lizard.

From travels I now move on to a rant about things that don’t work like they should. I’ve been having some technology issues lately. This is tough for me because I like technology. When it works, it’s great. When it doesn’t, it’s a new layer of Hell. Even Dante didn’t think of this one. Every additional feature to supposedly make my life easier is another potential failure point. I really don’t need a washing machine that automatically detects the clothing level and adjusts the water appropriately. I am capable enough to flip a switch between High, Medium, and Low water levels. The list of supposedly timesaving objects in my life that need fixing in some manner seems to be growing, not getting smaller. I’m beginning to wonder if we own our appliances or if they own us.

For instance; Lise does some part time work for Indiana State parks. It’s a good gig and she works from home. Unfortunately this also means that she has to connect our home computers to the State of Indiana computer system. This connection process has led to Microsoft Office 365 being pushed onto both our desktop and laptop computers. Without any input from us, it just kind of showed up. To make things interesting, that install overwrote our old, but perfectly usable, versions of Microsoft Office 2010. No big deal as long as she works for State Parks. Unfortunately, her position requires an occasional hiatus from State Park employment, WHich means she is removed from all State of Michigan accounts. Including their Microsoft enterprise account. Now there is no account on our computers for Office 365. We appear to have a choice of paying for a version of Microsoft Office we do not need. or maybe forking over our first born male child. Otherwise Microsoft Office will be disabled on our computers in a couple days. Since we don’t have a male child to offer up I will have to rummage through boxes yet unpacked from our move, hoping I can find our old Microsoft Office 2010 discs. 

While I’m on a computer rant, the DVD drive in Lise’s computer died. An irritant, yes, but not too difficult to physically replace. If you can find one. At one time electronics or office supply stores had stacks of these things. Apparently DVDs are now becoming obsolete. After all, they have been easily available and heavily used for about ten years so it’s time to move on to something new. I could only find one DVD drive available in the greater Lafayette area. It took longer to locate the drive than to replace it.

During our drive back from Kansas my cell phone took it upon itself to completely lock up. Even the power off button didn’t work. I had to hold down multiple buttons simultaneously for some period of time to initiate a complete factory reset. The phone responded and reset, but it was like a blank new phone. No photos, no apps, nothing. A blank slate. Over a period of hours some apps downloaded themselves and things like my contacts magically came back. Unfortunately I did lose a bunch of photos. We were close to St Louis when the phone started reloading. Now my phone seems to think St. Louis is home. I keep getting St. Louis local news posts. Didn’t ask for them, they just appear and I seem to have no option to stop them. 

So now I transition from something small like my phone, to something considerably larger and a bit more expensive. The high end dishwasher that came with our house has gone on the fritz. This beast is about the size of a small sedam and has more controls and options than the space shuttle.

The dishwasher has what the internet calls the “dreaded E-15 error code”. It thinks it’s drowning and is in constant flood mode. It is trying to pump itself dry. Even the OFF button doesn’t work. You have to flip the circuit breaker to shut it down. The genius that installed the dishwasher put it in place first, then put a counter above it and a tile floor in front of it. This leaves a paper thin space to lift and drag the beast out into the open. I played around with it some but couldn’t fix the problem. Called the repair folks and a tech managed to get it muscled most of the way out of its hole to work on it. We thought he had the problem fixed but it came back in a couple days. So now our dishwasher is sitting on a pedestal in the shop while they try to find out why it thinks it’s drowning. 

On the opposite end of the water failure spectrum, our Keurig coffee maker no longer detects when it is out of water. The function is gone, which means you can try to make coffee when it is bone dry.  If you forget to fill it with water it sits there croaking and wheezing like it’s dying of thirst. 

Now on a decidedly non-technology subject. The rotting flesh smell is finally gone from under the workshop. In an interesting twist, a groundhog is now apparently living under the shed. This is either an animal reincarnation thing, or the tight real estate market has extended to the animal kingdom. Like most home buyers around here the new resident didn’t wait for the body of the last resident to get cold before moving in.

Busy days in Ed and Lise world. For starters, a couple days ago marked our 33^rd anniversary. Way too late in the game I was reminded this is the amethyst anniversary. How was I to know. I assumed that by 33 it be something more practical like a coffee maker or an oil change. This anniversary marked a turning point for Lise. She was 33 when we married so now she has been a Schools as long as she has been an Eichhorn. We had some friends visiting to help us celebrate.

Celebrating good times with Gretchen, Lisa, and Lindsay.

Lise and I have been on the go the past few weeks. We did a trip to Delaware and Philly. Always fun, but this trip was a special one. This trip was a present for our family friend Lindsay who graduated from an intensive program at University of Michigan that earned her both a master’s in education and a teaching certificate. With a very high GPA at that. A job well done.

Philly street art.

Lise and Lindsay enjoying a Termini Brothers cannoli at Philly’s Reading Terminal. Termini Brothers Bakery has been in Philly since 1921. I will put these up as the best cannoli you will eat in this country.

Storms over the ocean in Delaware.

In addition to the Philly/Delaware trip, between us there have been trips to Pokagon State Park, Charlestown State Park, and to Lebanon, Pennsylvania. The state park trips were related to Lise’s work. The Pennsylvania trip was for my family reunion. Because of COVID we haven’t had a reunion for a couple years. It was great to touch base with relatives and find out what is going on with everyone. In a typical family story, one uncle was put in a memory care unit at a local facility. It took him 20 minutes to figure out how to remove the screws securing the grill across his room window and climb outside for a walk. At the next facility he memorized the code for the security door by watching the staff push the buttons. He then let himself out for a casual stroll about the facility. He can’t tell you his name, but he can figure out a security code.

Before doing the then hour drive back to West Lafayette I went to Hershey Park with my sister Anita and our wonderful seven-year-old niece Katie. Their goal was to see if I could still stomach the roller coasters. I had to show them the old guy still has it.

This is a very different Hershey Park than the one I remember as a kid. Greatly expanded, with mobs of people. Because of timing I only rode two roller coasters. Basically, it was 45 minutes of standing in line for two minutes of total exhilaration. Not something I’m really interested in doing at this stage of my life but how often do I get to play with a seven-year-old.

The mob waiting for the park to open.

The first coaster was pretty much what I remember as roller coasters as a kid. In fact, this one may have been operating at Hershey Park when I was a kid. The second one was different. You’re dropping at a high rate of speed, then they decide to flip you over. One second I’m looking through my feet at terra firma, the next second I see the sky under my feet. Then for fun they right you and flip you over from the other side. Right after that I jumped in the car and drove ten hours back to West Lafayette. I think my inner ears are still adjusting.

A big time sink for me has been my attempt to turn some mahogany church pews into benches. These pews had been in a church to over 50 years before the church decided on a new seating model. The pews were given away for free, so I grabbed some. These pews are contoured for comfort, not nice flat Puritan pews. There’s nothing flat or square about them. I fiddled with them for a couple months to find an aesthetic way to balance them for comfort, and still be stable. I finally came up with a solution and put together a prototype. To finish all I needed to do was rough sanding, disassemble for gluing, reassemble, plug the screw holes (with nice maple contrasting plugs) and apply a finish. A few hours of work and I’ll have a perfectly functioning prototype. Happy with an end in sight I grilled dinner for some guests, leaving the shop doors open for cooling. Apparently, a bird got into the shop, perched on the bench, then dumped a load on it. A precursor to the bench’s future mayhap? Some thanks for the tons of birdseed we throw their way.

My prototype.

Bird droppings on my prototype.

In other news from the shop, the smell of death under the floor has greatly abated. Apparently the dermestid beetles have been gnawing away at whatever died under my shop, turning dead animal into more beetle. I imagine there are some fat happy beetles living under my shed, hoping that something else decides to die there. Sometimes a trace of odor still comes up through the floor, but things are right tolerable at the moment. At least it doesn’t bring tears to my eyes.

Given our travels and schedules the past few weeks, we haven’t had much time for birding or dragonflies. Managed to squeeze in a little but not as much as I would like.

Egrets at Bombay Hook National Wildlife Refuge, Delaware.

Needham’s skimmer, Prime Hook National Wildlife Refuge, Delaware.

Slaty skimmer eating a bug, Prime Hook National Wildlife Refuge, Delaware.

Eastern amberwing, Prime Hook National Wildlife Refuge, Delaware.

Stream bluet, Prophetstown State Park, Indiana.

Blue-fronted dancer, Charlestown State Park, Indiana.