Point Of View

When you look at something from another's point of view, not only do you see things differently, you see different things.

Namesake

About a month ago I went to Michigan to both visit my mom and to attend my college reunion. (See my other blog if you actually want to know any more about it or see photos.) Actually "college" isn't really the right word--it was a 3-year Bible institute which I attended straight after HS and after which I transferred to a Christian college to finish getting a bachelor's degree.

Anyway, while at my reunion, I met a woman whose married name is the same as my maiden name. She told me that she had written to our Bible institute to request a transcript so she could go on to further studies and when she got the transcript she looked at it and said, "Wow, I don't remember getting grades this good!" :-)

How To Be a Guest and How to Be a Host

Some days I'm such a bossy know-it-all that I think I should have been Miss Manners' understudy. Aside from that, someone recently remarked that not everybody in fact actually knows all the societal rules of etiquette. Therefore, these guidelines might bear repeating for any who have ears to hear, or occasion to read, as a way to make overnight visits more comfortable for both sides.

Responsibilities of the Guest:

• Make plans well ahead of time and remember the arrangements (write them down).
• Stick to the plan or advise the host immediately of the plan changes.
• Clean up your mess before leaving and don't make unnecessary work for the host.
• Offer to help with food costs or take the host out to eat.
• If in doubt about your boundaries, ask the host first.
  
• Ask the host if they have clean sheets in order to make up the bed before leaving.
• Carefully remove all belongings so the host doesn’t have to deal with them later.
• Thank the host.

Responsibilities of the Host:

• Make note of the plans and don't forget them (write them down) .
• Make physical preparations before the guest arrives for sleeping, eating, and a place for the guest to put their belongings.
• Ask the guest if they need anything, knowing that the guest may not feel comfortable to ask.
• Tell the guest directly to help themselves to X or Y (like the frig, the TV, etc), realizing they may not feel comfortable to really“make themselves at home” without being specifically told.
• Tell the guest where you are if you leave and the best way to contact you if needed.

Another New Bird

Today I had to get up early to drive Rachel to Ft. Worth. I had about 3-4 hours to kill, so I found a parking spot at the nearby Trinity Park. Lots of joggers and bicyclists about, and it was a nice day for them since the recent rains have cooled it down to the mid 80s.

I forgot my hat, camera and birdbook, but I did have my binoculars so I spent an hour birdwatching along a little tributary of the river between 8 and 9am. It seemed to be the perfect hangout for herons/egrets--I saw 6 different ones as I walked along a quarter-mile stretch: great blue heron, little blue heron, great egret, snowy egret, green heron, and--a new one for my life list--a pair of yellow-crowned night herons. (photo below stolen from the internet)



I observed 17 species at the park today. My Birdstack Life List is up to 238. It seems like I added two new life birds today, but that is due to the split in Mallards to include Mexican Ducks. I decided these were Mexican Ducks because they were speaking Spanish.

Another DIY

Replacing the cane seat on our old rocker was this time's Do-It-Yourself. Click here to see the detailed process. I like the way it turned out. Removing the old seat was the hardest part of the project.

Ice Water for White Kitty

My cat prefers water straight out of the running tap, but can sometimes be persuaded to drink ice water these hot days.

Interesting/Funny Photos from Our Trip, part 2

The tiny town of Tofino was busy with our conference, but they were also shooting a major motion picture with real movie stars.


The Canadians take their dogs very seriously, as well as their ecology. Every little park had a supply of plastic bags to encourage owners to clean up after their dogs. And there were a lot of people who had dogs.

My what big teeth you have! I think this was a gray whale, or maybe a killer whale.

No offense, but syncretism is alive and well. Or, in this case, not alive.

It's Been a 3-Cake Weekend

17 New Birds

I identified 35 bird species on our trip, 17 of which were lifers for me, and only a few of which I got decent photos. I keep track of my birding on a free website called Birdstack. Here is the link to my Birdstack Vancouver list.

Whimbrel

Steller's Jay

Semipalmated plover

Northwest crow harassing Northern Raven

Bonaparte's Gull

Interesting/Funny Photos from Our Trip, part 1

I'm in the process of posting travelogue photos on my other blog, but I thought I'd post a few photos of some things here.

Telephone booth for tree huggers

Barf bags on the tour bus--tells you what the roads are like

The underbelly of a plane that flew over our heads on its way to Victoria airport

Big Trees

One thing nice about big trees is that they make you feel little.

Bald Eagle

Yay, I've seen my first wild bald eagle. I saw them three times before I could believe it was the correct ID. They are very cool!
My husband said, "It shouldn't count since you're in Canada--it isn't their national bird!" but I didn't let him spoil my joy!

I'm on Vancouver Island for a week and adding lots of new birds to my life list. We're in a small town on the west side called Tofino for a conference. So far I've added 15 new species to my life list.

I'm not the only one here in Tofino birdwatching--Steve Martin, Jack Black, and Owen Wilson are here filming a birdwatching comedy called "The Big Year."

Now I Can Leave

OK, now that my two new books have arrived, I can pack for British Columbia.

Flowery Day

I had a rough week with an emergency dental problem, but I went back to work this morning. And this afternoon I felt well enough to dig in the compost pile and then plant some flowers. I've posted some photos on my family blog.

I'm not having so many birds in the back yard these days, but today I had this assortment in one lensfu;. Click on the photo to get a bigger image so you can actually read it.

An Answer to Prayer

No, not my prayer--someone else's. Two someone elses, in fact.

About 20 years ago we bought a used bunk bed set. It was Cargo furniture--very heavy and nearly indestructible. The set included a lower single bed, a loft bed, a little closet thing, a big chest of drawers, and a ladder. We used this furniture for our kids, and Gary always grumbled when he had to move it, but I insisted keeping it. You know, for grand kids. Actually, at the moment, Rachel is using the single bed at her house, so we have the futon frame as the lower bed for the bunk set, sitting at a 90 degree angle.

Well, this week it came to my attention that some friends needed a set of bunk beds for their boys. There was no handwriting on the wall nor plane writing cursive in the sky, but I just kept thinking I should donate the bunks to this family. I ran the idea past Gary, but he didn't have much to say. Finally, I decided to call them this afternoon, and they were happy to have the beds so they came over.

When the mom saw the beds she started crying and told us how her boys had specifically asked for the kind of bunks that you can put at 90 degrees to each other and, in fact, had been praying for that specific kind of bed but the boutique (aka missionary barrel) didn't have any bunk beds, let alone this kind.

After they left, Gary said to me, "Well, that explains why you gave up those beds. I never thought you would get rid of them."

Not Quite Digiscoping

If I were rich, I'd buy myself some good optics to watch birds. Like a spotting scope. And then I'd hook my camera to the scope and take bird pictures like the pros. They call it digiscoping.

In the meantime, I'm trying to take photos through one side of my binoculars. Here's the photo without the binoculars:


Here's the same photo through the binocular lens:


Of course, trees stand stiller than birds, and trying to make this technique work with a real bird is quite a bit harder! If you look hard, you'll see a chipping sparrow.

A Full Nest (but Abandoned)

I hope this post doesn't gross any of my readers out. I have a fairly strong stomach and also a strong curiosity, so I'm posting these photos of the abandoned bird nest.

You may remember that not too long ago I posted a video of two wrens madly building a nest. Shortly after that video was taken I noticed there were no birds around anymore--apparently the nest was abandoned. I wasn't too surprised, actually, because at the time it didn't seem like the best place for a nest. Yes, it was well protected, but I knew it would be very HOT inside there once the weather warmed even a little.

I still waited two weeks before I peeked, but today I opened up the cover to the gas tank. I found a huge and messy nest with 5 eggs inside.




I'm pretty sure these eggs overheated, but another problem was obvious too--there was a smell of gas when I opened it up. That can't be good for baby birds, and not good for my gas bill, either!



I looked up photos of Carolina Wren and Bewick's Wren eggs, and I'm wondering if these are Bewick's? I think both wrens are in my area, and they look pretty similar.

The babies inside were about an inch long:

Birdwatching on My Way to Chruch

There were a pair of scissor-tailed flycatchers just in the church yard this morning. First I've seen this season.

How to Fix a Toilet in Three Days

I've been at it again--fixing toilets. Why do I do these things? I guess because people ask me to!

On Day 0, my coworker described a puddle of water behind her toilet which sounded like a little thing to fix.

On Day 1 I went to her house to examine the situation. It didn't take long to realize that at least two things were wrong with her toilet. I removed two faulty parts and headed for Home Depot. This is trip number one, if you're counting.

At Home Depot I let that cute young salesman talk me into buying the whole repair kit. Which really was the right thing to do, but it wasn't my original plan. "Oh, it's easy!" he said. This video claimed the same thing. Yeah. Right.

On Day 2 I took the tank off the toilet. From past experience, I expected this to be difficult, but the nuts weren't actually rusted onto the bolts, so it came apart pretty easily. The perishing rubber parts assured me that the entire guts DID need to be replaced. I followed the instructions carefully, as best as I could. I hit a small snag when one of the new bolts was too big to go thru the premade hole in the bottom of the porcelain tank--odd that one went through but the other wouldn't. That meant I had to reuse one of the old bolts and hope that the old washer had enough life in it to do the job.

I got to the point to hook the water supply back up and discovered that I had broken the plastic coupler the day before when I removed it. I removed the faulty part and headed to Home Depot. This is trip number two, if you're counting.

I must have looked like a true oaf, standing there with my faded kerchief and ragged jeans, there in the toilet parts aisle, because some other customer took pity and "helped" me decide which braided pipe was the right one. I smiled charmingly and said, "OK, if this is the wrong one, I'm going to blame you."

On Day 3 I installed the braided pipe to the inlet using that white tape stuff. Took all my muscles (and two pipe wrenches) to attach it firmly, but I finally got it. Then I went to attach it to the toilet flush valve, and, of course, it didn't fit. It was the wrong size. I removed the non-fitting part and headed to Home Depot. This is trip number three, if you're counting.

This time I found the one that said "For Toilets." Now why didn't I see that sign the first time??

I managed to get through all 27 number instructions and turned the water back on. Yes, there was a leak. Of course there was. I tightened the braided inlet hose even tighter, and it quit leaking. At least I think it did. I made a few more adjustments and left.

My friend will have to use this toilet for a few days and let me know if it leaks or if it doesn't flush well. Then, I'll start over again. Or, I'll call a plumber.

Fail. Or is it Epic Fail?

I'm an oaf. Here is a list of my recent failures:

1. I tried to file our income tax form tonight using the Free Fillable Forms process. Not only was it too much work, one of the forms didn't work right and stalled the process. I sent an email to IRS. Yeah, like they're going to read it.

2. Speaking of the government, I can't believe I put the WRONG AGE for both myself AND my spouse on the recent census form. (I did put the correct DOB.) Besides my failing memory due to this extra large number, I blame this on the fact that I use my age as part of one of my miserable passwords (ihatepasswords) and when the website forced me to update my password, in response to my griping my HELPFUL friends told me to just add one to the number. So I did, and then after months of using this new password, I just assumed X was my age, instead of X + 1. AAAAAARRRRRGGG!

3. My Easter dinner. I decided to be cool and buy goat to roast for Easter dinner. You know, just like the Israelites at Passover. It turned out the texture of kid leather! Impossible to chew. Only good thing--I DIDN'T invite anyone over for dinner! After dinner I boiled it for 3 hours, and then at least the meat was soft enough to remove from the bones.

Let's see. Is that all? Well, it is enough for now.