esrosedotblog

For years, the biggest entertainment in St. Croix was to watch the sunset.

Not so much for the sunset per se but to listen to the speculation about the so called green flash before the sun went down and then about whether we actually saw one occur when the sun set.

I saw this today.

Videographer Captures Elusive Green Flash

I always though that seeing it was a matter of expectations. I did see it. And it was fast fast fast. You could not say "SEE!" and expect others to get it. Because in that half second they either did see it or didn't and by the time I hit the second E, it was gone.

This is not the first film I have seen of it. But it does show that the arguments still go on.

I always figured that part of it was the atmosphere of the sunset watch. The bar had been open for at least an hour. The tooters were tooting. Even if there was none, and sometimes I did not see one, these people saw it.

This hurt the credibility of those who saw it and knew we had seen it.

So, here it is again.

Some of you will not see it. Tough shit. You are slow on the uptake. Get a little patience and open up those peepers.

Labels: nature

I wrote recently about the arrival of a lizard on the wall outside our condo, the north windows.

It was the first time I had seen one so busy around the house. We used to have them all the time at the old house.

Exciting.

Now, this morning, a new arrival.

There is a baby in the bathroom. Or was.

He scampered around and hid under the roll-around shelf we have in there.

I hoped to catch him and let him out but that is not in the cards. He is too fast.

So now there is a lizard inside too.

Oh boy.

Not my hand. Not my lizard. But about this size.

Soon, there will be a dog in the house. That will probably be the end of any lizards who live in here.

But I will let that be between them and I will stay out of it.

Labels: condo, nature

As fans of the desert, particularly Death Valley, we had wondered about this.

Death Valley Sailing Stones

These stones have trails. You can see it. But they are obviously not moving. And no one has seen them move.

Until, now, by accident, some scientists found the answer to the puzzle in a wild moment of serendipity.

You will have to read the article. Can you guess?

Nature is a mother.

Labels: desert, nature

I had just gotten down for a late morning nap and things started to shake.

Earthquakes shake Southern California

It shook, then shook again and finally kept shaking. A 4.something.

When we came out here, we were very very earthquake sensitive.

I remember being at a motel for some work. The place shook one night and I went out of my room. Quickly. There was one other guy doing the same.

He was an easterner too.

Not one of the other people in the motel came out of their room. Welcome to California.

It is a little exciting but no big deal. There is no question that there is a quake happening. It is quite identifiable. It could be nothing else.

No truck out in the street next to the condo, no thunder, no nothing. An earthquake.

I am a veteran now. I just stay where I am, preferably lying down and wait. They used to say you should stay under a doorjamb but I have since been told this is not true.

Besides, there isn't a lot of time to do anything other than what you are already doing.

The epicenter was a bit north of Big Bear Lake where we were last week. Rats. We missed it.

But there was enough here to enjoy it.

The first one we witnessed was while we were at a store in Palm Desert. Shaky enough to be scary. But once one is in a series of them, they become normally abnormal.

Labels: earthquake, nature, SoCal

Ant season is upon us.

For most of the year we are insect free. No flies. No mosquitoes, ever. Nothing of the creepy crawly type.

I suppose there would be roaches inside if we were not clean but there are none of those either.

What we have are Argentinian Ants.

They are small and come in multitudes. They invade in a line. Outside you can see ¼ to ½ inch bands of them industriously moving from one place to another. Almost endless.

Inside, they send scouts who find a smudge or spill, any cup or glass not rinsed, any food source at all.

Once the scout reports back, the long black line advances to the target. It is done with pheromones. See the video below.

There is only one remedy. Johnson and Johnson's Raid.

We will use a large can during the summer.

I do not like the idea of bug poison in the kitchen but I don't like ants either. A hard choice.

So I go for the Raid and then wipe it up. The first shot kills the scouts and the line as far as I can spray. Then I wipe it up and let the small residual be a prophylactic against further invasion.

This doesn't work very well because they almost always find an alternative route.

By the end of the season, I will have neutralized every invasion route. But by then it will be the fall and they will retreat to wherever they go for the 6 months of cooler weather.

It is not a big deal but big enough to get vexed every season and a bit surprised when we get attacked.

Labels: condo, nature, Palm Springs, wildlife

BUILDING

I wrote about the little birds that are building a nest in my cactus.

They have been hard at it all day, day in, day out.

Amazing.

We do not seem to be a bother to them.

There is a lot more today than when John took this photo.

Fascinating.

Nature in the raw.

They are intense.

I have never seen anything like this up close. We have had nesting birds nearby but never a front row seat.

I have to go near the nest every other day or so to get the hose and water.

Otherwise we are staying away.

Nifty.

Labels: birds, condo, nature

PERSPECTIVE

Thank you: Ark

Labels: ecology, nature, technology

OPTIMISM THWARTED

Or something.

I generally feel that people, humans are good despite all the evidence to the contrary.

I can make a pretty good case for this by focusing on humanitarian efforts, ecological activism and humane treatment of animals and other living creatures.

I am also on the side of good triumphing over evil and think that this happens. Is happening. That our evolutionary curve is toward goodness.

Of course, this takes some effort sometimes and I am frequently down hearted by the callousness of some politicos and others who rant. But I still believe that regular people are kinder, gentler and strive to be good.

But when I read something like this, it not only breaks my heart but it shakes my basic beliefs.

College Student's Turtle Project Takes a Dark Twist.

There are people who actually try to kill turtles caught on the road. I suppose I knew this. We have seen this kind of terrible irresponsibility before.

Somehow, the turtle seems as though it might be immune from the atavistic response.

I guess not.

What a bunch of bastards.

I guess that people who would push supposed muslims under a subway train or shoot up little kids or go nuts with a gun in a movie theater are mental cases. But these are normal people. And fucking students!

OK.

I am still optimistic. And it still breaks my heart that people could be so cruel.

Labels: animals, ecology, nature

FACTOID

Did you know that John McCain got more votes than Mitt Romney?

This must surely rankle.

Also, President Obama didn't just win, he became just the second of the last ten presidents to win a majority in two presidential elections (Reagan was the other).If there is any doubt about this being a landslide for Obama, let it disappear.

Did you ever see a landslide? Scary. This one is in Italia.

Labels: nature, Romney

RUNNING THE ROAD

Suddenly road runners!

We have a family living nearby. A mom and a pop and at least one baby.

They are running all over our quarter of the complex.

I wonder if people are feeding them. Cat food is very good. Of course they will never leave if that is done so as more kids come they will not go out of the territory.

They are quite inquisitive and nearly fearless. Of course there are no predators except, perhaps, Booker. And they know all about him. They come in the yard and he barks at them. They fly, reluctantly, up to the garage roof and look down. They give him the rattle/buzz sound.

Soon I expect to see some Acme explosives come down at him.

I do not think that even a cat will take them on. They would not back down and their bill will do some serious damage. To say nothing of the spurs on their feet.

They are great fun to watch mostly, I think, because they watch us back. We are extremely interesting to them.

A great social contract.

Labels: birds, nature

SUNDOWN

We just got back from walking through the thirty minute peak of the solar eclipse.

It started to get that brownish tinge about 615 and then darker, darker until the peak at 638.

No total dark.

We watch the shadows. They take the shape of the crescent. Quite spectacular.

Our shadows show like we have fringe on the bottom of the image.

We haven't seen anything like this since maybe 20 years ago in Boston.

No. We didn't know about it soon enough to get glasses for it.

Maybe next time. I will be 96.

Booker didn't get it. "What the shit Dads? Why all the excitement. My shadow has a furry look to it all the time".

Labels: astronomy, nature

NATURE

Sometimes, occasionally, we get to see a miracle of nature.

Of course I live in a beautiful place. The mountain(s), the desert, all that. And I am in awe.

But today, just in a small pocket of time, we were granted a look into something other, a world we don't really understand. Nature in the raw.

We went on our Sunday threesome walk today. The standard one that ends, on its third leg, with a walk through a huge golf course. Hardly natural but still very nice.

As we turned the corner we saw geese. Then more geese, and after that a lot of geese. They covered the links from one end to the other.

Some were at rest. Others strutted along looking for what? In the grass. Bugs maybe.

Still others seemed to be talking with one another in small groups.

Clearly these were the wild geese. On their way for the winter. And they stopped here overnight or longer for a rest and a feed.

The few that live on the courses here do not have the wild duck charisma. A wave of energy passed over these guys. Beautiful.

And then, all that I knew about geese and their flight began to cross my mind. As though they were telling their story, a hard one, and I was listening. Some of what I heard I had never heard or felt before. A visceral knowledge.

John and I talked a bit about whether they know where they are.

I know that they do.

Not in the "I am here in Palm Springs having a great time, wish you were here" sense. But more that they are grounded where they are supposed to be right now and when it is time, they will know that they are to lift off for the next place and they will know where they are in that place. Just as they are supposed to.

I don't mean to make a big thing out of this but it is, in its own way, an awesome thing that they just know. A great wisdom.

And that this wisdom is in the flock. No one bird knows the whole thing but collectively they are of a mind that has transversed centuries of their coming and going.

If I can sit with that and ponder for just a little while that this world takes care of itself. Their world, my world. All I need to do is be where I am and then I will know where I am to go next. Others of me will tell me. It will arise within my self.

And so on.

Infinity approaches.

Well, enough of that. Back to normal life! (rim shot and out).

Labels: nature

ALL WET

I had to clean the fountain in the courtyard again today.

It gets a lot of dust out of the air as well as algae buildup to say nothing of the birdshit.

What the fountain really is, as it turns out, is a birdbath.

I love the tinkiling, soothing sounds of the water. But the main attraction is the birds.

They come, big and small, to drink and to wallow in the water, flutter their wings, take a full sits bath and for some, sit on the top of the bubbler as though it was a bidet.

At least that is what it looks like.

Quite a show.

I have figured out the intricacies of the pump and the length of the tube and how to clean the pump well enough to keep things to the full bubble.

Cleaning is easy. I hose down the center pipe to get out anything caught in there and then just siphon the water out, mop with rags, clean off the algae where necessary and refill.

Routine. It takes only about twenty minutes.

And it is really worth it to see a bird stick its ass on the bubbler and flap its wings with water going absolutely everywhere. I think that this is the main reason I have to refill the fountain once a day.

Labels: condo, nature

DISASTER PORN

At first I, understandably, wanted to see what had happened.

The tsunami. The aftermath of the earthquake.

Then, I found that I was looking at the same footage on various web sites, again and again.

I couldn't get enough cars rolling over end to end. Buildings floating and crashing into other buildings. Water pouring over dikes. The power of it all.

It was similar to the films we saw of the tsunami of a few years ago but much, much bigger.

I felt the same fascination that I used to have as a kid when I would build sand castles and let them be enveloped by the sea. Or go down to the stream below our house and watch objects float to their "destruction".

Then, I saw the people. Not only the people who were still, foolishly perhaps, filming and spectating but bodies. Real people floating by. In the cars, in the houses, in the water.

Suddenly there was a new dimension. This was not so attractive. These people were dying. I was watching it happen.

I recoiled.

The attraction to keep watching was undeniably strong.

And I broke off.

I could see myself looking for worse, more dramatic, closer in views.

Disaster porn.

Yesterday, I saw a video labeled something like "the plight of Japan's animals" with a photo of a dog sitting waiting for a master who would not come back.

That did it.

Done. Over. Finished.

Now, the living and bereaved would be in the next wave of vid-hunting. No. I won't go there.

And I haven't.

Today, the NYTimes did have a feature on the shelters and the readiness of Japan for events like this. Very prepared.

But not for this much. Not for the nuclear. In fact they are unprepared for the final blow and understating the threat.

There are no videos for radiation. It is just there and it will have its effect and we don't know when or how so far.

There is a decency involved here. The voyeurism, maybe that is it more than anything, doesn't reach as far fs there is no visible suffering.

So I am on a moratorium. I have not sent my contribution. Where? No one can say, yet, where and how the money will be used. If I give to the Red Cross they still would not say that it is going to Japan. It is the old Red Cross trick. "Give for events like the Japan quake and flood and so on. Into the RC coffers is more like it. The Red Cross is a near racket.

How to respond. If not with morbid curiosity, how?

Just be a witness. Read. Be careful about looking. Meditate and pray. Learn from it. The power of nature. The weakness and arrogances of man.

Labels: nature

REAL WORLD

With the "flat earth society" headed towards Washington D.C., It is worth looking at some real life just a few miles from their new doorstep.

Many Norfolk residents hope their problems will serve as a warning.

“We are the front lines of climate change,” said Jim Schultz, a science and technology writer who lives on Richmond Crescent near Ms. Peck. “No one who has a house here is a skeptic.”

Meanwhile, the GOPs fiddle while Rome floods.

Rep. Joe Barton (TX), that intellectual giant who chided the government for blaming BP, says that his god made the world and will protect it for man's enjoyment. Nothing to worry about here. Either his god or he is an idiot.

Another GOoPer says that CO2 isn't a poison gas because it is in the air we breathe in and out. Put him in one of those humane slaughter tanks with all CO2 and see how he makes out with the good air.

These bastards are not all dimwits. Some are wily.

They are all beholden to the energy interests who will fight this thing down to the last gasp. Theirs and ours.

The question is when we get to the tipping point.

Norfolk is tipping.

Some of this cannot be saved even now. It is bad money after good. The most valuable real estate becomes worthless.

Soon, enough will be losing by this that there will be a huge outcry. Can it be soon enough?

It is too bad that we have to depend on economic necessity to dictate what should be thoughtful, science based decisions.

Right now, I would put my money on the energy guys and advise the real estate interests, mostly little guys, to move back from the edge.

Labels: criminal morons, nature, republican whack jobs

IT DIDN'T PAN OUT

Where Dams Once Stood, Prospectors Spur Anger

This is a western issue.

When we came to California over a decade ago, we drove and across the country and tried to stay off the interstates as much as we could.

A frequent sight were, usually, individual people down in a gorge, along a creek, with pans in their hands, working through the water. Panning for gold.

I had never seen this.

There were more panners than fisherman and, of course, that is the point of this article. Where there is panning there are probably no fish.

And so on.

I guess some of the panning gets pretty elaborate. We didn't really see that.

Of course, it doesn't happen here. No streams to pan and when there is water, it is going by so fast you wouldn't get to hold a pan in the torrent.

Panning. Get rich quick. Maybe this is also a hard-times thing. But probably not. Times weren't hard when we drove here.

Labels: environment, nature

CONFESSION TIME

I know this is sick, but there is a part of me that is always a little disappointed that a hurricane or earthquake didn't do as much damage as expected.

And it isn't because my name is somehow involved with the current storm.

It is just that with all the hoopla on the telly and all there is a bit of anticlimax to find out that the storm lost power and that damage wasn't as great as expected and that it didn't hit full on but sort of glanced the coast. Or something.

On the other hand, I am sick with upset when the Katrinas happen or the Haiti shake.

I can't really account for this.

It seems sinful in a way.

I have heard other people confess this kind of insensitivity and desire for mayhem.

Maybe it is in the lower part of the brain or something.

I mean, there are really enough horrible things happening in the world, most perpetrated by other humans, that we don't need a natural disaster to be greater than expected for fun and enjoyment.

A bit of the dark side that I don't like to admit is there inside my soul. Mr. Sweetness and Light.

I am not sitting here hoping that it hits New England slam in the middle. I have friends and family there after all. It is not abstract.

I don't know anyone in the Carolinas.

Labels: nature, weather

SEXY RAYS

One of the best displays at the Long Beach Aquarium is the manta ray pool where you can sit and pet the rays as they swim by.

It is not as though the rays are made to do this. They have plenty of space. But they swim to the maze and then go by slowly and sort of dip in and out of the water like a dog that is reaching her neck up to be scratched.

It feels good for the humans too.

Now, more ray news.

Is it a bird? Is it a plane? No, it's a flying mobula ray soaring high off the Mexican shore

These are big cousins of the ones that I saw, I think. Still, the same fun thing going on. Pretty spectacular.

They say that it is all about sex. Having pet a lot of manta rays in my time I can accept that. It is a very sensual, bonding experience.

Labels: fun, nature

SLO MO LIGHTNIN'

It is hard to see the numbers but this is about two seconds of real time slowed down to, well a long time. Note the one flash holds all the time whilst the others dance.

God's fireworks.

We have mostly heat lightning here but when there has been a real electrical storm we could not see it. We were too close to the mountains where the action was/is.

Now, since we are out in the valley some, I expect to see me some lightnin' shows. This is the time of year for it.

We came here in July and there were some really loud thundercrackers the first year. Dry ones. The noisest. No wet to absorb the sound.

Thanks to Dave for the movies.

Labels: nature

WOW! THIS IS JUST BEAUTIFUL

Helping another guy out.

Labels: nature