Author Archives: ObbieZ

Do you recognize this bird?

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Many of you know we have been living without our bird since late spring, but occasionally he seems to send us a messenger from The Beyond. As I was digging onions from the garden this afternoon, I looked up and saw a Very Large Bird in the neighbor’s maple tree.

What kind of bird is this looking straight at us?

What kind of bird is this looking straight at us?

It was rather unusual to see this looking down from basketball-passing distance, so I had to share the experience.

I ran into the house to tell RoZ, expecting it to be gone before she could look out the kitchen window. It was still there.

I grabbed the camera. Under normal circumstances, the bird would look at me as if to say, “No pictures!” and fly off. The bird stayed there, posing for several pictures.

 

What kind of bird is this looking toward our left?

What kind of bird is this looking toward our left?

We have all kinds of crazy fantasies about what kind of bird this could be. It stood about 20-25 inches (50-60 cm) tall, so it’s a very big bird. Could it be a redtail hawk? We’ve seen those, and they’ve never looked this big.

Another thought is that it might be a peregrine falcon, but it doesn’t quite match the pictures in the bird books we looked at. They do live close by.

 

What kind of bird is this looking to our right?

What kind of bird is this looking to our right?

We live in the Mississippi River flyway, a superhighway for migrating birds that gets a lot of use this time of year, so we wouldn’t be surprised if it is something strange and exotic passing thru. We know that we have readers who are far more expert than we are. Maybe one of them can tell us what kind of bird this is.

All we know is that seeing this bird this close was a very magical experience. And it was very interested in the neighborhood squirrels.

The "Oil" Viral Email

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We received it today from a friend who doesn’t normally send out messages with headings like this:

Fw: [Fwd: Fwd: Fw: Oil [Not a Joke)]]

Right-wing viral emails seem to have a lot of things in common. The four levels of “FW” is one clue, and the HUGE type in the main body is another. And why do they always carry a rude enticement like “not a joke” or “true!”?

Unlike most emails like this, it includes a linked reference: a news release from the US Geological Survey about a newly discovered oil field in the northern plains. The email screams “503 billion barrels”, while the linked reference says, “an estimated 3.0 to 4.3 billion barrels of undiscovered, technically recoverable oil.” Big difference.

The email rant then claims there are 2 trillion barrels under the Rocky Mountains (but no proof of this is offered), and goes on to complain that (paraphrasing), “those damned environmentalists are keeping us from tapping all that oil, and if you don’t raise hell about it to your congressman, then you have no right to complain about the high price of gas.”

Of course, this is all bullshit in so many ways. At current consumption rates, what we’re talking about in the plains is eight and one-half months worth of oil. And the claim of 2 trillion barrels under the Rockies is too ridiculous to even consider, otherwise every oil industry shill would be screaming to high heaven about it, but this is too over the top even for them.

But let’s consider, just for the sake of argument, what if this were true? What if there really were trillions of barrels of oil under the American West?

Just because it’s there is no reason to burn it. You [the author(s) of the “oil” email] propose that we lay waste to some of the most scenic, picturesque and beloved lands on this continent, and for what? To keep burning oil like there’s no tomorrow, and in the process guaranteeing that there’s no tomorrow.

No matter how much or how little oil we have left, we have to phase it out… we have to quit burning it. Burning oil (and coal, etc.) is sending our planet dangerously close to a climate catastrophe. We must reduce the amount of energy we need; and we must develop sustainable sources.

If you want to thrive in the energy business, let me suggest a way to tweak your business model. The REAL “Saudi Arabia” of energy in the USA is indeed in the plains and deserts, but it comes in the form of wind and sunshine. The effort you propose to exploit oil would be better spent on harnessing the wind and the sun.

Yes, there are challenges and hurdles (transportation and storage, mainly), but aren’t we Americans supposed to be the ones who proudly conquer challenges and hurdles? What ever happened to our reputation as the resourceful innovators? Surely we can figure this out. Are we going to let China or Spain show us how to run our country on sustainable energy? Whatever happened to American leadership?

We’re Americans, dammit! Let’s show the world how it’s done.

Oh, and like they say in all the viral emails, forward this to everyone in your address book, or your grandchildren may end up with a very hot and stormy world.

You Heard it Here First

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“Balloon Boy” will soon be the theme of a South Park episode, probably before Thanksgiving, but maybe as early as next week. The big question is, which South Park character will play the part of Balloon Boy?

Butters seems to fit the character of Ballon Boy, but Butters’ dad isn’t as insane of a publicity hound as Balloon Boy’s dad. Since Balloon Boy is six years old, the character closest to that age would be Ike.

I could see Ike as Balloon Boy. What do you think?

Shared Experiences

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A man on the Moon

We regret that our younger friends have missed out on the experience of looking out at the Moon early on a summer evening, knowing that there are a couple of guys standing there and looking back.

We also regret that they’ve missed out on spending mornings with Captain Kangaroo and having dinner with Walter Cronkite.

Forty years seems like a long time until you’ve lived a little bit longer than that.

The Beaver House … c. 1920 – 2009

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Beaver House 1992The Beaver House was originally built as a farm house in the Kickapoo River valley north of La Farge in the early 20th century. As most houses built during that period, its wood frame was built from large, dense and durable wood… virgin timber indigenous to the region. Many homes from that era remain sturdier than similar homes of much more recent vintage.

The Beaver House was so solid that it survived a move of nearly 20 miles, over a ridge and into the next valley along steep and winding roads. In the late seventies, construction started on a dam that would have put the Beaver House at the bottom of a lake, so the house was picked up and deposited on a piece of land in the headwaters of the Pine River valley north of Yuba.

Read on →

Dancing thru the Stars …Moon and Venus

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Something cool happened in the sky tonight.

When Venus is high in the sky after sunset, every month there is a chance that the passing crescent moon will pass close by.

But we are struggling to remember the last time we saw them this close.

Here’s the ‘wide’ look at the sky.

Twilight sky with moon and Venus

This next shot was taken at 6:30…

Moon and Venus at twilight: 6:30 pm CST

At about 8, I went out to get another picture, where you can see how much the Moon moves in an hour and a half…

Moon and Venus after dark: 8 pm CST

Sorry if you missed it!

McShame

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I could not believe this:

McCain and his wife arrived at the La Crosse Center under heavy security, including Secret Service protection and officers from the La Crosse Police Department and La Crosse County Sheriff’s Department.

McCain stepped out of a silver Chevrolet Suburban at about 10 a.m. The motorcade — which followed a short route from the Radisson — included about 20 vehicles. McCain entered the La Crosse Center on the far south end of the building, using a Jay Street entrance.

Here is the route of the 20-vehicle motorcade:

Route of McShame's motorcade

Now it’s hard to see from this picture, but there is a walkway that leads from the Radisson’s second floor to the second floor of the La Crosse Center, and it’s not that hard to find your way to the South Hall from there. I’ve been on that path several times, so it shouldn’t be too hard for a security person to show him the way.

The following map (it’s rotated a bit less than 90 degrees from the photo above) shows how to get from the walkway on the upper right to the stage at the left. The cluttered nature of the map makes the route look more difficult than it actually is.

getting to the stage without a motorcade

Total walking distance: two blocks. Do we really want a president who can’t walk two blocks, and would prefer to drive TWENTY SUVs instead?

Chewed up and Spit Out

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We just read two very moving letters by Cindy Sheehan. The first, written this morning, was a message of disgust at the Dummycratic party and its inability to stand up to Emperor Bush and stop the war. Then as the day ground on, she apparently suffered from a lot of abuse from all directions, and threw in the towel on her activist efforts.

The political bureaucracy has done what it seems to be designed to do: it has taken another good-hearted person and worn her down to the point that she has nothing left to offer:

I am going to take whatever I have left and go home. I am going to go home and be a mother to my surviving children and try to regain some of what I have lost.

Please read both letters. There’s a lot written between the lines that this country needs to learn.