Aerie Report, November 6, 2009

Went through my PT this morning without a hitch and very, very little pain. Which is good, BTW. Everything seems to be getting back to normal--or at least what passes for normal--on my left knee. With two more sessions on the calender for next week, I might even surpass the range of motion I had before I slipped on that $(#*%^(*^ rock or root. I may have been compensating for a bum right ankle from years and years ago and tightening up my left ankle's tendons as well as those in the knee. Oh, I'm not ready to climb Mt. Washington--or even Katahdin, but things are definitely looking up.

******

With the bird feeding season underway, I got my digiscoping equipment out for the first time in months only to discover that the battery in the Nikon Coolpix P1 that I have mounted to the scope had died. No fear! I had a spare. I popped the spare in and the camera fired right up but needed to have all the settings for date, time, etc. redone. Bummer. Took me a bit to get that all done and remount the camera on the scorpe but it's ready to use now.

Except for one little problem.... The dead battery. I went looking for the recharger for that battery, a recharger that was put in a very safe place several months ago, but Can. Not. Find. IT! I spent several hours opening every single door and cabinet in the living area, looking in every basket and bag, searching the basement desk and boxes that have been moved from the living room to the basement. No luck. So I did it all again. Still no luck.

Finally, I went on line and found someone still selling that particular recharger at a reasonable price and who was willing to ship for free. It will take a week to 10 days to get here, but as soon as it does, I know for sure I will find the one that was put away oh so safely.

Happens all the freakin' time.

******

Speaking of rechargers.... Why is it that every single electrical device, be it mobile phone, camera (and each brand/model of camera at that), walkie talkie, flashlight, etc., that has a rechargeable battery either takes a different style of battery or has a different recharger it needs to be plugged into? Why can't there be some standardization in batteries and rechargers? In my search I must have come across five or six different rechargers that we need to use on devices we currently own PLUS two or three for devices we no longer possess. AND NONE OF THEM ARE INTERCHANGEABLE, every single one is unique to a particular device/battery. Madness!

******

We had a dusting of snow on the ground this morning with a temperature of just 28 degrees for the second straight day. It did warm to just over 45 degrees in the warm, beautiful sunshine of this afternoon but with the sky absolutely clear, the temp will drop like a stone tonight. They are promising a gorgeous weekend with the daytime highs reaching the 60s on Sunday and again on Monday before they fall back to the 40s for a spell. Only a tiny chance of precip in the forecast for Tuesday but the rest of the 10-day is sunny, sunny, sunny.

Jungle Trader Packs Up His Tent

Going through my Favorites links the last few days and I note that the Jungle Trader has pulled up stakes and moved on. Always a source of links to the weird and unusual, his reports on our wacky, wild world will be missed.

Where will I go now fro news on lions, tigers, bears, elephants, and pirates?

He's actually going to be starting up TWO new business ventures! Either he knows something or he's a brave, brave soul...and based upon his little sidebar statement of his past, it might seem the latter is more probable.

New Apple Products (?)

Got it via email:

Apple announced today that it has developed a breast implant that can store and play music. The iTit will cost from $499 to $699, depending on cup and speaker size.

This is considered a major social breakthrough, because women are always complaining about men staring at their breasts and not listening to them.

Some Guys are Born Lucky

I got an email from my son, Rick, in Portland telling me of the hunting adventures of his co-worker...

So my Co-worker Tim (He's my mentor I spend a lot of time in the truck with him) is a bow hunter, and a smoker. A menthol light smoker. He's had a number of deer over the years but he's never shot an elk. The General Manager, Ray, would constantly make fun of Tim calling him a butt-hacker and telling Tim that he would never get an elk, they will be able to smell him from miles away.

During elk season Tim took a week off and went with his buddies into the cascades. They set up camp in the corner of a farm and planned on mountain biking down the closed logging roads to were they would hunt. When they set up camp the farmer pointed across the road to a little creak and said, "You should try over there. I see elk over there all the time."

Tim and his buddies proceed to spend the next few days biking miles out of camp into the mountains in their search for elk. Nothing. On the fourth or so day they were all exhausted of hunting (and biking) and decided to have a camp day.

So there they were playing cards and drinking beer. All. Day. Long. When they heard a noise from across the road.

"I'm gonna go check that out" says Tim, grabbed his bow and meandered nosily to the other side of the road.

And lo and behold he came back 15 minutes later and told his crew he was going to need help. Tim got his first cow elk. At camp. With a bow. While drunk. Right were the farmer said to look.

Rick

What can you say. Sometimes the critters around a farm are really, really stupid.

I'm Well Rested This Morn.

Got a lot of sleep last night. Started early to bed and stayed there well past 7 AM. Thanks, Matsui!

Yanks win 7-3 and Matsui has 6 RBI? And Matsui, with just 13 plate appearances, becomes the Series MVP? God, I hate the designated hitter!

Seriously though, congratulations to Hideki Matsui on being selected as the MVP. He's been one of the few in the last couple of years who has gone out and done his job on the field and been a real professional off the field as well. And he's done this since June 15, 2005 on a pair of bad knees that keep him from playing in the outfield. Without the DH, he would have been forced out of the game. I still don't like that particular rule (the DH), but it has certainly preserved the careers of many pure hitters.

Talkin' Baseball

Tonight I sit back and watch at least the first six orr seven innings of THE game. Although, if Pedro and the Phillies fall more than three runs behind early on, I'll probably chug my beer and head for bed with a book in hand.

It's not that I'm a Phillies Phan, anything but. No, I'm a die hard anti-Yankees Fan. I thought Damn Yankees was a documentary. I discovered baseball fandom in 1962 when the Mets were born. Prior to that date, I didn't have a baseball team. Born in 1949, I could have been a Dodgers or Giants fan, but those teams had left NYC in 1957, about the time would have been getting into baseball. Living in northern New Jersey, the only team on radio or TV and in the newspapers day in and day out from 1958 through 1961 were those damn, insufferable, Yankees.

Oh, individual Yankee players were fine. I liked Yogi (really, who didn't!) and enjoyed the M & M boys (Maris and Mantle for those who need to ask) and their great year of 1961. Elston Howard, Whitey Ford, Boyer...each was an excellent player and had tremendous skills that were, well, admirable. It was the Yankee TEAM that I couldn't stand. Never did like bullies and that's what they seemed to be to me. They beat everyone!

They still do. What is it up to now? Forty (40) American League titles, 26 World Series Championships? Something like that. Pretty obscene for a team that came to NYC in 1903 as the Highlanders. (The name was changed to Yankees in 1913.) One hundred six years and they've got nearly 40% of the American League titles. Between 1949 and 1964 the freakin' Yankees were in the World Series 14 times! That's 14 times in 16 years! AND they won five in a row between 1949 and 1954.

It still gets my goat that so much was made of the Yankees return to the World Series after an absence of nine years. Cry me a freakin' river!

I still hate the Phillies. But for tonight--and hopefully tomorrow night, I'll be rooting for them like crazy.

Aerie Report, November 4, 2009

Twas a chilly, chilly morning here at the Aerie. Crisp white frost coated all surfaces as the temperature dipped to 28 degrees. But then the sun came out and things warmed nicely--all the way up to 45 degrees late his afternoon. (See, that's how things work. When the sun doesn't shine things get cool. When the sun pops out, they warm up. Works that way in the long term, too. So don't hand me any of this AGW stuff. 'Kay?)

They say we may get a few light snow showers late tonight, but they won't amount to anything. Then it will be fair in the morning but even more likely rain and snow showers will arrive late in the day into tomorrow night. We'll see.

******

Spent another morning at the therapist's giving my knee a thorough workout. It's feeling real, really good right now. I'm even able to go up and down the steps almost like a real person. None of this one-step-at-a-time stuff.

In fact, I felt so good after my session today, I went out after lunch and raked the leaves from the yard. As we get closer to the first snowfall that may actually stay around until April, it became a priority to get the leaves off the lawn. Except for the heavy frost this morning it's been relatively dry the last two days and this afternoon the wind was virtually calm. The lack of moisture and calm winds meant that conditions were excellent for raking and hauling leaves.

It's another one of those mindless tasks like pushing a lawn mower or a broom, that lends itself to contemplative pursuits. Today I merely thought of what i was doing and how to lessen the impact on my knee and lower back. Funny, the back has stated to hurt more than the knee the last few days. Probably due to the way I've been walking on eggshells as I favor the left leg. Or the seats I've been plopping myself into to work on the computer and watch sports on TV. (I confess! I slouch in my seat something fierce even though I know it's bad for my back.)

The task of moving leaves took me 2 1/2 hours today. Normally I would have been finished in one--maybe one and a half. But I was not going to rush anything. Besides, I had nothing else to do.

Watch Out for Entrepreneurial Dolphins

Smart critter!

At the Institute for Marine Mammal Studies in Mississippi, Kelly the dolphin has built up quite a reputation. All the dolphins at the institute are trained to hold onto any litter that falls into their pools until they see a trainer, when they can trade the litter for fish. In this way, the dolphins help to keep their pools clean.

Kelly has taken this task one step further. When people drop paper into the water she hides it under a rock at the bottom of the pool. The next time a trainer passes, she goes down to the rock and tears off a piece of paper to give to the trainer. After a fish reward, she goes back down, tears off another piece of paper, gets another fish, and so on. This behaviour is interesting because it shows that Kelly has a sense of the future and delays gratification. She has realised that a big piece of paper gets the same reward as a small piece and so delivers only small pieces to keep the extra food coming. She has, in effect, trained the humans.

Her cunning has not stopped there. One day, when a gull flew into her pool, she grabbed it, waited for the trainers and then gave it to them. It was a large bird and so the trainers gave her lots of fish. This seemed to give Kelly a new idea. The next time she was fed, instead of eating the last fish, she took it to the bottom of the pool and hid it under the rock where she had been hiding the paper. When no trainers were present, she brought the fish to the surface and used it to lure the gulls, which she would catch to get even more fish. After mastering this lucrative strategy, she taught her calf, who taught other calves, and so gull-baiting has become a hot game among the dolphins.

[Full story here.]

I've commented on the referring sites that this dolphin understands capitalism better than most, if not all, of our Democratic Congress Critters. She recognizes the value of paper money (her collected litter) and has perfected a method of investment in the future (tearing off just a small piece of paper at a time and saving a fish to use as bait for the next sea gull) that works for her.

(h/t to both Tyler Cowen @ Marginal Revolution, who posted it first, and Bitter @ Snowflakes In Hell who directed readers there.)

Got this via email...

They say riding a bike is a skill you never forget once you've learned how. THis guy takes bike riding to a whole new level(s).

As the email said: "I wonder what his Mother must be thinking when the says he is just going off to ride his bike!!!"

Election Day, 2009

Go out and exercise your right to vote. But, please, listen to the voices in your head. They have to be better than the sign posted on this corner.


see more Epic Fails

There were few choices on the ballot here in north-central PA. Most of the candidates were running unopposed and there were no questions to be decided. Certainly nothing as dramatic as Virginia, New Jersey, or NY-23. Still, Terry and I made a morning of it by having breakfast out (Grandma's Kitchen in Mansfield) and picking up 10 50-pound bags of sunflower seeds and a dozen suet cakes for the birds before casting our ballot.

To Rehash MY Wounded Knee Saga...

To recap (that's a knee joke, son) the saga of my knee.

On the morning of Friday, October 23, I took my muzzle loader out for a short walk in the woods behind the Bolt Hole in the Adirondacks. It had rained pretty goo the night before and the wet leaves, rocks and mossy roots made the footing quiet but treacherous. About 300 yards into my walk, my left foot slipped on a moss covered root and I wrenched my left knee severely enough to fall. I didn't crack my knee on anything but fell on my right side. As I went down, however, I heard a nasty, nasty sound from my left knee. When I tried to get up, a shooting pain in the knee forced me back to the ground...twice. Realizing I had to get back to the cabin somehow, I resorted to using my rifle as a cane and hobbled back to the cabin.

Two hours later, after the ice pack I had placed on the knee had warmed to body temperature, the knee was not feeling any better so I grabbed a crutch from the store room and headed down to Utica and the Faxton-St. Luke's Medical facility where I spent the entire afternoon waiting, getting examined, X-rayed, diagnosed and prescribed medication. (But mostly waiting.)

While in the waiting room, I called Terry and told her to get up to the Bolt Hole post haste. I knew my hunting was over and that I would have to get back to the Aerie. I could drive, but loading the truck was going to be a b*tch by myself--especially since Saturday's weather was supposed to be a real gully washer. Terry got to the Bolt Hole around 7 PM and we discussed our options over dinner. Saturday morning we loaded both the Tundra and Terry's Jeep with all my gear and the food that couldn't stay and headed back to PA.

Monday I saw my local GP and got his opinion. He concurred with the ER doc at Faxton-St. Luke's that it was a severe strain/sprain and that I should start Physical Therapy ASAP. Which I did on Tuesday morning, October 27.

Now, four sessions of PT later, the knee is feeling much much better. They've got me doing all kinds of exercises to keep it limber and build up the muscles around the knee. I'm scheduled for two more PT sessions this week, the final one being on Friday. We'll see how much the knee progresses by then and determine how many--if any--more sessions I will need.

Thanks to those of you who have followed these words and who have wished me well.

Week 10: The Top 25 (more or less) and their Opponents

Week 10 has arrived and we still have seven undefeated teams in the FBS ranks. (On the other end, there are four teams still looking for their first win: New Mexico (0-8), Rice (0-8), Eastern Michigan (0-8) and Western Kentucky (0-8).) There are two marquee games this week with #3 Alabama hosting #9 LSU and #11 Penn State hosting #15 Ohio State. Only ‘Bama looks to be putting its unblemished record on the line. (The rankings are from the AP/Coaches Poll/CBSSports 120. Those in parentheses are those going into week 9)


1/1/1 (1/1/2) Florida (8-0) The Gators will host the Commodores of Vanderbilt (2-7).

2/2/2 (3/3/3) Texas (8-0) The Longhorns host the UCF Knights (4-3).

3/3/3 (2/2/1) Alabama (8-0) The Tide will host the #9 LSU Tigers (7-1).

4/7/4 (5/7/5) Cincinnati (8-0) The Bearcats will host Connecticut (4-4).

5/5/6 (6/5/8) Boise State (8-0) The Broncos will play at the home of the Louisiana Tech Bulldogs (3-5)on Friday night.

6/4/8 (8/6/6) TCU (8-0) The Horned Frogs will play on the coast against the San Diego State Aztecs (4-4).

7/8/7 (10/12/11) Oregon (7-1) The Ducks are on the road against the Stanford Cardinal (5-3).

8/6/5 (7/8/4) Iowa (9-0) The Hawkeyes will host the Northwestern Wildcats (5-4).

9/9/9 (9/9/9) LSU (7-1) The Tigers will be on the road against the #3 Alabama Crimson Tide (8-0).

10/11/11 (11/11/13) Georgia Tech (8-1) The Yellow Jackets will host the Demon Deacons of Wake Forest (4-5).

11/10/10 (12/10/10) Penn State (8-1) The Nittany Lions will host the #15 Ohio State Buckeyes (7-2).

12/13/12 (4/4/7) Southern California (6-2) The Trojans will play at the Arizona State Sun Devils (4-4).

13/15/16 (15/16/18) Houston (7-1) The Cougars will be playing at the Tulsa Golden Hurricane (4-4).

14/14/15 (16/17/17) Pittsburgh (7-1) The Panthers Will host the Syracuse Orange (3-5).

15/12/13 (17/15/15) Ohio State (7-2) The Buckeyes travel to Happy Valley to play the #11 Penn State Nittany Lions (8-1).

16/17/14 (18/18/16) Miami (Fla.) (6-2) The Hurricanes will host the Virginia Cavaliers (3-5).

17/16/17 (19/19/19) Utah (7-1) The Utes will host the New Mexico Lobos (0-8).

18/18/21 (13/13/12) Oklahoma State (6-2) The Cowboys will be at Iowa State Cyclones (5-4).

19/21/20 (25/25/NA) Notre Dame (6-2) The Irish will host Navy (6-3).

20/20/19 (22/23/24) Oklahoma (5-3) The Sooners will play at the home of the Cornhuskers of Nebraska (5-3).

21/19/18 (23/24/23) Arizona (5-2) The Wildcats will host the Washington State Cougars (1-7).

22/24/24 (14/14/14) Virginia Tech (5-3) The Hokies go on the road Thursday night to play the East Carolina Pirates (5-3).

23/23/NA (NA/NA/NA) California (6-2) The Golden Bears host the Oregon State Beavers (5-3).

24/22/23 (NA/NA/NA) Wisconsin (6-2) The Badgers will play in Indiana against the Hoosiers (4-5).

25/25/22 (NA/NA/NA) Brigham Young (6-2) The Cougars play at the Cowboys of Wyoming (4-4).

NA/NA/25 (NA/NA/NA) South Florida (6-2) The Bulls will be idle this week.

World's Largest Model Railway

This is an amazing video tour of the Miniatur Wunderland in Hamburg, Germany.



The idea of a model railroad under the Christmas tree is as old a Lionel. It's an idea that has been displaced by computers and video games for the most part.

Dad and I had a small set up in our basement once upon a time. Ours was a Lionel set with one of those engines that would puff smoke from its stack when you put a special little pill in there. The entire set up was just large enough to fit on a 4' x 8' sheet of plywood. When I entered my teens and started to show a lack of interest, Dad decided to sell the whole set to a co-worker without asking me. (He would do the same to the TR-3 we rebuilt, but for a different reason. I'm guessing the insurance cost. Man, I wish I still had that car!)

There are still many active model railroading clubs including one in this area (well, actually, Elmira) that occasionally puts up a sizable display in one of the vacant mall shops. (And if you get the chance, Roadside America off Route 22 in Shartlesville, PA is still a cool place to go.) Most of those clubs have switched over to HO-Scale for both the economy of space and dollars. I started purchasing HO-Scale trains when Chef Boyardee started putting out sets that could be bought at discount with label redemption. I've still got more than half a dozen engines, over 50 cars (also known as "rolling stock"), a few buildings, and enough track to really, really interest the cats should I decide to set them up.

Aerie Report, November 2, 2009

A cold, crisp morning here at the Aerie. The temperature fell to a mere 31 degrees over night as the clouds finally disappeared and the full moon shown brightly. The ground--and anything else that stood still long enough--was coated with a layer of frost when I looked out the windows. With the cloudless sky, that won't last long. The soft touch of the sun's rays will send easily melt the frost and then, should the air remain as calm as it is currently, we'll see the moisture curl up from the roof, car, and other dark surfaces as ghostly wisps.

******

What the heck happened to my Giants and Jets? After great starts, they have both fallen apart. The Giants got trounced by the Eagles yesterday in a game in which it looked like the Eagles actually tried to hold the score down. As for the Jets...Come on guys!! TWO kick offs returned for TDs? Give me a break! Still, aside from those two plays, the Jets only gave up only about 160 yards of total offense. 160 yards! A team should lose easily if it only gains 160 yards, right? Damn! I hate Ted Ginn!

******

I've been hobbling around pretty well on this bum knee over the weekend. I even felt well enough to go out to dinner with Terry at the Penn Wells Hotel in Wellsboro Sunday. Afterward we went to the Gemeiner Center for an art show that was opening. Mostly wildlife art and really, really good.

Today I go back to the therapist for more torture therapy. I've two more appointments this week. We'll see ho it feels on Friday before deciding on whether I need more or not.

Idaho 35, Louisiana Tech 34

The resurgence of Idaho football continues after their disaster last week in Nevada (70-45 loss). Playing at home in the Kibbie Dome, the Vandals opened the show with something that seemed extremely common this Halloween weekend: a 98-yard kickoff return for a TD.

They promptly gave that score back with interest as they fell behind to the Louisiana-Tech Bulldogs 21-7 at the end of the first quarter. On the theory that slow and steady wins the race (ask the tortoise), the Vandals scored 7 in the second, and 7 in the third while holding the Bulldogs to just 7 points in the second, to draw to 28-21 and set up a wild fourth quarter.

In the fourth quarter, the Bulldogs' Myke Compton scored on a 1-yard run but then they missed the extra point giving them a 34-21 lead.

The Vandals then came back with two scores of their own, the final coming with just 52 seconds left, and, more importantly, made both extra points for a 35-34 victory.

Next up for the Vandals is a home game with the Fresno State Bulldogs(5-3, 4-1).

Idaho is now 7-2 overall and 4-1 in conference and ranked 44 on the CBSSports120. Having dropped their game to Nevada (5-3, 4-0) and with Boise State (8-0, 3-0) two weeks from now, it is unlikely that the Vandals will be able to win the Western Athletic title, but their accomplishments thus far after years of frustration (when they were consistently down there around 110 of 120 or so) should get a lot of notice for Coach Robb Akey's Vandals.