Lots of Rain

 We have had a lot of rain last few days.  Enough rain to cover our normal September rainfall, even if we get no more this month.

So stop then, rain.   But it will go on another two days, or so says the weather app.

The butterfly bushes are enjoying the rain.  I watered mine now and then, when there was no rain, so they'd bloom.  The neighbors didn't, so now, with some rain, their's are blooming out like crazy and the bees and butterflies love it.

My cat yard is overgrown in Oregon Ash seedlings.  I let them grow up to about 6 to 8 feet each spring and summer, so the cats can have shade, then cut them back to the ground in the fall.

Oregon Ash grow like weeds.   The one crowding the side fence is gone.  Took three guys an hour maybe an hour and a half to cut it and chip it.  It was more an overgrown bush but the neighbor is happy now and I don't have to worry about a seedling that grew that big that fast destroying her fence from my side.

I do have to keep up on cutting the cat yard ones to ground every fall.   I've had to cut two of them once already, as they exceeded 8 feet in height and began compromising the cat yard wire.  When you think about how fast brush and trees grow in Oregons rainforest type climate zones, you can appreciate how difficult it really is to keep forests thinned and free of understory debris and brush.   Even clearing out an acre creates massive piles of debris that has to go somewhere and a ton of labor.  Imagine doing that on incredibly steep also rocky terrain in thousands of square miles of forest. In a year, its growing back too.

There are tons of people who blame governors or other politicians for not thinning the forests (they only seem to lay blame in blue states, not burning red states).  Try doing that, getting the labor needed, and a market for brush and deadfall, in thousands of acres, much of it inhospitable (steep, rocky and dangerous).  Then come up with the money to pay for it especially when federal forest service budgets and staffing have been slashed to smithereens.   

Just an observation, knowing how I hate even mowing my yard in the spring because it fricking grows like crazy.   

Check out Kona, an older gal now, through all the Oregon ash seedlings.   I've cut those off at the outside of the cat yard wire already three times this summer, so the cats can see out.

I went up to Salem to pick up two more cat houses for the trailer park from Meow Village.   Cost HCC $70 for the two well made, well insulated cat houses.  I then left them off at the trailer park.  Some people there knock themselves out to come up with excuses why they can't lift a finger to keep cats there fixed.   It amazes me.

I couldn't help but gasp at the rising gas prices.  Over $5 a gallon regular now at some stations.   I'm so thankful to have a bike now because who can afford a tank of gas anymore.  I feel like our economy and government now is composed of a bunch of whiney super rich people with issues playing with taxpayer money to get richer and build monuments to themselves.  I wish they'd all board some rocket to mars and leave us be.

Cannot Comment

 Yesterday, without warning, I realized I couldn't comment on my own blog or anyone else's.

Mostly.

Occasionally a comment would publish.

Usually, I write the comment, hit publish, a box comes up says "publishing" but never does publish.

I'm told by google (seems a little funny since google owns blogger) this is due to problems between blogger and blogspot and something like an ext ad blocker or third party cookies disabled interferes with communication so the comment is stuck in a never ending attempt to publish.  

However disabling all ad blockers and ensuring third party cookies are allowed did not help.

I don't get why that would suddenly change.  Google gave me all kinds of shit fixes, many suited only to computer whizes.   Last night I cleared cache, history, everything.  Which did not help either.

Maybe blogger and blogspot are having a marital spat.  Breaking up is hard to do.   Um, seek help, you two, settle your tiff and get back to work.

That's my advice.  Because fuck it.  Most of us care so little about our online life we can dump it with  ease and go our way. 

This video shows what happens when I try to comment.  I click publish, a box pops up says publishing, but that box remains and it never does publish.   Anybody know what to do?    

Lake before Rain

 The temp is going to drop ten degrees tomorrow and then it rains.  It's supposed to rain six of the next 9 days.  Great.  60's.  Great.

I took the five cats in my garage up to the clinic this morning.  I came home, saw the tree man, who gave a great estimate and I shook his hand and he's coming tomorrow.  Neighbor offered to pay it all, can you believe that?  

She's nice.

Anyhow, I thought then, "this may be my last chance.".   I still don't have a pump that will work to pump up the blow up.  So I threw the hardshell kayak into the back of the car and took off for the lake.

I had a great time.  It was like super perfect there.  I swam for awhile.  It was fabulous!

When I realized it was getting late, and knew I had to be at my place when my friend who picked up the cats, brought three of the five cats to my place, I scrambled into action.  I'd been lazing around on the kayak, swimming. That's when I had to kick it into gear and paddle fast as I could from the northeast on the lake, across it and to the boat ramp.  I will be sore tomorrow.  Serves me right for having too much fun and forgetting the time.

At the boat ramp, I saw a cat friend and her family launching their motor boat.  If I'd had more time, they would have given me a ride on a floatie behind their boat. Shoot.  Next time.

My boogie board got away from me after I went for a swim.  It's old, and the foam inside the cloth skin is broken in several spots.  The cloth skin itself has holes and the leash velcro I wear around my wrist no longer velcros.  Might be time to search out another.  I found that one, long time ago, right in the lake, left behind.  Been using it for years and years.

I got back and here came my friend with the cats.  She'd returned the middle of nowhere kitten on the way home.

Fisher--the last kitten needing fixed from there.  Another girl.  Her sister is Puffin, fixed last week. All the cats are fixed at that place now.  For now.

My friend volunteered to pick the cats up because she'd caught one of the cats involved up in Sweet Home.  Thomas appeared to have an eartip already and I just about had told her he was already fixed, take him home, when she brought him last night.  But instead I took him into my bathroom and pulled him out of the trap and felt him up.  Sure enough--he had balls.  So off he went to the clinic this morning with the others.  At the clinic, they decided to check him out themselves since that left ear sure looks tipped.   They came out grinning.  Sure enough, Thomas still had balls but Thomas doesn't have balls anymore.   (sad face)

Then there were the three boys from the Albany couple--Dexter, Frown and OJ.  I posted photos of Dexter and Frown already.  Here is OJ.

So that was my day.   I'm trying not to waste a day of whats left of summer.

Hooked!

 I had netflix on my phone.  

Netflix started offering games and I immediately became a Mahjong Solitaire addict.   

That game is frightfully addictive.   Along with the background sounds of running water.  Running water sounds are addictive enough to me.

My brother called night before last.  Asked me to join him and his wife down at Dorena Reservoir to ride a bike trail there.   He gave me an electric bike for my 70th birthday.   It came about the time my knee went south so I hadn't ridden it but once before.

They got their electric bikes a few years ago and even rode the road around Crater Lake, when they close it to all but walkers and bikers in the fall.

I faked bravado when I said yes to going, but inside I was worried about how I'd do, riding a bike long distance, when I'd barely ridden one in 20 years.  

What if I couldn't stay balanced or do I know the ins and outs of this new bike enough?  I aired up the tires, checked the brakes, read over the manual again that morning, then folded it in two, which it does easily, and with some effort (it weighs 80 lbs) hoisted into the back of the car and took off south to Dorena Lake.

We ate a picnic lunch at one of the parks along the reservoir.   Then we took off on our bikes on the bike path.  I didn't have any issues at all. In fact I had a grand time.  It was so fun to ride that bike and the electric assist was easy to use.  I had it on the lowest setting.  It has a thumb throttle to engage and to regulate how engaged the battery is.  When there was a vacant straight stretch I switched it to second from highest assist setting and sped up to 25 mph.  Not for long because there were cracks and bumps in the bike path that could have sent me sailing at that speed.

Mostly I peddled on my own power until the end, when my legs had become rubber and I only pretended to peddle then, when I saw people along the path, because I was on total electric assist the last few miles.

18 miles we went!  On my first ride.  Was very very fun!

I am hooked!

I got home and the Albany couple were just beginning to catch their last three remaining unfixed cats, for tomorrow's appointment.  They brought two of the boys over, they had caught, and will go for the third this evening.  They start two nights before because when catching selectively (among lots of fixed cats) unfixed adult males, who don't eat together, you need two nights to try for them.  

Here are the two they caught, now guests in my garage:  Dexter and Frown.

Dexter

Frown

Hopefully they get OJ this evening.   Also, a lady is hoping to catch a male up in Sweet Home, to bring over.  The 5th cat will be, hopefully, the third kitten from the middle of nowhere 3 kittens and their mom.  The other two kittens and mom were fixed last week.

So I will begin this week, which will include three or four rainy days in the 60's, with two new hobbies--Mahjong Solitaire and bike riding!

Black Saddlebags

 Yesterday evening, I had a wonderful thing happen.

A couple, whom I've helped with cats over the years, bought and brought me a screen door for the garage, so I could get airflow and not swelter in there and to make it safer to recuperate cats in the garage in hot summer months.

This same couple, when my car broke down years ago, loaned me one of theirs, so I could actually go to my brothers for either Christmas or Thanksgiving, I can't recall which so many years later.

They didn't need my help, when I offered, to install the screen door.  This was wise on their part.  They installed it quickly, like a team, while I sat in the zero gravity lawn chair.

While I sat there, I was astounded by small hummingbird acting things, flitting and hovering by--at least three of them.  What were they?   I couldn't get a picture.  They were too fast.  They were smaller than a hummingbird but acted like hummingbirds.   

I took a video finally and then later went through it frame by frame to see if I could find a focused shot good enough to make an id.  

Here's the frame I found that allowed me to id what I was seeing.

I uploaded it to google's ai and found out its a Black Saddlebag Dragonfly.

Wikipedia on Black Saddlebags.

 How interesting is that?   Fascinating I thought.  

The screen door is fabulous.  Gigi can peer out at the world in fresh air, when she's so inclined, although she can already get plenty in the cat yard.  Rascal, if he shows up again and lately he hasn't, can peer inside the garage too.   When he does show up, I let him in the garage now.   I'm pretty sure he has a home a block away, well really just down the block, but can't confirm.  I knocked on that door when looking for an owner when he first showed up in the area, and the guy said he had a male outside mostly cat but declined that the young black male I call Rascal was his.  But that's where I see him most.

Today it is forecast to barely reach 70 degrees out, with maybe some drizzle.   Be a nice change.

Front Porch Eclipse and Balloons

 All within 12 hours, watching the sky, from my front porch, I got to watch the lunar eclipse and this morning--balloons, from the Art and Air Festival.

One photo of the eclipse, mostly I just watched.  Handheld camera too so was happy anything showed up.

Shortly after my alarm went off this morning, I saw the balloons sailing by, from my bedroom window and returned to the front porch to watch.  

I thought it'd be cloudy today but the sun was out early

So long balloons.  They'll be out again tomorrow morning.

I was thrilled to see the eclipse in a beautifully clear and dark sky.  To enjoy balloons this morning too---just really lucky I guess.

No Plan, Just Go

 Decided to go to Waldo Lake on a whim today.  That was after I saw the weather forecast, which said today might be the last day to hit 80 in a week at least.  

My stuff was already in my car.  I was too lazy to unload after taking the board up to Foster, with my friend.  So basically I just had to get dressed and go.

But of course not everything went right.

My hand pump to air up the kayak/board broke.   I wasn't worried.  I'd also brought a rechargable electric pump.   HOwever, its hose end Halkey Roberts valve wouldn't work on my Halkey Roberts valve board receptor.  Wth!!!   

It's little twister things are too wide.  I don't know what the terminology is.  OK, found what they're called on internet--bayonet tabs.  

On top is the fitting that fits!  On the bottom, is the one that doesn't.  Bayonet tabs too wide.  Ai says don't be a ninny, shave them down with an exacto knife or box cutter.

I asked an SUVer if she had a pump and she came to help.  HOwever her Halkey Roberts was the same as the one on my electric pump hose.  However, my hand pump hose, with the correct valve fitting fit onto her pump so I used her pump and my hand pump hose and valve connection.

Ai says easiest way to fix my problem now is to use a box cutter and pare down the wide offending areas on the electric pump hose Halkey Roberts fitting.  Ok, maybe tomorrow.

I paddled down to the south end, hung out with dragon flies, then with five ducklings, now of age, whom I've encountered multiple times since they were born.  In other words, I've known them since they were babies.   They follow me sometimes now.  And they did today too.   I wonder why.  I swam a lot.  I didn't care if the clouds had come out by then.

The water was rough, as usual, in the afternoon, then calmed as usual about 4:00.  It was beautiful.  Lots of people there enjoying the beauty.  Friendly nice people.  Including a couple and their dog from Salem area.

Here are my duckling friends.   

Also my personal car, with only half the miles of the cat carrier car, is acting up.   It's got dash lights on as of today.  And the electric door locks are a mystery.  Sometimes three of them will lock when I press auto lock and sometimes only one will lock and sometimes they will not unlock when I need to get out of the car.  So its a crapshoot, wondering if I'll get locked in my car unable to get out.  That's why I carry a hammer in the car now.

Here are my dragon fly friends.

It's so beautiful there.

Ok, Waldo, hope to see you again soon.  Goodnight all.