28 March 06
Maps For The Sky
Judging from the date on the map, sometime in 1976 I acquired a 1:1,000,000 scale world aeronautical chart covering California and the Southwest. (This was probably at a stop at the long since closed Nut Tree, which was a popular roadside restaurant off of I-80 in Vacaville. It was next to an airport and also sold aviation goodies). Aeronautical charts are great fun to look at, but I don’t have any others. But now there’s a site that lets you browse aeronautical charts online—SkyVector.com. It’s good for planning imaginary flights!
(From The Map Room.)
27 March 06
Feathers of Hope Turns Three
A week and a bit after Cassandra Pages (it’s how I remember to look for this date, apart from the anniversary of the start of the Iraq War, which is mostly why we started blogging)...
26 March 06
Our Solano County Bird Square
The Napa-Solano Audubon Society recently put out a call for volunteers for their project to develop a breeding bird atlas for Solano County. In these atlases, the study region is broken up into grid cells that are searched for bird species that breed therein. I have been interested in participating in such a survey for some time now, and since we live in Solano County (though the extreme northeastern corner of the county), this is a good chance.
We have been assigned a 5 km by 5 km grid block directly south of us, in easy bicycling range of here. This block is a uniformly flat stretch of farmland. Today was our first real outing into the grid block (I took a look yesterday, but it was too windy and starting to sprinkle). It’s not sufficient just to record the presence of a bird species: instead we need to find actual evidence that the species is breeding, such as sighting them at or around a nest. We had no confirmed breeding species today, but did have three probable species, the best sighting being a pair of white-tailed kites displaying near a farmhouse. The season is just beginning, and we’ll have many more forays to come.
25 March 06
Gobblers in our Field
They don’t belong here. They have been introduced by Fish & Game for hunters. They are wreaking havoc on oak woodland ecosystems. But I do love to see them…
24 March 06
Illustration Friday: Monster
For today’s Illustration Friday topic of monster, here is a monoprint of the Flying Spaghetti Monster (may you be touched by His Noodly Appendage).
23 March 06
Avian Flu is My Life
I have a T shirt I made when I was working in Graduate Studies here at UC Davis that says “Commencement is my Life,” because it did seem to be for the months of March through mid-June every year. (I made a second one that said “Commencement is no longer my life” I’d wear the day after while I was on my way to visit DocRock who year after year conducted de-Commencement ministrations frivolous and serious, all of them necessary and all of them appreciated beyond words. Thanks Doc.)
I’m on a Yolo Audubon sub-committee organizing an Avian Flu Symposium in Davis (April 15th). It’s also becoming an increasingly time-consuming part of my work. Avian flu is predicted by scientists to arrive in North America by summer. Whether this one really does turn into a true human pathogen remains to be seen, but it seems sensible to behave as if it could. It has before. Lots of people died.
So now when we wander around the Coop we are looking at food that would keep well without refrigeration, we’re thinking about how to store it, what to do about water, how to hunker. We’re thinking about emergency preparedness. A bit late, I know, but time to start. We’re probably going to buy a much larger solar cooker, too…
21 March 06
Walking On The River
While reading World Changing, I learned there’s a neat art installation at the Sacramento Airport, entitled Flying Carpet. On the second floor bridge that goes from the parking garage to the terminal, artist Seyed Alavi has carpeted the floor with a woven aerial image of a 50-mile stretch of the Sacramento River, running from Colusa to Chico. I’ll have to check it out on my next trip to the airport!
20 March 06
Three Years On
We attended a peace vigil yesterday in Davis marking the third anniversary of the invasion of Iraq.
I have felt increasingly helpless over the course of these years. We were not able to stop the madness before it started; getting out now seems impossible. So many people dead; so many hatreds kindled; so many missing limbs. It’s overwhelming. Hope seems distant, a dream. The thing with bedraggled feathers, shot through, torn.
Yet:
Fadhil Al-Kazily, an Iraqi-born American who lives here in Davis, just last week lost his 81-year-old uncle in Mosul. His uncle was driving to pick up his wife. He was shot in his car by American soldiers.
Onstage with Fadhil was Laurie Loving, a lifetime peace activist whose son enlisted despite her attempts to dissuade him and who is now stationed in Mosul. Her horror is that her son might have been—could easily have been—the one who shot Fadhil’s uncle.
Joining them was Pat Sheehan, father of Casey Sheehan and former husband of Cindy. On St. Patrick’s Day, he said, was when the 1st Cavalry was due to come home. Not Casey. I can’t expect you to keep him in your hearts, he said, but please keep him in your minds. Do not forget. Don’t stop.
They all held hands onstage and said how the administration would like them all to hate each other. No, they said. We will not let that happen. Ever.
Fadhil stressed that occupying troops must leave NOW if there’s any hope of fixing this, and that the only way that could happen was if we all continued to work hard for peace.
May peace become our priority, not an afterthought. May it be something we work for instead of expect to happen on its own. May we not fall to despair. May we reach across divides and work together.
18 March 06
Scalawaggus
Here’s our nitwit of a tree climber, looking very carefree.
Happily last night, our landlord’s son Johnny came by at the right moment. He’s a strapping lad in his mid-thirties who’s a beekeeper by profession. He went up the stepladder to reach the first major fork in the tree, and then climbed up the branch a few more feet to reach and rescue Charlie. In appreciation we made Johnny a standing offer of a beer, but he was headed out in his truck to do something with his bees.
17 March 06
Dimwitted Cat
To speed vertically upwards about 20 feet. Then not be able to get down.
Mewing piteously while two stupid humans try to rassle with ladders, tuna flakes, and telephone calls.
Nitwit.