SNOWBIRDS: THE OTHER WHITE MEAT!
.
That statement was on a sticker on the back window of a PT Cruiser in the parking lot at the grocery store. Don’t ask me what message the sticker is supposed to convey: I have no idea. I like it, though, made me laugh out loud. I’m extremely dubious about the quality of said meat, suspect it’s dry, tough and stringy, doubt that I’ll try it.
.
SCRAMBLE
.
One of the LHC golf courses has a Sunday AM scramble for couples during the winter months and we participate when we’re in town. For you non-golfers, a scramble involves 2-4 players (4 most often) with each player taking his/her next stroke from the same location - the ‘best ball’ location of the prior shot. Does the way I explained that make sense? If not, ask any golfer for clarification, google it, whatever. Oh yeah, one other thing: there’s a rule that a foursome must use a minimum of 2 drives per player, regardless of how great or how lousy those drives may be. That rule helps level the playing field considerably.
.
The Sunday scramble group has a Christmas day tradition: The Fruitcake Scramble. We’re signed up for it. The morning will be spent playing 9 holes of golf, followed by a gift swap-lunch at a local restaurant. They no longer exchange fruitcakes but they actually did back in the day. I’ll not miss the fruitcake, already have all the patio paver bricks I need. As you may have guessed, these scramblers are retired folks and mostly the other white meat - from all over the northern US and Canada. I don’t know if the lunch is a buffet or we order off the menu; in either case, white meat will probably be a popular option - bunch of doggone cannibals!
.
Merry Christmas y’all!
Friday, December 24, 2010
Tuesday, December 21, 2010
Rain in the desert.
It's supposed to rain 1/2" during the day today, another 1/2" tonight and possibly another inch tomorrow. If that forecast is accurate, historical record averages for Dec/Jan (0.59" and 1.05" respectively) will be inundated. That means we'll have sunny weather from day after tomorrow through Jan 31st, right? Works for me.
This is only our second real rainfall since returning to LHC in late September. Rain doesn't soak in or puddle much here. Mostly, it runs down the washes and the streets and ultimately, into the lake. The residential area of LHC is akin to one side of a football stadium, sloping down to the lake and causing the rain runoff to move along right smartly
The runoff picks up tons of sand, gravel and rocks from the washes and deposits them on the streets - job security for the city road crews who spend the next several days scraping and sweeping the deposits back into the washes. A good rain is also a overtime windfall for city police cuz they need to be out and about, monitoring and shutting down as needed, those streets that are crossed by major washes. There are numerous wash-crossed streets and the flows on some are several feet deep and quite swift; drive into one of those and your trip to Walmart turns into a ride to the lake, baby! You won't actually get to the lake either, will get hung up at some culvert or whatever - but you'll have one hell of a ride while it lasts.
Jan is our wettest month historically, Feb & Mar are next, respectively at 0.9" and 0.86"; August comes in at number 4, with 0.67". I'd guess that there are about 6 heavy, shut-down-the-streets type rainfalls per year. Our elderly neighbor ladies are joining us for dinner tonight so we can all watch the deluge together.
This is only our second real rainfall since returning to LHC in late September. Rain doesn't soak in or puddle much here. Mostly, it runs down the washes and the streets and ultimately, into the lake. The residential area of LHC is akin to one side of a football stadium, sloping down to the lake and causing the rain runoff to move along right smartly
The runoff picks up tons of sand, gravel and rocks from the washes and deposits them on the streets - job security for the city road crews who spend the next several days scraping and sweeping the deposits back into the washes. A good rain is also a overtime windfall for city police cuz they need to be out and about, monitoring and shutting down as needed, those streets that are crossed by major washes. There are numerous wash-crossed streets and the flows on some are several feet deep and quite swift; drive into one of those and your trip to Walmart turns into a ride to the lake, baby! You won't actually get to the lake either, will get hung up at some culvert or whatever - but you'll have one hell of a ride while it lasts.
Jan is our wettest month historically, Feb & Mar are next, respectively at 0.9" and 0.86"; August comes in at number 4, with 0.67". I'd guess that there are about 6 heavy, shut-down-the-streets type rainfalls per year. Our elderly neighbor ladies are joining us for dinner tonight so we can all watch the deluge together.
Wednesday, December 15, 2010
Quail
Quail are the most abundant bird species in these parts. They’re all over the place and you hear their chirps all day every day, a very pleasant form of background music. Come sundown they all fly up into the trees to roost, safe from marauding coyotes.
.
Trish read up on quail, learned that they post a sentry on a high point like a fence or rock to sound an alarm if there’s danger to the covey as they forage for seeds on the ground. This raises all sorts of questions in my ever-curious mind:
1. Who appoints the sentry?
2. Is there a covey committee or birdie board that decides whose turn it is to pull duty, how long the shifts last and so on? If so, are the committee/board members elected? How often are elections held, who is eligible to vote, are there term limits?
3. Could be that birds have benevolent dictatorships rather than democracies; in what manner then is the head bird determined?
4. Maybe it’s a just a volunteer position and after a few hours the on-duty bird cheeps the message, “Hey, I’m starving here! It’s time for a new sentry. Dan, get your fat ass over here!”
5. What if Dan responds with, “Pluck you, Quentin. I just found a really good mess of seeds, my favorites, gonna snarf ‘em up.” Who does Quentin complain to? Is there a grievance committee? A union?
6. Is this a males-only position or do females pull guard duty also?
7. May gay birds be guards if they don’t ask and don’t tell?
8. If the sentry falls asleep and a cat nails one of the grazing birds, is the guilty birdie punished? In what manner?
.
Does anyone out there speak Quail?
.
Trish read up on quail, learned that they post a sentry on a high point like a fence or rock to sound an alarm if there’s danger to the covey as they forage for seeds on the ground. This raises all sorts of questions in my ever-curious mind:
1. Who appoints the sentry?
2. Is there a covey committee or birdie board that decides whose turn it is to pull duty, how long the shifts last and so on? If so, are the committee/board members elected? How often are elections held, who is eligible to vote, are there term limits?
3. Could be that birds have benevolent dictatorships rather than democracies; in what manner then is the head bird determined?
4. Maybe it’s a just a volunteer position and after a few hours the on-duty bird cheeps the message, “Hey, I’m starving here! It’s time for a new sentry. Dan, get your fat ass over here!”
5. What if Dan responds with, “Pluck you, Quentin. I just found a really good mess of seeds, my favorites, gonna snarf ‘em up.” Who does Quentin complain to? Is there a grievance committee? A union?
6. Is this a males-only position or do females pull guard duty also?
7. May gay birds be guards if they don’t ask and don’t tell?
8. If the sentry falls asleep and a cat nails one of the grazing birds, is the guilty birdie punished? In what manner?
Does anyone out there speak Quail?
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)