Here we are, having reached the dog days of summer. Well, usually these are the dog days in these parts, the hottest weather usually settling in during August, but in reality we're having an amazing stretch of cool temperatures: highs this week have been in the low 70s (F).
Rather than enjoying this near-perfect weather (the threat of hail the only downside) I'm plopped on our couch, propped up by pillows and Vicodin, recovering from having a hernia repaired. Simple procedure, they assured me, it apparently went well. Now I've got some time to kick back and heal. I presumed I'd get in some reading, organize all the photos multiplying on our hard drive, write and post more to this blog, perhaps watch some Olympic competition, and even browse detections of our nocturnal flight call recordings.
Since I can't sit normally I haven't been able to work on our desktop computer, so no image organization, blog-posts-with-pix, or work browsing has been possible as yet. Maybe later this week. Instead I've spent most of my time staring out the window, legs up on the couch, watching/listening for birds and whatever insects I can see landing on our wildflowers.
Bird list is small, and expected. Eastern Towhee call notes, "to-wheeee," are the most common sounds, followed by Blue Jays "jay, jay, jay, jay" and the drawn-out "annk, annk, annk" of the Red-breasted Nuthatch. I can hear American Goldfinches potato-chipping as they fly by, and a family of Eastern Phoebes silently hunts outside my window. I suspect the same ones that nested on our house, but which brood? First, second, or both? Surprising in their absence are Song Sparrows and Common Yellowthroats.
Monarchs are the most common butterfly, though Eastern Tiger Swallowtails have made a couple of fly-bys. My daughter moved the Spicebush Swallowtail chyrsalis in from the porch so I could watch it, and to be honest, that's been more exciting than any Olympic sport yet. And it's still a chrysalis, though the anticipation is killing me. Well, it would be, if weren't for the soothing effects of Vicodin.
Speaking of which, time for my fix. I hope you're enjoying your August as much as I'm enjoying mine!
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5 comments:
Hope you're back on your feet soon, though it doesn't sound as though that's part of your plan... : )
I hope you enjoy the rest of the summer while it lasts. Here, it is just starting to get hot again after a bout of rain. I just read a stat that here, there has been rain 36 out of the last 71 days, so I hope that changes.
Feel better
Thanks, as always, for the comments! Things are well, I'm off the vicadin, which didn't do much more than make me sleepy. I thought I'd at least pull some good birds out of thin air (is that a woodcreeper on the oak, where the nuthatches usually climb? A chachalaca where the turkeys usually run? Whoa, an aracari!) but I'm only missing the obvious ones (hmm, which bird is it that says "chick-a-dee-dee-dee"?).
Nothing doing. So I'm hobbling around in limbo - I want to go do stuff, I just shouldn't. Now that I'm more awake I can catch up on some blog reading, some eBirding and Bigby listing and entering, perhaps some work.
Rain: what a summer! Our garden looks great, but our near-daily rain showers have turned the lawn area into a meadow that I'm going to eventually have to deal with.
-Mike
My name is Robert Fraser and i would like to show you my personal experience with Vicodin.
I am 27 years old. Have been on Vicodin for 1 day now. Found a few pills. I'm currently not an addict though I have taken vicodin in the past and I am certainly playing with the devil because I do like the feeling it gives me. Biggest problem, besides the addiction, is Insomnia. Tossed and turned for two hours before I decided to research it.
I have experienced some of these side effects -
Constipation and insomnia.
I hope this information will be useful to others,
Robert Fraser
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