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Flickr
Tag Archives: wildlife cam
Happy New Year
Three for drinks!
I still haven’t figured out how I can make gifs on my own. Well, I can make the gif but the file is huge. When I use the tips to make the file smaller, the gif looks like caca.
So for now, we’re stuck with embedding from a third party.
This is 2020
I intended to do this yesterday but time got away from me. It’s going to be a half-assed year end wrap up.
I got to go to 4 soccer matches. Grateful I went to preseason matches or it would have been only two. Among the last “normal” things I did.
And now that I’m sitting here, I can’t figure out what to say.
We’re doing okay. We’re grateful for what we have. We’re hoping things get better soon. We worry about the world.
Walk at Klamath River bar. Mom likes to tell people she’s going to bars.
I was going back through my old posts. Remember when one of my teeth epically failed? I had to get a root canal. We had the crud. Then I had that weird spell where I would get disastrously dizzy when I turned my head a certain way (luckily resolved on its own). This was all in January and February! Before the protests, and the smoke, and not getting into the writing workshop, and people we lost, and other disappointments that aren’t even related to Covid.
But some good things: my wildlife camera has been super fun. We thoroughly enjoyed our yard this summer. Bob just got me some bird-feeding equipment so looking forward to getting that going. Bob’s enjoying retirement and has taken over the cooking which is fabulous. Braces are off. Zoom calls with people that I rarely see or have lost touch with.
I’ve picked a new writing project — get ready for the ups and downs of that.
I probably won’t keep this updated but for fun:
989 / 90000 words. 1% done!
Some shows we enjoyed: Ted Lasso (10 million gold stars, I watched it twice.) Ozark. Chernobyl.
I’m trying to think of movies we saw. I loved The Hunt for the Wilderpeople. We just watched On The Rocks.
We enjoyed the Creem Magazine and GoGos documentaries.
Even this guy knows the importance of washing hands.
I managed to read a lot this year. LOVED LOVED LOVED Murderbot (Martha Wells). I am precious with my reading time because I have so many books I’m dying to get to but I read the novellas twice and considered reading them again this month. Olive, Again (Elizabeth Strout). The Hearts of Horses by Molly Gloss is phenomenal and needs a new title and a new cover because it should be huge. I loved the Broken Earth Trilogy (N.K. Jemison) and the Farseer Trilogy (Robin Hobb) even more. The Liveship books are sitting on deck. Barkskins by Annie Proulx was fantastic.
I don’t think turning the calendar over is going to be magical but it’s a great time to refresh our optimism.
Happy New Year.
Getting Crowded Around Here
I actually have a funny clip of three raccoons on the porch but I can’t get the weakass web gif maker to do what I want it to do.
Looks like there are some fun tricks I can learn with the Adobe apps that a few months ago I swore I was going to learn to live without, but I can’t learn them this afternoon.
So here is a photo from September.
At this rate we’re going to need a velvet rope for this hot spot.
Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!
Highlight of 2020
Yes, I know the bar is low but getting my braces off this week was the highlight of my year.
The whole idea that they make my teeth look better is of little consequence. I am so happy those things are off. I complained about them almost every time I ate. They rip up your toothbrush so you need to replace it every month. Flossing is completely unsatisfying. I always felt like I had bad breath. Thrilled to be done.
The before picture is right after I got the top braces on December 17, 2018. I couldn’t find a decent shot of me with the bottom on, too.
The after picture is when I exited the building after getting them removed.
I have eaten caramel, mixed nuts, a wide variety of crunchy things, raw vegetables. I have snacked and not brushed my teeth immediately after.
Tomorrow I get a retainer that I will need to wear full time for 6 months so back to more careful oral care. But probably for the better of none of my pants will fit.
This is not the clearest view but I put it up because if you enlarge the video and watch the little turd on the right, he is pulling off the bottom of the drain spout. Those raccoons throw wild parties. I put it back and they haven’t touched it again.
Raccoons Aren’t Going Anywhere
I’m not sure what I was thinking.
Maybe the raccoons go south for the winter?
Nope, they show up almost every night.
At this point I only check the camera card a couple of days a week and now I’ve got so many great clips that I yawn at the new ones.
The other night I had at least 9 clips of the opossum working its way back and forth across the yard. And at one point, jetting off into the bushes. Those little guys can move fast if they want to.
But not as fast as these guys.
Raccoons Still Busy Out There
I put the bucket away and moved the camera closer to the house. I figured I would see much. I was wrong.
The Latest
Two nights ago I got a bunch of great clips of the raccoons playing around the bucket. I found out about another product that might help with the fogging but haven’t bought it yet.
I’m going to save a bunch of these clips for November when I do my post-a-day.
I had an unexpectedly chaotic second half of my day yesterday so I never dealt with the camera or raccoon playground. The card was still in my computer and I had loosened the camera strap with the intention of repositioning it. I never refilled the bucket.
The bucket had been dragged around.
The camera looked like this.
Those little rascals got their hands on the camera. I may wake up one morning and find the camera has disappeared.
In other news: I finally updated my email but whatever I did to back-up the messages did not back-up the inbox. When I’m awake in the middle of the night I fret about this but there’s nothing to be done now.
Complications
I have so many clips of the raccoons stirring the water in the bucket, jumping on the bucket and then dunking their front legs, walking by but pausing long enough to take a drink and play with the water.
I had planned to write an actual post tonight but my computer is actively dying and everything I do makes it stall. I’ve spent all weekend restarting and disk repairing and shutting down programs which then sputter and insist on updates that make the whole machine slog along.
It’s been super aggravating.
I need to buy a new one but need to do some homework.
Bunny showed up during the day. I ate a sandwich out on the deck while he trembled in the sunshine.
Adding to My Bag of Tricks
I thought I would be clever and make longer video clips but then the giant files wouldn’t do what I wanted them to do so I’m trying something new.
Let’s see if this works:
Thumper!
We’ve got a new entry into our urban jungle.
I have seen bunnies in the backyard in the past but not for years and years.
I keep thinking I’m going to dial back my trail cam photos but I keep getting fun visitors.
Pogo wandered through, too.
One of the raccoons pulled the bucket down but it’s so foggy it’s not worth posting. The camera gets too fogged up at 4am.