why you should have moved to Blythe !

Thousands of stupid mistakes later.One I I am glad I ignored "knowledgeable folks input" and I live in Blythe.I always liked the place, but as recession moves deeper into society, I carefully sat down and figured out my options,loving it, staying put.

A sensible analysis of the economic situation this weekend, and why I am not worried !
Just some pics, keep smiling, and all you guys and gals in big cities have at least 16 in vitro kids.
Then go and read "A modest Proposal" by Jonathon Swift!
Just call it "Long Pork "
Regards rh and Terriers gnawing on my ankles

drift home, could be a good year

Drifting idly home from school. it is fun to meander around the fish farms, they are going to be awesome this year.. 36 Gtr legs, assorted swallows, coopers Hwk N harrier,herons and a now staked out Cinnamon teal nest. I don't know for sure but all the sites I have discovered over the years have changed towards the birding positive, and there is some killer birding to be done this spring. Habitat and attitudes do not change over night. Especially if you come in as a consultant !! Or a "Respected scientist" with the company car!
Winning a rural community takes , getting stuck, buying beers for the hay guys who pull you out, knowing everybodies name, smiling, school secretary and janitors look out for you. etc ,etc , MOST importantly , do not expect the expected, . My wife said one day "Why are you and X hanging out in the Veterans? Haven't you seen his truck ? Yes,but I get hay when no others can, and more importantly my truck has 199,901 miles on it.Awesome You get more "spect when you can say "just passed 200,000" and the converastion ends with "Yer it sounds like its running smoother".
Don't claim to have changed a lot,over the years, personally nor in outlook, but Blythe is probably the birder friendliest place in California, and I never thought a Mormon would ask me to teach scouts Birdwatching. It's a funny old world.
Plan a stop by this spring, got a good feeling !
regards Roger

Hop scotching rain patches , mud and birds

Just stormin Norman.
Now once I canfigureout configuration I will have 'er allfiguredouted. Dodged rain showers,mud, responsibilities ,accountability and the Kraken all weekend. How? She is now sick with the "Get over it, it's is only a simple cold, I do not know what your problem is " death disease, she has it now ! AAAAh The circle of life.
I off course rushed around serving her bowls of leverets,golden Toads, and changing her hay hourly. After 2 weeks of it, I am almost human. Do NOT get it, Blythe is sicker than sick with it. You can see how something like Ebola would wipe out communities in weeks. Odd to watch
watching birds Forced into Black Top birding, roads(dirt) too slippery.still fun. Waders moving through steady build up of Gtr Legs, dowitchers, and an Avocet. Nothing you would notice, but for the fact you live here so maybe we should look out. Swallows appearing, 50 plus RWinged, a Bank, 40+Cliff, 9 Barn and 150 plus Tree around the drains and the fish farm. OrCrowned warbs, 15 plus, go figure. A lone Mountain Plover, a year tick. I love accidental birds. Sat in the pouring rain, looking at the mountains and fog and pondering Scotland, and idiotic hikes through the Cairngorms in search of a trip or two of Dotterel, and the pointless agony I went through to see them on native habitat, until I saw my lifer sitting an a bleeding .bleeding bloody Golf Course with a Buff Breasted sand on the Scilly Isles. When a clod moved. A Mountain Plover, America"s Dotterel.Most beautiful. Will post a pic, if you can see it !The drop, a Common Loon, could not rule out YB Diver !!Today, 2 W Throated Sparrows at the Horses. Played silly bastards with the birds and available light until I gave up, sewage plant, 3 sp teal, and a Peregrine. On the way home , a RLeg Hawk trying to literally smash a fem/juv harrier out of the sky. If you mess with cameras, you will know what I mean when I say "The perfect pic frozen on my retinas, not my camera." Oh well, why we go birding !
well back to reality tomorrow, better go oil my nunchucks, and put an edge on my adze. regards rh and terriers wondering why we are allowed in the house. It is fast asleep !

picture first, then I warned you

Success !
I wrote this July 28 2008, and sent it to some. Obviously not a large forum, as the likelihood of offence was way too high for even my mellow mentor ! Who I have deep respect for, regard as a friend, and caused unnecessary social criticism of. I somehow feel he survived, now YOU have to survive on your own, you know where the sodding delete button is !

An absolutely true story, a bit like the Bishops boozing at Mc Donalds, periodically I will toss in a picture that caused me great amusement and the tale behind it. Just for Idle amusement. Here we go. it comes with logic in brackets for the more challenged It was entitled.

"A nun-counter of the third kind"
Too funny.
I was sitting paying bills with Grendels Mother. Exhausting pasttime, but it always leads to an erudite example of her logic and grasp on reality.
Todays was special "If you had not spent all that money fixing the cars so we can get to work (ie to get a pay check), we would not be so broke." ( Stunning logic).
Sometimes even I can keep my damn mouth shut!
Anyway went to go birding, of course she took the vehicle I gassed up yesterday, stupid me.Visited the bank and went for gas.
Now most people do not get to find fun in odd situations, I guess it is in my nature and I waded in head first.Carpe Praedem.
I pulled in to get gas, there was a minivan full of "nunlets" (sombre brown plumage , not yet moulted into full black and white plumage )I guess they are called that as they havebrown nun-like costumes. The kind that looks like a Burkha, but you can reach in and check their teeth. ( Thats how you age them)Think they may have been suicide Catholic Terriorists !
Anyway they were twittering around the gas cap, like it was a guy in a speedo. So I went to help them, got the cap off. ac ouple of them had the cutest smiles, apart from the c4 belts I would love to have checked them out ! we are chatting when suddenly the air freezes. Heads down scurrying around into the van, looked around The HNIC coming ou of the store, carrying four one gallon jugs of water( Thats Head Nun In Charge, she was dressed in black and white and looked like she could bench press the van). She walked up to me and said "Why are you bothering these girls ?". No point in logic at this point, I am already a certified nun mauler in her eyes.! Perfectchance Oh I came to watch you sister, to see if you could restore my faith in religion" "Oh OK Dear" "yes, I was thinking you were going to pour that that water into your gas tank, and you can turn it into gasoline I am in, gave up wine"
I distinctly heard a giggle from the back of the van.
I left rapidly left. I have seen that look before and it did not bode well, and it looked like her rosary was mostly bike chain.Those hurt. Oh well I got a discreet gesture and snapped a couple of nunlet butts on the way out Do not pray for my transgressions! I already have a "GO directly to Hel do not pass Go card", in fact looking in my file,here, I almost have a full suit. Regards roger.
Think I will stick some "Only in Blythe" pics in there Black top birding, if that today. Cloudy, drizzle and acres of mud. rh and terriers

Testing..

Most agranoying.IT was using the computer yesterday to do something linked to one toed cows. I think one of her dewlaps got caught somewhere between the q and the page down button, and in her frenzy to free herself she hit every key at the same time with her thrashing tail. Any way lets see if print goes through, try pics next.
Due to the fact that it would be quicker to drive to San Diego, use an high speed internet and drive back to see if it worked. The "Fix It" lady for Verizon, had to wait while the morse code was translated. Charming young lady, who warmed up over the 2 and 1/2 hours, anyone breaks after listening to me for that long ! "I will tell you anything just go away" Waterboarding, amateurs.
The language problem was evident.The sound was like a corner market in Bombay, or just like any corner market in London, come to think about. NO she was just outside Bombay.
Interesting snippets.
"27th story,7by5 box, 12 hours 25 minute break"
"It does not rain in Bombay like it used to, all the forests cut down ".
"They killed all the animals in the zoo and built a giant complex"
"there are no trees and flowers in her town, all jungle cleared out for company high rises" The scariest.
"In our town we all only work nights, the next town they built they only work days "
Welcome to the non Jungle
Charming young lady, sent me to my extensive spice rack to toss things into my pea, and barley and whatever I could catch and chop up, and fit in a pressure cooker "Soup". Exquisite.
So after changing everything but my waist size, I, very tentatively am putting the system back together. Here we go, lets see what the Hell happens !rh and terriers

No sense of humour, fish ponds and pics

Ok trying pics first. Text second.
Not a clue how this will turn out.Some white pelicans and a drift passed the fish farm which is going to be awesome this year. All the Tamarisk has been dug and burned, and my chum has got it looking good. 9 years, still can not get in, one simple miscommunication and in small town Blythe you pay the price !The pics I have posted are from there.
I tend to return from a day in the disease factory, awash with rumours of layoffs, pay cuts, class size increase and working 3 days a month for free, etc etc in a somewhat negative mood.
I walked in the back door and on the kitchen table was a magazine page, placed where I could not miss it, that screamed "ERECTILE DYSFUNCTION. At little or no cost to you"
Why would I want to buy it?
I am of the age that I realise that a the quick glance by a wench at my happy area, which 40 years ago would have sent my hormones racing with the utterly foolish concept of imminent mating, back then saying hello had the same effect !Has long since passed. Now I know it means the old fool left his zipper undone.
ButI still like to think I know what to do !
I read on. "No pump disassembly or oiling required". "You do not have to have diabetes to receive this" "Operates in less than 10 minutes""Patented ring Ejector system to maintain erections" "No more embarrassing manual pumping". Starting to become somewhat more deflated than I was. Phone rings. SWMBO, did you see what I left you, what do you think, looks good for this weekend. It may have not been those exact words. But you catch the drift. Tragic pause. We will have to borrow Joes submersible blender.
I said what the Hell are you talking about for Christs sake. "The black bean soup, we can do it in the crock pot, the recipe is right there. Turned the page over. It does look good.
Sense of humour returned, when she turned bright red with embarresment when I showed her how she had left it.
Roger terriers crawling around in Hystericsa

Mars, superbowl and rubbish

Trundled around,only bright spark, a Red Naped sapsucker at the cemetery. My warbler was,quite rightly corrected by a person, who probably cringes after all these years of my testing his patience. My response "Looks like a Nashville to me". Works for me, no point in wasting words with this chap.How come NBC can't interview the President, in the White House live without loosing sound and pictures ? Another channel I watch had no problems until the warrenty ran out. NASA has a thing the size of a large Sears freezer packing box wandering around on mars, that sends better sound and pictures. Oh well. I just sneezed. "Did you have to do that? You scared the fly off" My rashion of passion just appeared, like Diane the Hunter,clad only in her Diaphanous wind swept Winnie the Pooh pink flannel Jammies brandishing a fly swatter, with Terrier modified slippers on her cloven hooves. Ever see 3 cats and two Jack Russels, dive into a cat litter box. I beat them. Some random pics for those keeeping track of how many species you can photograph in Blythe. rh and warm blooded critters.