53 thoughts on “Our Daily Thread 3-25-17”

  3. Happy Saturday morning, wanderers!
    We are going to the rodeo later today. Brad Paisley is the entertainment. Lindsey is staying home–as bright lights and loud noises really bother her right now. So, Becca is going to bring her best friend–which should be fun for her.

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  5. I just happened by Cheryl. You can tell by the time, that I had already been here, caught up on yesterday’s thread and had breakfast before I wandered back to check Drudge, see how Florida did (Gamecocks play them in the elite eight.) and revisit the blog.

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  8. Tess and Annie are wary of one another but, like most nations, manage to coexist without open hostility breaking out.

    Cowboy is Switzerland, neutral territory, everyone’s safe haven.

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  11. Cat: Oh, observe, lowly minions, how I have allowed subservant hound to lie at my feet. I would deign to look at you but I am much too regal.

    Dog: Oh, look! Mighty master! the Supreme Highness has allowed me the privilege of warming the bed for her! Am I doing a good job? Am I? Huh?

    Liked by 6 people

  13. Perhaps they believe they should be part of the rumpled look–but why isn’t Cowboy joining them?

    Oh, perhaps Cowboy took the photo?

    Busy day for us and I’m off!

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  14. Funny captions. Tess’ tail is wagging at least (it’s a blur in the photo). She views the cat as something to be herded into corners and most especially OUT of the kitchen at meal time. The cat humors here & plays along, she actually turns it into a game sometimes, galloping across the living room and then turning right around to come back into the kitchen.

    At the coyote meeting I covered the other morning, out Irish-born researcher made passing reference to a coyote-proof fence so I contacted her later with a personal question on what she considered the best ways to accomplish that (I know of most of the tools — coyote “rollers” and chicken wire buried 2 feet under the bottom fence line, essentially; researcher added it would be best to cement along the bottom).

    But she agreed that nothing is really fool proof. “If a coyote wants into your yard, they are so smart, they will find a way.” About all you can do is improve the odds I suppose by making fences more challenging. She said 7 foot fence or higher if possible and added that she hasn’t really tested the rollers herself and would not recommend them necessarily (unless you can rig up a cheaper version — they’re expensive — using PVC pipe, which someone at the dog park did, I believe).

    So, I was up late watching a Sean Connery movie (couldn’t resist) and wound up going back to bed this morning after being up briefly to tend to the animals at 7 a.m. Now it’s coffee time, my tax appt isn’t until 2:30 but it’s at least a 30-minute drive to get there & I still need to find my car registration payment from 2016.

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  15. Fellow reporter said a cat was nabbed by a coyote the other night a block away from them (they’re in another city). I really believe this will only escalate in the coming years, posing a real dilemma for cities trying to walk the tightrope between residents demanding that something more be done and the fairly powerful activists from all over the country who descend at the slightest hint of any kind of trapping or lethal response.

    One of our local cities received calls from the Humane Society in Washington, D.C., last year when they were considering adding trapping and euthanasia into their plan (which they wound up doing, but only in very restricted, limited circumstances). The coyotes have no predators here, not even man really.

    And you still have the well-intentioned but clueless “feeders” — someone was leaving huge bags of opened dog food out for the coyotes in a city in Orange County, according to one of the participants in the meeting.

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  16. Researcher said coyote conflicts currently are highest in Southern California from what she can tell — even compared to the rest of the entire nation. It’s not as bad in Northern California. So she sees this area as something of a Ground Zero on what is a growing wildlife issue.

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  17. Ok, I had to give up, I cannot find my car registration $ from 2016 (needed for tax meeting today). I always pay online but I can’t find it in my emails (receipts) or any record of it on my bank account — and I can’t log onto the DMV site for some reason. Will have to call them Monday and call that one in.

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  18. My new system for next year will include a scribble sheet on which I WRITE DOWN those random payments like car registration, property tax (I can always find that, though). This isn’t the first time I couldn’t find that dang car registration fee somewhere. …

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  19. the only way to get rid of coyotes is to kill them. They don’t have natural enemies in the city, that’s why they’re there. If you trap them, what will you do with them? Send them to San Francisco. They will be at home there.

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  21. As I’ve mentioned previously, Nightingale is considered a valuable employee at the nursing home, especially since she is willing & able to work on the rehab wings. The drawback to that is that she is usually late getting out, often by an hour or more.

    3:00 is the supposed ending time for first shift. I texted her a few minutes before then to ask if she would be leaving on time. At 3:30 she texted back, “LOL”.

    Fortunately, babysitting has been going pretty smoothly today, & Hubby is now home, making hamburgers for us all.

    Liked by 2 people

  22. Chas, that system usually works well for me too — but there were some breakdowns this year due to the house turmoil. Still, it’s only that pesky car reg that I can’t find.

    Coyotes that are trapped must be euthanized by law in California — can’t relocate them for multiple reasons. But we live in the land of no-kill anything for any reason so … that all becomes quite complicated. There are some loud voices being raised at this point by residents who are clamoring for a more robust response from the government, but so far none seems coming, I don’t think there’s a widespread political will for that just yet.

    At least some cities include the option of trapping/euthanizing in their management plans — LA won’t even do that, it’s strictly a matter of “educating the public” on how to live peacefully with coyotes and how to kindly deter them from entering your backyards. Since that’s the city I live in, it’s very frustrating.

    Private citizens, however, are allowed to hire trappers to set traps on private property, but the trapper fees are very high so neighborhoods really have to band together and pool their money to do something like that.

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  23. From our most recent story:

    http://www.dailybreeze.com/environment-and-nature/20170323/south-bay-cities-begin-to-share-strategies-for-dealing-with-urban-coyotes

    ____________________________

    In Torrance, the early warnings came with the reports that indigenous foxes living in open fields near the city airport were being killed. Later, a spate of pet attacks and killings were reported.

    Downey City Hall began getting calls in the last couple years.

    “I fielded the first call from a lady whose two dogs were killed in her backyard, right in front of her grandchildren,” said (a Downey City Councilman), adding the resident saw the coyote scale her backyard fence.

    Representatives from several South Bay cities gathered Thursday morning for what was the second meeting of a coyote task force committed to coming up with a regional approach to the growing issue of urban coyotes.

    No one believes the conflicts that come with coyotes living so close to people and pets will be a short-term problem.

    But cities typically find themselves scrambling to respond, not only short on coyote knowledge but lacking personnel and finances to address the concerns amid resident demands that something be done. Coyote conflicts are especially high from May to October. …

    … Coming up with the plan didn’t come easily for Torrance, as the city found itself trying to satisfy no-kill coyote advocacy groups on one side and residents in an uproar on the other.

    “We were never taught Coyote 101 in the police academy,” said Torrance police Sgt. xxxxx xxx. “We were learning as we were going.”

    Initially, Torrance police Capt. xxxx xxxx said, the city had to navigate through the trapping vs. no-trapping divide.

    “It was important for us to find a landing spot” amid the debate, he said.

    The city found what it believed was common ground by listening to both sides and coming up with a plan that allowed some trapping but only in some very specific cases.

    For example, calls to the city from coyote advocates, some as far away as Washington, D.C., the police captain said, argued that it was “natural coyote behavior to go into an enclosed yard to take a pet. It’s natural coyote behavior, but it’s not behavior we condone. For us, that’s a trigger to start evaluating whether we have to send out assessment teams.”

    Five coyotes were trapped and euthanized last year, the officers said, and no trapping has been deemed necessary since that time. By law, the trapped coyotes must be euthanized so a veterinarian is on call to administer a shot at the trap site. …
    __________________________

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  25. Taxes turned in, I also remembered belatedly to mention the new windows & glass door I had put in, I’ll get a $200 energy credit for those. I’ll take it.

    He estimated the car registration from this year’s, said not a big deal.

    Told me they think a coyote got their pet desert tortoise out of their backyard. 😦

    Liked by 1 person

  26. Yup, Nightingale was about an hour late getting home today. But everything was fine here, so we didn’t mind. (Not that it’s her fault anyway.)

    Liked by 2 people

  27. We went to a double-header wedding. Two young men married girls who grew up together from families that are close friends, but live in California. So, in order to save those families from having to travel to Missouri for two weddings on two different dates, they had them at the same location on the same day. One was in the morning, the other in the afternoon with a joint reception meal in between.

    Liked by 5 people

  28. The black trunk (on the right) in the background of the “rumpled” photo w/Tess & Annie was my grandfather’s — he’d carried it out on the train every time he came for the winter from Iowa in probably the last 10 or so years of his life. My mom loved that thing.

    I had it lined with cedar and painted (it was in pretty rough shape) after my mom died and it was among the things I inherited that I wanted to keep.

    After the dog park visit, I made the casserole for the church homeless mission, it’s now cooling before I put it into the refrigerator for the night..

    I’m watching “The Terminator” which I’d seen long, long ago but decided it might be fun to revisit. (Or not, as it’s turning out.) Our former governor & all those 1980s haircuts, eek.

    Liked by 1 person

  32. I love those weed clearing goats. When they visited here, I’d walk out of my way to watch them!

    Splendid day yesterday, lots of fun with a crowd of young people at the Francis Ford Copolla winery. Excellent food, gorgeous views and engaged beautiful people.

    From there we visited a local glass blower to examine a chandelier my relatives are considering and thence home where a new computer had arrived.

    Remember how exciting it was to get a new computer? 🙂

    Now it’s like buying a new washing machine–just get it up and running, quick!

    This new one replaces an old XP machine we think must be close to 10 years old. It’s for my husband, so I won’t have much to do with it unless this one dies. (hmmm, seven years old . . . )

    Last night we went to the symphony and heard a piece of music I knew nothing about. Fantastic sounds.

    These concerts feature a music historian an hour before who explains the history and points out things to watch for. She thought the “murmuring” strings extraordinary and I have to agree with her.

    Church and then a slow day. Very happy about that.

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  33. Ah, but, my point about the symphony was the contrast from the winery. Very few young people in the crowd, they were all gray haired and my age or older. 😦

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  34. Michelle, what a fun night.

    Scrambling here this morning after sleeping too late. Can’t forget to bring the casserole … I did that once, I believe.

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  35. Michelle, I hadn’t the piece before either. When studying music history for my exams, the modern era of classical music included only the most outlandish of the avant garde, like John Cage. Hovhannes, although certainly among the modernists, wasn’t among the ones whom I had to study. However, his work, although it is interesting for the use it makes of the orchestral instruments, is a good example of why people don’t really enjoy listening to classical music. It is more of an intellectual exercise listening to that piece, and less of an enjoyable relaxation. I recently played ‘murmuring strings’ in Dvorak’s Symphony No. 8, which uses a lot of tremolo, the name of the technique used to produce that murmuring effect; but most people don’t realize it is there, because it blends into the overall effect of the symphony. Dvorak’s piece uses much of the same effects as the above to produce a satisfying whole, while Hovhaness fragments the music, rendering the overall effect as a disjointed series of sounds. There is no real beginning, middle, and end (the ending is so abrupt, it leaves one confused as to whether it is really the end) to the piece; and music, like writing, needs careful structure to communicate a message that people can understand. Young people like unique and different sounds, as listening to the instrumental effects on a hip-hop track would demonstrate, but they do not relate to the fragmented and disconnected message of modern classical music. Classical music caused its own demise by becoming too academic and theoretical in how it treated its music.

    The final movement of Dvorak’s 8th Symphony – there is more than one part which uses tremolo, but the longest section begins at the 6:40 mark of the clip:

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  37. Yes, the cat always wins. And, of course, she likes to be right, smack in the middle of the bed.

    The black and white goat pictured above would actually match my pet-and-bathroom theme …

    Liked by 1 person

  40. Cheryl, Heels beat the Cats. Youngest GD’s husband is a Ky man. But I hope it’s the two Carolinas that meet for the championship.
    I don’t know much about Gonzaga or Oregon.

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  42. Yep, I think the two Carolinas would be a fun matchup. N.C. was very impressive today; we hadn’t seen them play before, but they’re a good team.

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  43. Dog park contact wants to look at the driveway excavation job (Real Estate Pal, who was there and knows him, says see what he says, we’ll go from there) … Just sent him photos (this is the same guy who helped me with advice on the bathroom remodel since he has an old house and did something similar, with beadboard, etc., in his bathroom some years back).

    House remodeling via the dog park. Don’t underestimate it. 🙂

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  47. Highlight tonight — squirrel decided to race along the top of the southern chain-link fence at the dog park — with lots of accompaniment as the dogs all ran alongside barking. The squirrel made a daring leap into a tree (on the dog park side) and survived.

    Liked by 1 person

  48. Running helped that squirrel get warm. 😉

    More enjoyable pictures of Tess and Annie. And that dialogue between them yesterday, 11:31 a.m., further upthread, was quite humorous.

    Here’s one of my favorite pieces with tremolo in it, The Firebird Suite (Finale). Shimmering at the beginning of this excerpt, and vigorous toward the end. You can see the conductor has already gotten quite a workout by the time this video starts. I don’t think he had been at the dog park recently. 🙂

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  49. Oops, those last two sentences don’t really make sense if one doesn’t watch the video. It’s not that no one gets a workout at the dog park, it’s just that they probably don’t sweat as much as the conductor in the above video. 🙂

    Liked by 1 person

  52. Violinist was part of our music this morning in church, sounded especially lovely when we sang ‘Be Thou My Vision’

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  53. Stravinsky — yes! Ding, ding, ding. 🙂 Nice to see continued music appreciation from previous music apprec experiences, DJ.

    I love “Be Thou My Vision.” And hymns sound so nice when accompanied by things like solo violin or flute.

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