She got a chest cold and now she has laryngitis and can’t talk. I can joke about how quiet it is and how much work I’m getting done, but it’s a lonely time for Judy. She can listen, but she can’t visit. She can’t really participate. In the summer, we have cicadas here that sound like power saws. Some bugs I can’t hear; they’re out of my range of hearing. These, I can hear. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IXulyrsJAGIV These are Giant Cicadas in the trees; about as long as my hand is wide.
Trip map
The updated map. http://maps.google.com/maps/ms?msid=205131835882428706345.0004a0e19bb8bf61d6456&msa=0&ll=37.160317,-104.72168&spn=22.074183,56.118164 Not quite the summer map we intended. It’s pretty messy. Probably can’t detect any sort of pattern. It would be nice if it had lines from point to point, and there is a feature for that, but I couldn’t get it to work right. Maybe this summer’s trip map is so zig-zagged that it’s beyond hope regardless.
Mystery Tree
The answer: Crape Myrtle.
Motorhome update: Same as last week. Three more weeks. Progress though. Today it made smoke. Not the kind of smoke we made two month ago. Good smoke. It runs. They’re getting it ready to roll around to the Paint shop to get started on the tow-damage repairs.
Black-bellied Whistling Ducks
Baby ducks.
Baby duck butts.
Mystery Tree
There is a really nice tree here.
It has bark like a sycamore.
Leaves almost like a lilac.
Flowers.
And seed pods.
Anybody know what it is?
Special birds
There are birds in South Texas that you’d be hard pressed to find anywhere else in the U.S. One of those rarities is the Groove-billed Ani.
I was lucky enough to find a tree-full today.
It’s hard to get a good picture. They’re a little shy.
And kind of goofy looking too.