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Annie goes to Africa

Annie was having a Play Day at Eddie’s house last Tuesday, while I took Judy to physical therapy. Can you believe physical therapy 5 days after shoulder surgery? Passive range of motion only, but still, that is amazing! Everything moves like it should. Judy is way ahead of schedule.

Anyway, Annie was there at Eddie’s house for the weekly Skype video call from Jeff and Carol’s daughter, Robin, who is in Africa. Once a week, Robin finds her way to an internet café with her laptop and fires up a Skype video call. Robin and Annie got to “meet” each other on webcams. Now Annie has a friend in Africa!

I’ve only had to be nice to Judy for a little over a week now, but she is getting better so fast that part of the process might be almost over. Soon it will be time to go back to “Hey. Where’s my dinner?”

Blue Grosbeak

Rose-breasted Grosbeak

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We didn’t really want to drive to Alice on a workday. Again.

But the Jeep was done. Again.

Can’t put if off until Saturday. They’re not open on Saturday. Here we go again.
When we got there, I gave the Jeep a quick fifteen or twenty starts and it sounded perfect. Much better than before. I think they nailed it this time.

Home by lunch. Lesser nighthawks circling when we got here. Taking a walk tonight, we got chipping sparrows

And a yellow-headed blackbird.

And know what else? There is a Jeep in our driveway instead of a rental car!

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It’s a long drive to Alice

  But I had good reason to drive to Alice.  That’s where the Jeep is.   The Jeep went dark on that pre-dawn birding trip two weeks ago.  (We were listening for Common Poorwills.)  When we finally got towed for repairs, it was to a Jeep Dealer in Alice.  That’s where the Jeep has been for the last two weeks; at the Jeep Dealer in the South Texas town of Alice, 75 miles from Port Aransas.  The good news in all of this was that our intermittent starting problem had turned into a permanent starting problem which could be diagnosed, and that’s how we ended up in the red rental car.   We made the drive yesterday.  It was good to get back to the Jeep, although things were still a little complicated.  The rental car was going to cost us $90 a day, but the Jeep dealer volunteered to put it on his bill at his rate of $35 a day.  That didn’t seem like much until the dealer had to backorder a part and we ended up in the rental car for two weeks.  Glad we weren’t at $90 a day!  Anyway, when I went back in the rental car to get the Jeep, I couldn’t, because the dealer didn’t know how much to charge me for the rental car until I turned that in first and got a ride back.  When I got back, he still didn’t know how much to charge me because he had submitted the paperwork to the warranty company for the Jeep repair but hadn’t heard back from them yet either.  We decided I could pay the whole thing and when the Warranty Company sent him a check, he could reimburse me.   We didn’t really want to drive to Alice on a work day, but it was good to be driving back home.  The only thing that would have made the drive back home better would have been if we were driving home in the Jeep.  When we went to pick up the Jeep, of course I tested it and it started.  After we transferred everything out of the rental car into the Jeep, returned the rental car, got a ride back to the dealer, paid the dealer, and got back in the Jeep to leave, it wouldn’t start.  We lost ground.  Now we’re back to an intermittent starting problem.   The dealer quickly got us back into the rental car and on our way.  We can look forward to one more trip to Alice in the near future.    
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This is a terrible place

This is a terrible place to try to concentrate on work. We did the Big Patio Day on the weekend. We spent a lot of the day outside and watched birds on purpose. So Monday, it’s back inside to get some work done. Except I think I did a Big Windshield Day while I was at it. Last week we had hummingbirds swirling all around the coach and the feeders. This week, it’s Orioles! Six or eight orioles at a time swirling around the coach and yard.

Baltimore Orioles galore.

and Orchard Orioles.