That’s my guess anyway. Since trailers get dragged from place to place, and not always by the same tractor, they must have really good logs, or have their own odometers. Trucks need speedometers and odometers so they can monitor their speed and distance and track service intervals. Trailers don’t need speedometers but they must need to track distance for service intervals. If they’re not always attached to the same truck, they must have odometers of their own too. A trucker would know…
We have a winner!
Fox Sparrow. That’s the bird I most want next. It’s a good one because it’s not extremely difficult to find and also because it lives in the north part of Texas in the winter. We don’t even have to travel out of state to see it; we just have to go to a part of Texas we don’t usually go to in the winter. Not only do we have a winner, we have an alternate. The next most wanted bird after the Fox Sparrow: Mountain Quail. It’s nowhere around here, it lives in the High Sierras in California up through Oregon so it will have to wait, but we’re going to the family reunion on the eastern slope of the Cascades next year. That will put us within a state of him. Maybe we can drop down a state and get him then.
Freeways
A long stretch of interstate 10 across West Texas. The left lane is in fine shape. The right one is worn out. It’s a bumpy rattly ride in the right lane. The left lane is smooth. There is not much traffic. I drive in the left lane. Then we come to a diversion for construction. We’re rerouted to the other side of the freeway while our side gets a redo. Both lanes are being resurfaced. What’s wrong with this picture? Only one lane is worn out, because it gets 90% of the traffic, but we have to replace both. We have to replace both because of our driving convention: pass on the left, drive on the right. After we pass someone, we move back over to the right lane. (Not all of us always do, but enough of us do to make a big difference in lane wear.) What if we could extend the life of the freeway for several years, for essentially no extra cost? All we have to do is periodically reverse our driving convention. On these long open sections, invest in a little signage that says “Drive on the Left, Pass on the Right.” When the right lane starts to wear out, put up the signs and switch to left lane driving. We wear down each lane equally before we have to replace anything. Chaos would not ensue. The human brain is an amazing thing. It can accommodate change, sometimes without even thinking. Drive down the open highway with one hand on the top of the steering wheel. Unconscious hand and arm movements keep the vehicle in its lane. Switch the driving hand to the bottom of the wheel. The brain adapts. All the necessary corrective movements are reversed, but they still just happen without any conscious effort. We’re that good at driving. We can effortlessly adapt to whatever is required. Surely we could respond appropriately to signs directing us which lane to drive in.
Talavera grasshopper
Know that Talavera pottery look? A jumble of bright colors.
We see a lot of it here in South Texas. Well, in Arizona we saw some unexpected Talavera.
It’s called a Horse Lubber grasshopper. Surprisingly, we found him eating a dead beetle.
What’s up with that? Grasshoppers aren’t carnivores. They eat plants! It turns out this grasshopper is an opportunist and will munch down meat when presented with the chance to stock up on protein.
We see a lot of it here in South Texas. Well, in Arizona we saw some unexpected Talavera. It’s called a Horse Lubber grasshopper. Surprisingly, we found him eating a dead beetle. What’s up with that? Grasshoppers aren’t carnivores. They eat plants! It turns out this grasshopper is an opportunist and will munch down meat when presented with the chance to stock up on protein. We missed Pam and Dan in Arizona
They were just arriving in Tucson for the winter as we were headed east. Bummer. We didn’t miss Ralph and Diane at Davis Mountain State Park in Texas though. They came from their home in Fort Davis to the campground for dinner, a sunset, and a visit around the campfire.
