Steve and Judy's Travels!

June 21, 2013October 21, 2019

RE: Mystery bird

(If it is even a bird. Maybe it’s a giant cicada I haven’t heard before. Or maybe it’s somebody’s exotic chicken.)

From: Steve Taylor [mailto:spt@thetaylorcompany.net]
Sent: Thursday, June 20, 2013 9:50 PM
To: Bill Taylor (Bill Taylor); David Taylor (David Taylor); Tom Taylor (Tom Taylor)
Subject: Mystery bird

I pretty much recognize the sound of every bird here. Except this one. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eptrKNGNFDg&feature=youtu.be Sitting on our deck in the morning, drinking coffee, this one voice stands out. It’s the steady almost croaking sound. There is no way to go find it and see what it is; it’s in the mesquite forest on the other side of our fence. Somebody else’s property. I have guesses. It sounds like a substantial bird. Maybe a Roadrunner or Yellow-billed Cuckoo. It doesn’t match up with the tone and tempo of any recordings I have for them though. Closest match is a Black-billed Cuckoo. That’s much less likely to be here and the match is not conclusive anyway. Darn birds, they develop their own regional vernacular. If I’m listening to a bird recorded in Arkansas, it might sound a little different from one I hear in Texas. Someone out there knows this sound. Is it you?

June 21, 2013October 21, 2019

Mystery bird

June 20, 2013October 21, 2019

Update

I feel great! There was immediate relief from the stent pain as soon as the stent came out. The part about getting the stent out didn’t go all that smoothly though. The doctor wanted to do it in his office, no pain medication, no anesthetic. “No big deal” he said. Well, it did turn out to be a bigger deal to me than it was to him, and it would have been better for everyone if I had been unconscious. In fact, if the doctor were given the opportunity to perform this procedure on me again, I’m betting he would volunteer to anaesthetize me himself. So we’ve moved on from the kidney stone and the bladder stent and ….. have I mentioned that I don’t get sick? I get injured from time to time, but I don’t get sick. (Of course I actually do get sick Once in a while, but not very often.) Interesting coincidence, but the day after the stress of the stent removal, I came down with an annoying head cold. It has been taking it’s time cycling through, but I’m feeling human again. I can move about comfortably and as my energy returns my walks are back up to a mile or two each. Judy is about 5 days behind me with the head cold. She held out longer than I did. So there we have it. The motorhome is running great and so am I, so we’re planning a trip. We want to meet up with Becky’s family on August 17 at Bard College at Simon’s Rock in Western Massachusetts. That’s the day Tony moves into his new dorm. We want to be there to wish him well in his transition to college life. We’re thinking if we leave South Texas early enough we can stop in Maine on the way there. Our last appointment here is a week from tomorrow. We can start a leisurely wander north any time after that. We’re making trip lists and shuffling stuff between the house and the motorhome, a little each day.

June 19, 2013October 21, 2019

We mark out where the walls go for the windscreen. Tape is a great way to put up walls, then try different configurations. We used a lot of tape.

We can orient the grill east/west, facing out the opening. If that doesn’t protect it enough, we can tuck it in all the way facing north/south like it is here. (There are side tables on the grill, folded down now, that will just fit this way.) And looking the other direction….. the first Crape Myrtle bloom of the season!

June 18, 2013October 21, 2019

Barbecue screen

We like to grill. I especially like to slow-cook and smoke, so I got a Charbroil Infrared grill. Problem is; it’s windy here. The wind can blow out a low flame, so we’re going to put in a barbecue windscreen. It starts by expanding the concrete behind the deck. Here it is with the grass dug out.