birder2

Music, music

2014-07-29T04:13:30Z

It was a very musical few days. We--that is , Urbana, IL and Amasong hosted a women's music festival under the name of "sister singers". There were women's groups from Portland Maine to SanDiego, CA, and many places in between, including Chicago, Cleveland, Cinncinnati, Charlottsville, Grand Rapids, Lansing, Minneapolis, & D.C. Groups varied in size from duos to, at the end, two massed choirs of 250 each (combining all the groups). Music started Wednesday evening & the final concert was Saturday evening. Variety of songs & styles, Subjects ranged all over, from folk to "girl shoes" ("pointy toes, thin soles, high heels") to one sung at the beginning & the end: " Peace, Salaam, Shalom." Some a cappella, most piano accompaniment; one group had two bowed psalteries, which I'd never before seen/heard in a concert/choir setting. All in all, a marvelous experience.
And just to end the weekend on another grand musical note, our Presbeterian Church had, Sunday evening, Vespers, with a Bach Cantata. listed as "Vespers on the Inauguration of the Town Council".. I hope that town Council did a good job.

The Water is Wide

2014-02-19T03:39:13Z

The weather was warm today, & the snowbanks are melting. Result--I can't cross o'r the resulting puddles. I need a boat, though it does not need to carry two. Just something to row.

Shutdown!

2014-02-05T19:30:19Z

It snowed for 24 hours. Not heavy snow, but enough that there is a lot of the white stuff on the ground. It isn't actually cold yet, though the temp is supposed to be dropping for the next 18 or so hours. But the response of the Powers That Be has been a total shutdown of all facilities, events, what have you. All schools, including the U of I, Eastern IL university, and the 4 more-or-less local community colleges are closed. The public health district(s) are closed. Christie Clinic (a major health care facility) is "closed at all locations". The park districts & all their events are closed. In the 50 + years I've lived in this community, this is the most complete shutdown I've ever seen. What will they do if we get a REAL blizzard? Schools are mostly out of "snow days", & the road crews are running low on salt.
PLEASE, SPRING, WILL YOU COME SOON?

It's cold out there!

2014-01-06T01:30:41Z

I haven't been on LJ for a fair while--busy with bird counts. I just got the last piece I needed to finish up the data for the Champaign County count, done Dec. 14th.Which went better than I had expected: the weather forcast had been for 3-5 " of snow & what we got was 3+5 = 8"..Still we tallied 65 species, including a Merlin and a very cold pipit. Yesterday I went over to the Illinois River for the annual eagle count: Saw fewer birds than I had expected, given that all the still water was frozen solid so the only open water was on the river itself. However we were apparently too late for the birds that were out hunting in the morning--the lady at a riverfront nature center said that a "whole bunch" had been following a barge earlier. I was accompanied by a fellow from Mumbai experiencing his first Midwest winter. The snow was blowing over the road resulting in near whiteout when something in the other lane (such as a snowplow) came along. He took lots of pictures.

So right now we are in what the weather folk are calling a "polar vortex". It's been snowing all day & the temperature has dropped 17 degrees since this morning. It's supposed to drop another 15 or so degrees overnight, putting us well sub-zero.
Brrrrrr.... OK, I lived in Minnesota for 6 years, so it's not as though I haven't encountered this stuff before, but I've been down here in central Illinois since 1964 & I'm no longer used to it! Oh well, I'll survive, & if I open a faucet a bit, so will my plumbing.

Musical days

2013-09-15T20:30:03Z

In 3 days, I attended 3 very different musical events. First, on Thursday evening ((/12), I was at Krannert for a concert by the Jupiter string quartet, who performed works by Hayden, Benjamin Britten, and Mendelssohn. Then Friday was the park district's "jazz walk" at Meadowbrook park, where a bunch of different groups were set up along the mile+ path performing whatever works they wanted, although presumably it should come within some version of jazz. (Actually, I got an early start on that, since the district hosted food and a piano player for volunteers before the main groups started playing.) Finally, yesterday (Saturday) I went over to Taylorville for the Sacred Harp (that's shape note singing) annual state convention. A large contrast in types of music, but allenjoyable.

Audubon convention

2013-07-10T20:10:33Z

This year, National Audubon is having a national convention for the first time in several years.They used to have them every other year, but it does take a lot of work on the part of staff & they apparently lost money on one or two. But this year they are doing it again--in Washington State basically on the Columbia River, The nearest airport is Portland, OR--people will be bussed to the convention site. I decided to go,although the trip is going to be expensive & trying to make travel arrangements and pet care arrangements has proved to be a bit more complicated than I had anticipated. But I take off tomorrow, & will return on the 16th. (I am calling it a birthday present to myself, since my birthday is the 17th.) Hope I find it as much fun as I am hoping!

A very birdy weekend!

2013-06-03T03:17:05Z

This weekend was the annual meeting of the Illinois Ornithological Society. Despite the fact that many roads were under water due to recent rains, (Some rather large fish were swimming in or across some of the roads) there were a lot of birds seen/heard. My personal total was 101 species; I think there were 20-some more seen by others. On the whole, the weekend was a success!

New Mexico Trip

2013-05-26T03:35:39Z

I'm back and slowly recovering from the OLLI trip to New Mexico. We left Wed., May 15; bus from Champaign to St. Louis, fly to Albuquerque via Dallas/Ft. Worth. Sounded easy--but Mother Nature did not cooperate..We sat on the tarmac in DFW for 3 hours; the pilot said there was some "bad weather". When we finally were flying, we flew through clouds with lightning--beautiful to see! The next morning when we saw the papers we discovered that the weather we stayed on the ground to avoid had been a tornado!. A BAD tornado. You've all read about it. So it was good that we stayed on the ground--but when we finally got to our hotel in Albuquerque, we found that that part of town rolls up the sidewalks at 10 p.m. and since we had not gotten there until almost 11, we could not get any food. Even the hotel room service, which according to posted hours should have been open, was shut down;so we had to go to bed without any supper. I think everyone had a hearty breakfast the next morning.
Thursday we went to the Pueblo Indian cultural center asthe main attraction, then for dinner took a arial tram to the top of Sandia Peak for dinner at the "High Finance" restaurant. The sunset was spectacular & the view of the lights lighting up in Albuquerque lovely.. Oh,yes, the food was good, too.
Day 3--Friday Acoma pueblo & El Morro National Monument. Day 4-- drive to Santa Fe with stops along the way.
The rest of the trip was from our base in Santa Fe; one day there was a choice--stay in Santa Fe, or one of 2 trips to old pueblo ruins. I chose to go to Bandelier National Monument (which was very impressive;) Followed by a visit to Los Alamos. (The 3rd option was a trip to Chaco Canyon which was physically too strenuous for me.) The final full day was a trip to Taos, both the town and the pueblo.
Finally, it was time to return to Champaign. This time the weather in DFW was fine. The airline was not.The flight was delayed 2 hours and we changed gates 3 times. However, made it home OK,staggering in my front door at 12:30 a.m. Pet the dog & go to bed.
On the whole it was a great trip, had a good time. New Mexico was a new state for me bringing the total I've been in to 48. I have not yet downloaded my pictures but hope to have a decent photo album soon.

Slowly returning to normal

2013-04-16T02:31:53Z

I haven't been on line much lately--Bronchitis, dehydration, and 3 days in the hospital will do that to you. Then--today was tax day. I always have a problem making myself get started on taxes, but normally, once I kick myself in the butt and get started things go reasonably smoothly. This year, however, I just could NOT get going. And when I did, I could not FIND some of the stuff I needed. When I clicked on the "file for an extension" button, I discovered that yes, they will give you an extension of time to file, provided that you have paid any taxes that you owe. Now if you know what taxes you owe, why would you need an extension?
Anyway, I DID file the tax forms. I strongly suspect that not all the data is correct, but I did what I could with what I had. And I realized later that I had missed a fairly major charitable deduction. Well, If the Feds bounce the forms for correction, I'll have to file an amended return anyway, so I'll worry about it then. But I'll TRY to have things in better order next year. At least I should be getting a fairly substantial refund.

Today is cancelled

2013-03-25T16:12:22Z

due to snow. Well, OK, the DAY exists, but all my scheduled activities are cancelled. Except for shoveling snow, and walking the dog.Isn't spring wonderful?

Irishfest

2012-08-20T20:30:56Z

This past weekend was Milwaukee Irishfest. I went up Friday afternoon; as usual stayed with Art & Cynthia Warneke. Cynthia was working for the fest selling drink tickets much of the time (it's amazing how much beer gets consumed at this event!) which permitted us to park fairly close and fairly cheaply. Art & I had a bit of mis-communication as to meeting (I did not get his final e-mail to me) but managed to get where we were supposed to be anyway. The theme of this year's fest was the connection between Irish & bluegrass music--much of the latter supposedly derives from Irish immigrants who settled in Appalachia. My reaction was that I don't come to Irishfest to hear bluegrass. However, there was much good music. A major surprise was encountering Mary Burtke at one of the concerts! (sorry, I have problems with peoples LJ handles. I know Mary is "Braider" but I forget how to do the silly little icon thing.) She's just had surgery on her throat & wasn't up to much talking, but it was good to see her.
The weather was fantastic--not hot but not cold either. Coming home, the cloudscapes were fantastic, with huge cummulus clouds in the foreground & either blue sky or wispyclouds (you have to be a meteorologist to know the names of some of the formations) as background. This was the first road trip for my new car; I was pleasantly surprised at getting a bit over 37 mpg for the trip. Of course this was highway driving & I was staying within a reasonable approximation of the speed limit.

no kite

2012-08-04T22:04:38Z

A friend phoned me around noon today to report that she had just seen a swallow-tailed kite at Homer Lake. Now, this is a bird that I've only seen once--in Florida--so I promptly headed out. Needless to say, I did not see it. Swallows, yes, kite, no. Given that this bird is so distinctive that a split-second glimpse woul identify it ,(think tern with a 7-foot wingspan) I'm pretty sure tht it is a long way away by now. I hope some other birders see it!

car

2012-08-04T03:02:42Z

There is now a new Honda Fit in my garage. I need to spendsome time with the owner's manual.

new car

2012-08-01T18:02:43Z

Well, I did it! I just bought a new car: A Honda Fit. (I should be able to actually bring it home on Friday.) Silver, 4-dooor hatchback, stick shift. Much better turn radius than my current Mazda. This is basically exactly what I was looking for; I was sort of expecting that if I wanted a stick, I'd have to order it, but they actually had one, although it was not quite ready to be driven. The one I actually test-drove was an automatic, but I trust they will handle pretty much the same--like a dream.

New Computer

2012-07-10T20:11:44Z

I finally broke down, went to Office Depot while they were still running their sale, and bought a new (desktop) computer. 6 meg memory, terabyte hard. This one runs Windows 7; one of the reasons I needed a new one is that Windows XP will soon no longer be supported. Part of the deal was that they would port my files over from the old to the new. Which is fine except that I can't FIND a lot of stuff. They downloaded the current version of Firefox: I know they did,I saw it on the computer. But it's not there now. I can't find whatever this machine uses for "Bookmarks". It took me until this morning to get to e-mail.
However with any luck I'll find my missing stuffand figure out how to use this machine. And things will be MUCH fasterwithadequate memory.

phone, internet back!

2012-07-03T18:34:09Z

After being without any connection to the outside world since Saturday afternoon, I returned from my doctor's appointment near noon today to find the ATT guy on my doorstep, so to speak. My phone and internet are back! The repair guy said that somebody had backed out of their drive and over something vital, cutting a cable. Let us hope that I will now be able to stay connected!

Damn Phone Company

2012-06-30T04:36:19Z

My phone suddenly stopped working this evening. I have no dial tone, just a hiss when I pick up the phone. So I call ATT repair service--and basically they want me to fix it myself. If I can't, they will try to get somebody to me on Monday. (If I didn't have a cell phone, I'd be really cut off!) In the meantime, nobody can call me if they don't have my cell number--which I seldom give out!

Farmer's Market

2012-06-24T04:10:27Z

I saw, I bought, I ate. And it was good.

Visit to the eye doctor

2012-06-14T02:33:47Z

This morning I had my annual eye check-up. I am happy to report that the doctor found no sign of glaucoma or maccular degeneration--and I DON'T NEED NEW GLASSES! My current prescription is just fine. This is good.

Thanksgiving

2012-05-21T04:07:46Z

Some years ago, my friends Rolf & Mary Wilson began having a party for Thanksgiving in the summertime, complete with turkey, ham & trimmings. (This came about after the November Thanksgiving that Mary was sick & couldn't eat) Well, Rolf & Mary got divorced & the big house was sold and you can't do that sort of thing in an apartment, so the tradition was broken. But then a few months ago, Rolf bought a big house with a big yard--and so, today was Thanksgiving in May! There were over 30 people there--don't know if anybody got an accurate headcount. The rain held off until most of the food was gone and the people that were left had moved into the house anyway, so a good time was had. I had been stupid enough to leave my car windows partly open, so the seats were a bit damp, but not bad. Got home to find that my dog had been too stupid to come in out of the rain--I'd left her in the back yard with access to the patio and garage which were perfectly dry, but she was wet. Dried her off the best I could. We needed the rain .

BANG!

2012-05-10T22:17:23Z

My dog & I went to Crystal Lake Park for a short time this morning as part of the Birdathon. Got back to the car, got into the car, closed the door, and BANG! Sounded like an explosion and I was hit hard on my left arm. The driver's side airbag (which I didn't even know I had) and gone off. With no sort of impact--the nearest other vehicle was at least a block away and not even any of the geese were that close. Didn't know airbags would go off spontaneously. My left arm got quite a wallop--it should look really interesting by tomorrow. I'm debating calling the dealer and informing them. I don't have any intention of replacing the airbag. I am thinking it's time to replace the car, which is 10.5 years old.

Spring Bird Count

2012-05-07T01:24:41Z

Yesterday (May 5) was the statewide spring bird count. Unlike the Christmas Bird Count which is not just national but has become international, The spring count is just in Illinois. It is an attempt to get a snapshot of the bird population on a single day in early May, in theory with the early migrants in the north of the state, the medium ones in the middle, and the late ones in the southern part. Of course, the birds do what they will do and it's very dependent on the weather. Anyway, I've been counting in the northeast quarter of the county for as long as I can remember; this year I had 2 others with me, which is not enough but there aren't enough birders in Champaign County to do a complete job.
I started by walking my dog at 6 a.m., then drove up to the forest preserve in a zig-zag fashion on back roads, stopping at stream crossings & anywhere that looked interesting. It was very foggy the first few hours (all over the county) which made things tougher, but I met my friends at the entrance to the preserve--where there was our first surprise--a Tundra Swan. This bird should not be here at this time of year--he should be, well, on the tundra. Fortunately one of our party (Brian) had a camera with long lens & took pictures, which will be required for the record to be accepted.
We walked & drove all day; Brian has a special permit from the Forest Preserve which let us drive into places we'd otherwise have to walk into or not get to at all. The Western Meadowlark that has been there for weeks now was still there singing away; unless he can mate with an Eastern, he is going to be one lonely icterid. We only saw one of the pair of eagles that are known to be nesting--the other must be sitting tight. (I don't want to contemplate the alternative.) Warblers were almost totally absent. Fewer shorebirds that expected, except for large flocks of golden plovers. Brian left late afternoon, but Barb & I kept on until near dark. I got home about 8:45 p.m., then had to walk the dog.(In spite of having been in the back yard all afternoon, she still demands an actual walk.) A very long day. Life resumes tomorrow.

Birding weekend

2012-04-23T15:22:00Z

Spent the weekend at the Illinois Audubon "spring gathering". Main focus, assorted birding field trips--most of the day Saturday and Sunday morning. (Ended with more fried chicken + usual trimmings than we could eat Sunday lunch.). AS usual for such things, the ability to be in more than one place at the same time would have been useful. The tally for birds seen for the weekend, all parties, was 131 species; my personal list was 78 species. The best bird of the weekend was a scissor-tailed flycatcher--a bird that belongs a long way southwest of here--on a trip that was supposed to be notable for wildflowers. Unfortunately it's a place I've never been to and don't know how to find. However, I'd call the weekend a success. Which is fortunate since I gave up FKO for it this year.

Taxes Done

2012-04-17T01:32:26Z

Taxes done,
Turbotax says "Forms in process"--I e-filed the Federal ones. I'm due a substantial federal refund: they gave me the options of a paper check, direct deposit to my checking account, or a Turbotax pre-paid debit card. (I picked the direct deposit option.) Unfortunately they did NOT give me the option of applying it to the 2012 Estimated tax, which is what I would have preferred. So I had to write a check for the 1st installment of that.
I ended up owing the State of Illinois $206 dollars--I underestimated the effects of the tax increase that went into effect this year. Hopefully the T-tax calculation for the Estimated tax will be a bit more accurate for next year.
The remaining chore is to organize & put away all the piles of paper that the process generated.

Home repair

2012-04-12T02:53:26Z

My house is in one piece again! For several years, the front steps have been attempting to fall off from the porch, th porch has been disintegrating, and there have been large cracks in the brick of the garage and the west wing. These items have now all been fixed, thanks to a brickmason who observed the place, rang my doorbell, and made arrangements for the repairs.
Result: He is now $850 richer and my house is no longer falling apart. I think we are both better off.