The Evolution of Science Fiction discussion
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Daily Chit Chat
Mod
While doing this I decided to unplug and rid myself of my analog audio receiver. I haven't turned it on in a few years, so why keep it around? I'm all digital now.
Jim wrote: "I guess everyone has heard the news that Alex Trebek, the host of Jeopardy, has stage 4 pancreatic cancer. This is terrible news. Jeopardy & Trebek have been a constant in our lives almost our enti..."Yes, this is rough news. Another mortality reminder as well.
It's getting on toward spring, so we've used up most of the hay in the barn. We store it on big (6'x10') pallets that have a single sheet of plastic running under them all. I pick the pallets up each year & rake all the loose hay out, but I found a surprise this year.In between 2 pallets I found a long pile of the gravel that's under the plastic. Looked like a dog or groundhog had dug it up. About a foot from the end of the pile there was a hole in the ground, but the plastic was unbroken for at least 3' all around it. The plastic wasn't bubbled up or anything. It's like the gravel was somehow dug up through the unbroken plastic. When I cleaned off the chaff, I picked up the plastic & poured the gravel back into the hole. It filled it perfectly.
I'm totally confused by how this was possible. I'm thinking aliens.
Mod
You are ignoring the most obvious solution: dogs and groundhogs are aliens.
Mod
Ed wrote: "Jim wrote: "Looked like a dog or groundhog had dug it up...."You are ignoring the most obvious solution: dogs and groundhogs are aliens."
I've always thought that when dogs were urinating they were secretly marking off grid points for the upcoming invasion.
They don't usually use their alien technology on me, though. If there'd been a hole in the plastic, I wouldn't have thought any more about it. Maybe they're slipping. If I disappear suddenly, you'll know I found out too much!;)
A truck upstream from work leaked a lot of detergent & then we had heavy rains. It made huge mounds of bubbles next to our parking lot & the wind swept them all over.
Jim wrote: "A truck upstream from work leaked a lot of detergent & then we had heavy rains. It made huge mounds of bubbles next to our parking lot & the wind swept them all over."
Whoa! We gets this effect regularly in heavy surf after a storm (Calif central coast) -- the kelp beds leak a surfactant that whips up into a long-lasting foam, sometimes splattering up on the rocks & looking like snow! Sadly, it quickly turns to a sickly yellow in the sun.
We still see mechanical kelp-harvesters working a few days of the year. The extract is mostly used in cosmetics, I think. Next: robot harvesters?
Mod
Ed wrote: "I've mostly seen this at disco foam parties."Heh. We need pix! Dancing girls! 👯♀️ 😻 ❤️ 😎 👯♂️ 𖢑 👍🏻
Peter wrote: Heh. We need pix! Dancing girls! 👯♀️ 😻 ❤️ 😎 👯♂️ 𖢑 👍🏻"Amazing that GR supports all this graphic silliness! From the macOS emoji package 🚀 🤯 😎 骁 😇
Mod
Sorry, these were gay male discos. 🌈
(Actually I was only ever once at a "foam" party at a Club Med. I thought it was stupid.)
John wrote: "Looks like remainder snow."It did until you saw it flying up in the air & dancing. The pieces that aren't in the main blob are actually floating in the air, not laying on the far bank.
The wind was pretty horrific here yesterday. It was 50mph with gusts up to half again as fast. I had to dodge a small dead tree that was hanging out in the road from my hedgerow. It was whipping back & forth held by grapevines. My son-in-law got to it before I got back out there. I wound up spending over an hour screwing down the big barn's roof. 2 pieces were folded back & a bunch was lifting up. I must have used a pound of screws up replacing nails. Up & down the tall ladder dozens of times in high winds. My legs aren't happy today, but at least the horses & goats didn't come help me. There's a hole in one piece, but I think we'll have to live with it.
I think that was the only real damage. There's one dead tree that fell out of the woods into the barn field, but nothing down on the fence through the woods as of dinner time last night. I'll have to check again tonight after work.
Our Internet service went down, too. It's wireless & they said their antennas had gotten blown askew. No one was planning to climb the tower to fix them yesterday.
Our internet service is down & I'm not sure if we'll get it back this weekend. The winds damaged the wireless tower. I don't know how extensive it was & we're never a very high priority on the repair list, so it may be Monday before I'll be checking in after I leave work today soon.
Mod
Ed wrote: "No internet at home? Better stay at work all weekend!"Yeah, right. Sounds like a good reading weekend to me!
It wasn't working when my wife left today, but it is now. I could live without the Internet (not to put down your wonderful company) but it is annoying. The tower that gives us our wireless Internet service also has the cell phone stuff on it. I can live without the cell phone more easily since it rarely works well here & we have a land line, but being without both kind of sucks.Minor things like changing a light bulb sometimes require a bit of research. No, I'm not joking. I've been using 100 watt bulbs in the porch light fixture. Could I use the 800 lumen LED bulb I found in the cabinet? I could, but it would only be half as bright. Nice to find out through a quick Google search rather than by swapping bulbs in daylight & guessing.
Marg bought a new horse trailer yesterday. It wound up being a bumper pull instead of a gooseneck. Pretty nice, although she's in hock for 5 years. Trailers are expensive. This one is a steel frame with an aluminum skin, 2 horse straight load with a tack room. Very nice ramp that has springs to balance its weight.We had the kids up for a corn beef, cabbage, & red potato dinner with cheesecake for dessert. Marg soundly trounced us all in a game of 500 rummy. Nice birthday dinner for me.
Buck, according to my kids, I've always been old. According to my mother & her older sister (who is exactly 20 years older than me) , I'm still a child. I have completely gray hair, am awfully thin on top, & have 2 grandmonsters. I hate falling off a horse any more since it usually hurts for a week, but I did fix the barn roof in a wind storm which totally impressed my son-in-law who isn't quite 30 yet. That's a long way of saying, I guess I'm working on it, but not there yet.;)
Uh. I think I'd hate falling off a horse regardless. (I usually drive a car. I guess falling out of that could be even worse.) The nurse practitioner who recently diagnosed my heart condition (two more medications and one more doctor added to the list) was horrified that I had even been up on the roof. You're right - a lot of it is perception, and who's doing the perceiving.
No, falling off a horse is never fun, but there are hard falls & relatively easy ones. Even the latter are no fun any more. A few years ago, Chip did some little bucks as we cantered up a hill, stumbled & went down on his nose. I went over his shoulder & did what felt like a really good somersault in the soft grass. It was an easy fall, but apparently I strained about every bit of connective tissue in my body. I felt fine after the fall, except for where his hoof cracked my shin, until a day or so later.I miss Chip. Had to put him down due to navicular last summer. I'm going with my daughter to look at another horse this evening to replace him. I have fairly high hopes for this one since he comes highly recommended by people we know unlike some of the other ones we looked at last fall.
Mod
That's why you should always wear a seat belt!
I was biking yesterday in a region festooned with horses and I've got a question for you: can horses be potty trained? I don't mean to use an indoor toilet like I usually do, but if given enough space will they limit their messes to one area?
Jim wrote: "I miss Chip. Had to put him down due to navicular last summer. "I feel for you about Chip. . I'm a city boy. My total time on horseback is probably less than an hour. I assume one can get attached to a horse the same as one can a pet. They become dear friends.
Ed, I don't know about training a horse, but they certainly can save it & poop in specific areas. Stallions & some geldings tend to have specific areas where they'll poop. Blue, my wife's old horse, was quite studdish & used to walk over to the manure pile if he was in the area. Topaz, my daughter's old horse, would store it up & let go as soon as he got in his stall, but not in any specific spot. Other horses will use one corner, but others let go whenever & where ever they get the urge.Probably a longer answer than you wanted, but horse people are obsessed with horse poop due to their rather touchy digestive system. They can't burp or vomit (So, don't chew cud, obviously.) & it's a one way trip through. If a horse isn't pooping & farting regularly, it's a big deal. It can, usually does, mean some form of colic & that can kill them.
I tried out Red today. I'm not sure we'll ever be best buddies, but I think he'll work for my short rides around the farm & occasional outings. He's a chestnut Quarter horse, about 18, 15.1h, so pretty old & taller than I wanted. He carries his head a lot lower than I like, too. Still, he's got a fairly smooth trot that I had no trouble sitting to in the bareback pad. I'll definitely need that since he's got a pronounced back bone. Anyway, I'll let The Boss (Marg) work out the details, but I expect we'll get him on a semi-permanent, free lease. We take care of maintenance & feeding, but give him back when or if we want to.
Mod
Nope. I can't get enough horse stories! Since I left the farm at a young age to film my TV show with Wilbur, I am out of touch with the other 99% of horses.
I just saw some horses standing around in a poopy field recently and just wondered whether they resented it or didn't care.
Good luck, John. That's why we moved 600 miles over a decade ago, so we could buy a small farm. It's been well worth it. I hadn't ridden much in years, either. It comes back.Just be aware that drafts can be stubborn & they weren't bred for riding. They don't spook easily, but a Clydesdale is big (18h = 6') so you'd better invest in a ladder to get on & finding a proper fitting saddle might be interesting. There are many smaller draft breeds that might suit you better & crosses can be excellent, usually better than a pure draft for riding.
Quarter horses come in a lot of different lines that can vary greatly. Pumpkin, my wife's current pony is nothing like Indy, her last one, but both were Quarter horses. Indy carried his head low like Red, but Pumpkin keeps his almost as high as Tango, Erin's OTTB, yet he's the chunkier than Indy who looked like a small Thoroughbred.
I'd worry less about breed & more about finding the right horse, making sure it is sound, not too old, nor too expensive. It's not terrible to have an idea going in, but don't let it imprison you. My wife & I have been looking & it's taken 6 months to find one that's possibly OK. Red wasn't really what I was looking for in age or height, but his disposition & circumstances make him a decent fit. He also doesn't mind my leg (I tend to put a lot on a horse.) which is a must.
Of course, just remember that the purchase price is probably the least expensive & certainly the only known cost. Hay, feed, blacksmith, vet, fencing, barn, field maintenance, & time are all amazingly expensive.
The best way to become a millionaire while owning horses is to start off as a billionaire.
;)
Good luck! I agree that you need a horse that takes up your leg. I hopped on Rascal who didn't a few years back. He spooked a bit, I bobbled, & wound up putting both heels into his belly. He responded with a perfect buck that threw me over his head. I did a perfect somersault & landed flat on my back about 20' away. Luckily, it was just grass I landed on. Breathing wasn't an option for a while, though.I wish we had a vet in the family. As it is, we just pay a lot to be on a first name basis with everyone at our vets' office.
;)
Ed, I found this on FB this morning. I wasn't kidding about horse people & their obsession with poop.:)
Mod
🕶️ But protect your eyes! 🕶️
Yes, we actually have blue skies here. I'm off....
It was nice this morning, but I spent most of the day getting licensed. I had to renew my driver's license & then spend a couple of hours in class to renew my pesticide license. As usual, the class was boring, but the information packets are fascinating. It's amazing how many different invasive bugs & plants we're battling now.
My son-in-law sent me this interesting article. Anyone ever been to one?Edible Book Festivals Are for Pun and Food Lovers:
https://www.atlasobscura.com/articles...
I need to learn to bird by ear, or at least be a more discerning (?) listener. There's this one bird that was singing well before dawn today and I couldn't find anything on google/youtube that sounded right.'Course, my excuse is that it woke me and I'm too tired to think or listen straight!
You can try using Cornell's site for bird identification. I think the Merlin app can be used for bird songs now, but I'm not positive.https://www.birds.cornell.edu/home/
I have a terrible time with bird songs. I have no memory & a tin ear for such things. I have a CD with dozens of bird songs on it & have tried to remember them many times, but can't manage it. The only way I pick them up is by seeing the bird at the same time. I hope you have better luck.
Mod
Birds are really insensitive, making all those squawky noises all the time. Why can't they just shut up!
I was biking recently in an area that was infested with Pheasants. I startled a few and got to hear them squawk. They make a really curious noise. It sounded like they were made of metal and were having trouble getting their engine to turn over.
What’s really annoying is camping on the edge of a lake when Whippoorwills are breeding. Whippoorwill whippoorwill whippoorwill all night long
Mod
Don't they sleep?
I'm currently reading Erewhon Revisited. In it there is a bird species that calls out "More pork!". If there were a real bird that did that, I think I'd be able to recognize it by its call.
Whips are nocturnal. Also Chuck-Wills-Widows.
Mod
That sounds annoying. I can understand now why they appear in many 'weird' tales.
As Wikipedia tells us, "the whip-poor-will can sense a soul departing, and can capture it as it flees." I guess that is easier to do at night.
Mod
The 'song' is described as "oong, kach, oonk", but to me it sounds more like the bird is trying to vomit. Looks like it, too.
https://www.audubon.org/news/video-wa...
I talked with a fellow who was involved with the development of the Soundhound app for identifying music. He said it could be done for bird sounds, but there wasn't a large enough market for it. I had a bird app that has bird sounds but it had to remove it because it took up too much memory on my cell phone. For it too be useful you had to at least have an idea of what birds you were hearing.
I'm pretty good at identifying birds by their calls, but only the ones around here and only compared to other people.
Seen 330 species of birds in NC and 471 species lifetime
Yeah, Cornell is good. My husband has a good app, too. But if I have no idea what it is, and an untrained ear, I just don't know what to do if I want to improve but not make a big investment.I think your acquaintance, Buck, doesn't realize how big the market could be. After all, I've never heard of Soundhound, but apparently they don't need me... gotta do market research w/ the right perspective and potential customer base.
That was several years ago. I checked the app store. There is an app for identifying bird sounds. $4.99Soundhound will identify whatever music you hear. Let it listen- it will even ID classical music right down to which orchestra is playing it.
The Evolution of Science Fiction
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