Sick of Fog Yet?

I can handle winter and the snow. What I tire quite easily of, however, is fog day in and day out. Yuck! Doom and especially Gloom. Well, getting outside nearly always cheers me up and the last few days the weather has been nicer. Well, at least the fog burns of by late morning!

Two days ago 11 Canadian Geese were flying ENE over our house. On my hike down to Latah Creek yesterday I saw a huge gathering of Robins. At least a couple hundred of them enjoying the sun along the warmer south facing hillside where most of the snow had melted off (still a foot and a half at my house). There were a group of prancing deer by the cliff edge as I approached the bottom of the hill. Then a Bald Eagle flew over me, lifting my spirit towards Spring!

Another Quote from "This Moment on Earth"

"The most fundamental responsibility of any government is to protect its citizens from physical harm. Sometimes that harm comes from hostile foreign powers, or from terrorists, or from criminals. But as this chapter shows, it also comes from toxic materials, from air and water pollution, and from those who carelessly expose others to the real and horrible consequences of their own greed or negligence.The environmental justice movement was founded on the simple expectation of American citizens that their government will fight, not tolerate, such harm. Taking up that fight does not involve an expansion of government, or an intrusion of government into private matters, but a vindication of public trust in democratic government itself." from "This Moment on Earth" by John Kerry and Teresa Heinz Kerry

This is from Chapter 3 that speaks 'truth to power' and chronicles Majora Carter's struggle to bring change to her community (essentially a minority community that became a major dumping ground for NYC) via the Sustainable South Bronx organization.

New Bird

I have been a fan of Mountain Ash trees since I was in elementary school when I was collecting Red Rose Tea Cards. They came out in different nature-themed series and the books to glue them into only cost 25 cents! The tree series cards had beautiful little paintings of the various types to North American trees. I was particularly attracted to the picture and name of the Mountain Ash. I do not believe that I actually saw one in real life until I moved west in my early 20's. As a gardener I had heard that they were "messy" trees because of the small leaves and berries but they attract birds like crazy in the dead of winter. Robins, waxwings and nuthatches love to feast on the large red meaty packets of energy. This Saturday I spotted a group of medium sized birds and suspected that they were waxwings but upon a closer inspection they were entirely different with thick, slightly crossed bills. It was my fist sighting of the Pine Grosbeak (# 229 on my Life List)! The males plumage in winter is rather muted but the females plumage looks just like in the bird guides. They were literally outside my front living room window in the Mountain Ash tree. They were pretty tame when I went out onto the front porch to leave. Here is an interesting fact...I did not even plant the tree. It was a volunteer from some bird who made a deposit one day and grew up by the downspout from the eves.

Amazing TV Viewing Stats

Here are some stats that I found:

American adults watch an average of 4 hours of TV a day and the TV is on an average of 8 hours a day.

By the age of 65 the average American has seen 2 million TV commercials.

The average American youth spends 900 hours a year in school and 1000 hours a year watching TV.

(TV-Turnoff Network)

Just imagine how much more you could get accomplished or how much more exercise or how much more enjoyment of life you could wring out of each day if you minimized your time in front of the tube!

To Face Book or Not to Face Book

I am having a difficult time deciding if I should take the plunge. Two of my friends have invited me to join the facebook craze. I just heard that fully 65% of younger people have on-line interfaces and now it is up to 35 % of older adults do as well. My fear is that it will cause me to be on-line even more than I am now. I mainly check news, email, a hobby site and Sparkpeople along with the limited blogging I do. It already feels like this takes me away from 'reality' too much at times. I do like the idea of keeping up with what is going on in my friends lives and maybe reconnecting with lost friends. There is continued debate about whether this sort of communication is bringing people together or making us more physically isolated. I hope it is the later. If it had been so easy to communicate using facebook and myspace in the past I wonder if I would have lost touch with so many of my friends....

Not This Cat!