Yesterday’s trip to Portland accomplished a lot. My wood supplier has lots of newly acquired Blackwood, some nice Castello Boxwood, and might even have Mopane in a few weeks. Then safe visits with friends, a quick stop at Bullseye to return something and pick something up, and then stocking the larders for at least 4 families with some of Tails and Trotters yummy charcuterie. A little bit of birding on the way down but not enough time on the way back. From the flats just east of Scappoose, I could see the peaks of these Cascade Volcanoes: Rainier, St. Helens, Adams, Hood and Jefferson.
Today I found out that some company called “Ayaan Products” lists my flutes and that of other makers on its flute page. I emailed them to see if they were simply reselling a used instrument. That would be allowed. “No, these are brand new!” was their reply. Yeah, right. Unless they somehow conscripted my unknown twin.
And then I found out that my various flute websites were down. Apparently the firewalls that my hosting company urged me to by last year were never properly set up or something. After a few calls they theoretically fixed it and my sites (and that of Nancy’s and Lila’s) are now up and running again. Tomorrow I might call them back to see if Ayaan is someone they host and if so, I’ll excuse them for the money I spent on Cyber Insecurity as they take that other site down.
These are now up and functioning.
Finally, a complaint regarding Russia. I suspect Putin with the support of his Republican Puppetry is doing all this warmongering in order to simply make Biden look bad. Then comes the Midterms and Biden’s presidency will be flying away like a lame duck (again, no birdwatching). Its this cycle’s version of the Iranian Hostage Crisis which the Republicans and the Ayatollah created to get rid of Jimmy Carter. It worked and the embassy staff was released on the day Reagan was inaugurated. Surprise! Surprise!
So I posted this on Facebook, cursing Putin and the Republicans at the end - except it somehow autocorrected “Putin” into “Biden”. I fixed it and it autocorrected back again and again. So maybe Ayaan is hacking my Facebook and my website as well. Who knows what tomorrow will bring!
Its not like I had any brain cells that could deal with this today! I was quite tired. Also distracted with a task of rendering the cheery wood into bowl turning blanks. (I left in that typo. It will autocorrect into something like “Sheesham Wood”). I did meet the two great bowl turners of Vashon, including the one who just married my dear and very talented friend Brittany Nicole Cox (see mechanicalcurios.com) which was perhaps the brightest spot of the morning. But then later, I encountered some people simply being a little too brusk with me for my tastes. It seemed several individuals were having a hard time today.
It will take the nice Birria Tacos and the long nap I had earlier this evening, and the upcoming soak in a tub and long night’s sleep before my attitude improves. I never got out to do any bird watching today. Well, yesterday - its now 1AM as I do the editing of the final draft (the emailed ones are always needing corrections).
I did have one bright birding moment when Meryl Streep came to visit this morning. She swooped by my face complaining, and then posted herself on the highest tree until the chainsaw started. I caught a few images of her departure. All Merlins are named Meryl Streep, just as all Cooper’s Hawks are named Gary. Meryl is probably eating the birds that are abundant around our feeder. The Spotted Towhees are bullies and probably the best value for her as they are twice the size of the Juncos and Chickadees. The Jays and Flisketts (my new unautocorrected name for Northern Flickers) are staying away for now.
I plan to render more of the cheery wood into workshop wood size using an axe blade and a 2 pound maul, and go bird watching. Unless I wake up and someone has autocorrected and hacked into my few remaining brain cells and turned me into an antivaxxer.
Portland is full of crows. Every crow west of the Continental Divide in Iowa and Kansas discovered that the Park Blocks of downtown Portland are five degrees warmer at night than anywhere else on the planet. I saw a large group on their way at NE 24th between Glisan and Sandy while waiting for a parking spot to open. One can find videos of these Corvidian flyovers on YouTube and TikTok. There is no parking.
I have a history on that block, besides Tails and Trotters. In the late 1970s I lived in the house across the street once with 7 other housemates, all female, two of which were 5 year olds. We called our house “Hunka Munkas” after the two bad mice characters in a children’s book. It was one evening when I was babysitting the daughters while all the women were off at that Big Important Political Meeting downtown, that my somewhat infamous Slug Imitation was invented. Kara and Becky, who are now in their mid-40s, witnessed/suffered this Pulmonata-inspired Snidely Whiplashian Stunt requiring sufficient facial hair above the mouth first, before I took this act on the road.
They were not impressed. Both erupted tears from their eyes, and simultaneously cried “DOOOOOOOONNNNNNN’TTTTTTTT!!!!”
The women including the two moms thought the act was hilarious and the kids response a hoot and we laughed about it all night. My friend Michael Korchonoff and I were once down at Kevin Carr’s for a few days of piping. I was asked to demonstrate this imitation and to tell the story of its origin. Kevin’s wife Josie Mendelsohn (related to the composer) killed us all when she said “Oh. You were a Child Mollusker!”
Their daughter Molly who is now a mom herself (Congrats Molly!) was sitting next to me at the dinner table. We made eye contact with each other immediately after that statement came out of her mom’s mouth. We burst out laughing so hard that our sides were sore for days! It took some time for all of us to calm down after that brilliant first strike.
That evening and the one time I laughed all night with Chris Caswell at Lark Camp are some of the nest laughing fits of my life. I am ready for one of these right about now.
Tomorrow I am going to go entirely back to analog. Rotary phones are too advanced for me. I do have my late brother’s Morse Code key thingy (its too late to look up what these are properly called) and I do remember how to say SOS (dot, dot, dot DASH DASH DASH dot, dot, dot) which is probably all that I need. But then, nothing beats a couple of Tin Cans and String. Lots of String.
If all else fails, I’ll go join the Crows of Portland.