The Dance Floor is an original song I wrote and recorded recently. It’s a song reminiscent of the days when people could gather together, dance, and put on whatever charm they could muster in attempts to go beyond the dance floor. Maybe Dancing Daze will make a comeback.
After another long day of dismantling the old office, configuring VPNs, and breaking into the WiFi units in the new office building and configuring them, I did manage to get out to see Mama Owl and Daddy Owl after I got home at sunset. I couldn’t see Mama Owl in her hole when I got in view, but I called her, and she gave me an ear tuft up to let me know she was still steadfast on her nest. Daddy Owl was gazing out at the bosque and gave me half eyes over his shoulder for my calling out to Mama Owl.
Speaking of chicks, I did see a few on my way to and from my visit to the owls. Our mini daffy’s bloomed.
After a long week starting to moving into our new office building, WordPress giving all kinds of trouble again, and getting my second vaccine against covid cooties this morning, I’m feeling like how this poor frost-bitten tulip looks.
Bloody Binding Queen
Timothy Price. Music by Abba
I can’t think of anything better for a Friday night at the end of a long week than a bloody awful parody about our Bloody Binding Queen. At the end of last month, Erma was compiling thousands of pages of final reports for facility condition assessments, punching and assembling them into a whole bunch of binders. She kept getting paper cuts and used up all the bandaids we had in the office. I told her she was a “Bloody Binding Queen!” The light went on. After I got home that night, I found the music for “Dancing Queen” by Abba, wrote the parody lyrics (see the lyrics at the end of the post), learned the song, recorded the parody, and sent it to Erma. She was pleased because that was the first song ever done for her.
Since we have had hard frosts the last few nights our tulips are looking like bloody binding queens all frost-bitten and shriveled up. I finally got the IT Department’s office in order, and I got various cuts and bled in the process. We also got Internet, a new alarm system and new tile in the kitchen, copier room and workroom in the new building. So we’ve made a lot of progress.
Looking into the IT office from the door to the office.
Another sad tulip
Bruce’s desk
A Vulture heard there was a bloody binding queen and started circling overhead.
My desk
Dale’s Peach Tree is blooming
Dede’s desk
Daddy owl watching
Looking out into the open work area where multiple workstations will go from my desk.
Mama Owl peeking
Bloody Binding Queen Lyrics by Timothy Price Music by ABBA
Ooh, you can bind, in the grind Compiling the papers you find Ooh, see the girl, with the punch machine Bleeding the binding queen
Friday night and it’s time to go Look at the papers not that low Where they are piled high in the binders rings Although a vegan might go to a Burger King
Look at the clock and you sigh It’s getting old paper piled high With a final push, you can meet the deadline You’re in the mood to dance But there’s not a chance
You’re a binding queen A paper cut from page seventeen Bloody binding queen Hear the grind of pages shredding Oh, crap
You can bind, in the grind Compiling the pages you find Ooh, see the girl, with the punch machine Bleeding the binding queen
You’re a wheezer, from paper spawn The cuts are burning the bleeding goes on Looking for another plaster anyone will do You’re in the mood to dance
Look at the clock and you sigh It’s getting old paper piled high With a final push, you can meet the deadline You’re in the mood to dance But there’s not a chance
You’re a binding queen A paper cut from page seventeen Bloody binding queen Hear the grind of pages shredding Oh, crap
You can bind, in the grind Compiling the pages you find Ooh, see the girl, with the punch machine Bleeding the binding queen
Sasha blocking the Xtreme blender box with Beowulf for backup
Whenever we place a box on the counter, all the cats go crazy over it, especially Sasha and Spunk. Many years ago, we were burning out run-of-the-mill blenders every two weeks making smoothies, frozen margaritas, soups, and whatever else would blend. Eleven years ago I broke down and bought an industrial 3.0 HP blender. We finally wore that one out, with a little help from the ghosts who would turn it on and off at 3:00 am. The ghosts were probably ROTFLTAO watching the two of us muddling around in the middle of the night trying to figure out where the jet engine sound was coming from. I had to start unplugging the blender at night. I replaced the 3.0 HP blender with a 3.5 HP Xtreme industrial blender.
Laurie was using the Xtreme blender box to scan Beowulf in the original Old English with her iPad. She scans Latin and Old English texts and then writes on the scanned text on her iPad while she’s translating it.
Intermission: I received a package from France. It’s a book of French comics.
Spunk says Sasha may look like a tough Xtreme box blocker, but, as you can see, she is no longer blocking the box. I think Spunk is better at channeling his inner Beowulf. The old worn-out blender is on the table in the background.
We did get rain, snow, and high winds last night and most of the day. We got rain in the valley, but the Sandias and foothills got snow with really high winds.
The afternoon light from the sun peeking through the clouds was intense on the cottonwoods.
I moved our 48 port switch to the new building today. I got 3-foot long patch cables because I didn’t know where in the rack I was going to put it. The screws that were left in the rack are slightly too small, so they pulled out of the holes under the weight of the switch. So the switch is on top of the rack for the time being with a mess of spaghetti-like patch cables all over it. We also got Internet installed today and the alarm techs were installing new alarm equipment since the old alarm was old and the person who installed it is long gone. The old alarm system didn’t call out to anyone, so if it got set off, then only people who would know about it are the tenants on the west side of the building. We will be able to monitor and control the new alarm system from our phones. I got Bruce’s desk built between working on wiring, answering questions for the alarm, and tracking down the wiring for the WiFi.
A wider view of the wries, surveillance monitor, the new alarm controller on the right, the old telephone system punch blocks, and the electronic access box.
Bruce’s desk that I was using to test the Internet.
The Internet we installed is 50MBps up and down highspeed wireless. The test is showing faster speeds.
Loki is a bit dazed by all the tech talk.
Guess who?
Daddy owl looking like a king with a royal robe wrapped around him.
After spending five hours dismantling desks, tables, and chairs and moving them to our new office building, I went on a walk to check on Nora Owl. On the way, I saw sparrows, a muskrat, an echelon of cranes, a cinnamon duck. No owlets popped their heads, up and Nora Owl gave me “mad dogs” when I called to see if any owlets were around. One good sign that the owlets might have hatched is Osric Owl was watching over Nora Owl from a nearby cottonwood. On the way back I saw a Flicker, a squadron of crazy Cormorants, a bluebird of some type, and another sparrow feeding on buds in Marina’s pear tree. The clouds were beautiful in the low sunlight about 30 minutes before sunset.
Muskrat nibbling on grass near its den.
Muskrat swimming with its mouth full of grass.
Nora Owl giving me “mad dogs”.
Osric Owl on his lookout branch.
Cinnamon Duck.
Sandhill Cranes still hanging around.
Intermission: My desk we moved from the office downtown to the new office. I build the desk in 1990. That is a light table on the left-hand side I used for sorting slides and transparencies before digital cameras. The desk on the floor is Dede’s desk that she designed and I built for her in 2007, I believe. it will go in the corner to the right of my desk. I will build Bruce’s desk in the corner to the left of my desk.
I was photographing bees in the freshly bloomed plum tree. When I went out to check on Daddy Owl, I got sidetracked by burros and bovine. Since I was doing macro-like shots of the bees, I decided “Moo Macros” were in order for the cows.
Honey bee loaded down with pollen.
Moo Macro in B&W
This burro found a tasty cottonwood branch.
A blue native bee.
Tongue to the right.
Tongue to the left.
Tuck tongue nostril right.
Tuck tongue nostril left.
That’s how you do the Bovine Tongue Tuck Tango.
Bovine doing an imitation of a lion.
Another native bee.
Bovine dog imitation.
Daddy Owl was looking out at the Sandias, but gave me a quick, “You’re bothering me, boy!” look.
Nora Owl is still sitting. Either her owlets have hatched and they are not showing their cute faces or they will be hatching very soon.
Nora Owl in side-view.
Crane gliding above the Sandias. We saw a handful of cranes tonight.
A cute bunny greeted me when I got home. He was still hanging out when I left to check on Nora Owl.
Moon intermission.
The Sandias from the Beach at sunset.
Daddy Owl was hooting when I walked up to the tree he was in. Mama Owls was answering him.
When I walked over to Mama Owl’s hole in the tree, she stopped answering Daddy Owl and ducked into the hole. If you look carefully you can see the tipity tips of her ear tufts.
The painter was working on a soft sunset for Marina.
Towhee
Sparrow
Off Center & Not Even 