A Sliver Moonrise

The river and sky were blue at twilight

Jake and I stood on the edge of the river at twighlight and watched the Sliver Moon rise this morning.

The Sliver Moon did not get to rise very high before it was swallowed by Dawn.

Osric Owl. Nora and Osric

Cranetrail

Quite A Surprise

After we came home last night, I opened the door to the bedroom and there was a bird flying around in the dark. Before I could turn on the bedroom light, it flew into the bathroom. When I turned on the light in the bathroom, it was a Western Screech Owl. 

I offered my hand like I do to our birds, and told him to step up. He stepped up onto my hand with his sharp claws and iron grip. I lifted him up and he hopped over to the towel rack where we photographed him. I stroked his feathers behind his head while I talked to him, and then checked to see if he was injured.  He did not seem to be injured, so I put on a glove and tried to get him to step onto my gloved hand so I could take him outside and let him go.  He did not like the glove, and bit it while he held tightly onto the towel rack. I finally got him into a sweater box, covered it with the towel, and took him outside to let him go. He refused to fly out of the box, so I offered my hand, he stepped up on it, I lifted him toward the sky, ad he flew off.

It’s a real mystery how he got into our bedroom. He had to get on the deck, which he could through the 4-inch vents near the top of the roof. Then he would have to get through two cat doors to get to the bedroom. Even though screech owls are small, I believe he is too large for a cat to carry in through the cat doors without the cat getting injured by the owl’s sharp claws and iron grip, and the owl getting injured by the cat. 

I think like Spunk disappearing for a month, Sasquatch and the scoop shovel, the Screech Owl in the bedroom will remain a mystery.

Screechy is a handsome little guy. Not happy with il paparazzo taking pics of him.

Laurie’s GIF gives you a sense of scale. He is full grown. He started to relax and closed one eye while I stroked him.

Between The Lines

Moonrise and Venus

Sliver Moon between the lines

Wile E. Coyote has a hangdog look in the first photo when he was on the ditch by our gate. He crossed the Clearwater ditch, ran up onto the top of the levee near where I was, and looked a little less hangdog.

Ducks in the ditch

Cranes in the Rio Grande

Contrails

Sunset

Black lace cottonwoods

Night sky

Happy Solstice!

Spunk: “Bah, Solstice humbug! The stinking day lasts too stinking long on stinking Solstice!”

Venus and the sliver moon at dust again.

Night sky looking east.

Sol the orange and black striped beetle: “I love Solstice and having a long day to lounge in the daisies!”

Night sky looking west.

Night sky looking north.

Night Sky Looking south.

New Music Monday

If you don’t want to listen to the new song (it’s hard rock/metal) about the new abnormal, you can simply enjoy the photo of the sliver moon and Venus hanging out together in the clouds last night.

While I was cleaning out my address book of people who have died or simply disappeared over the past three years, I realized that outside of my family and work, I have only a few real, in-the-flesh friends in town who I rarely see. I started thinking about how my physical world has grown so small, how the powers that be work hard to keep the world in turmoil, and while their mouthpieces and talking heads in the popular press speak of the “new normal” it’s really the “new abnormal” that is being shoved down our throats. For better or worse, it inspired a new song.

New Abnormal
Lyrics and Music by Timothy Price

[verse]
I’ve watched my world as it’s grown so small
I sit, I stare, as I listen to The Wall
I would like to break bottles in the hall
But plastic bottles won’t break at all.
I’m feeling spastic I’m all alone
My world is dreary no one’s home

[Chorus]
Will we ever be normal again?
Can we say what normal has been?
The new abnormal is tearing us asunder
They divide us up as they plunder.

[verse]
The hand of doom it pleases me
Mother Mary, can you set me free?
“Man, oh man, you sinned indeed!
Maybe that’s why you can’t see!”
I may be blind my cross-eyed Mary
But the world I see is desolate and scary

[Chorus]
Will we ever be normal again?
Can we say what normal has been?
The new abnormal is tearing us asunder
They divide us up as they plunder.

[Bridge]
All my friends have disappeared
Pandemic lockdowns made us weird
Thinking each other is deranged
Now we are ideologically estranged
Isolation made us rage
We took it in, we felt the pain
Masked like bandits, identities were lost
Now we’re strangers. Was it worth the cost?

[Outro]
Will we ever be normal again?
They said our norms were mortal sins
Their new abnormal will save us any bother
They divide us up

Will we ever be normal again?
They said our norms were mortal sins
Their new abnormal will save us any bother
They divide us up.

They send us off to slaughter