An amazing MP3!
I was listening to WETA, NPR Washington, DC, over the internet this evening at various times. I was listening to Living On Earth just a few minutes before posting this (couldn't wait). They concluded the show with an audio recording of a bird that immitates a few oddities (camera shutter clicks, car alarms, chain saws!). I've heard mockingbirds immitate cell phones in Arlington before, but this is way beyond that.

The MP3 is @ 1.8MB. Click on this MP3 link to hear it.

Colibrí, picaflor, chupaflor - 3 words for our visitor
The hummingbird returned again today. Yesterday he (or she, I have no idea) buzzed in, sampled a few flowers, and buzzed out, as usual. Today was different.

I was connecting the garden hose to water a few potted plants, including the flowers the hummingbird likes, when I saw noticed him. He didn't hit the flowers because our dog was basking in the afternoon sun a few feet away, something she enjoys more and more as she gets older. Instead our resident helicopter perched himself on a branch in a nearby tree and watched Boots. I stopped in my tracks and remained still. I have never seen a hummingbird perched. They've always seemed to be, well, flighty. The slightest movement or disturbance will see them whizzing away into the blue.

A few moments later, Boots shook her head and half-arose, apparently irritated by a fly or mosquito, before flopping back down in the grass. The hummingbird rose off his perch, hovering, then moved to a new perch about six inches from the first and resumed his observation. Since he seemed to be ignoring me, I carefully dropped the hose and lowered myself to the tiles, watching our guest all the while. I sat this way, trying my best to memorize features, the better to find out exactly what species our guest is. (Note: I spent a while on rubythroat.org and couldn't decide. I guess I'll have to get a photo of the beastie!)

Unfortunately I didn't have either the camera, to take a photo, or my watch, to time the event. It did last several minutes before the hummingbird stretched his wings, took flight, and quickly left the yard.

Boots, the great hunter that she is, never noticed, and that's just fine.

Idle readings
Upon first arriving in Monterrey, I suddenly found myself with a little time on my hands. I turned to reading, as I often have in the past. Now that I'm starting college classes again, not to mention catching up on episodes of Stargate and Atlantis, I expect I'll be reading for pleasure a great deal less.

Here is the list of books I have read since I arrived in mid-July:

• Peter F. Hamilton Night's Dawn Trilogy (re-read, actually: Reality Disfunction, Neutronium Alchemist, The Naked God) & A Second Chance at Eden (related short stories), The Commonwealth Saga (Pandora's Planet & Judas Unchained); still have to read his Mispent Youth.
• Robert Jordan Wheel of Time series, books 1 - 7 (The Eye of the World, The Great Hunt, The Dragon Reborn, The Shadow Rising, Fires in Heaven, Lord of Chaos, A Crown of Swords).
• Walter Wangerin, Jr The Book of the Dun Cow

I also read some sample chapters from some of R.A. Salvatore's Drizzt books, trying to remember which book I last read (definitely read The Thousand Orcs, possibly The Lone Drow).

I'm also reading Wade Davis' One River at the rate of a score pages or so a day.

People often ask what I'm doing with my time, seeing as how I'm a kept man and all. In addition to the above, I read a number of comics nearly every day: Washington Post political cartoons, Bo Nanas, Candorville, Non Sequitur, On the Fastrack, Red and Rover, Sherman's Lagoon, Zits, and, of course, Dilbert. I check out CNN.com and Washingtonpost.com several times a day, use Google News some, and graze a bit at Newslinx.com several times a week.

I also stream NPR news via WETA-FM in Washington, DC, of which Emily and I are proud members.

Stargate fix
We went to a neighbor's BBQ last night. It was fun: good times, good people, Indio beer. While talking with a few of the other guests about TV options (DirecTV, SkyTV, local cable, Dish, etc.), we confirmed that our host was indeed a SciFi fan and he loaned us most of this season's episodes of Stargate SG-1 and Stargate Atlantis. Apparently someone knows someone who has MythTV, something I really wanted to try, but never found sufficient time to build. I figured that or a Slingbox set up back at my in-laws or a friend's house would likely get me through the rough patches without key shows while I'm overseas.

About this time we began to hear thunder. Their dog, Mariposa - named for her love of chasing butterflies, immediately sought out "dad" and began shaking. She really hates thunderstorms. Several of the other families chose this time to leave as well, it was past the kids' bedtimes. Knowing our cowardly canine was undoubtedly frightened as well, we made our goodbyes, too.

After another 20-30 minutes of thunder, all was well: no rain, no more lightning. We broke out the sangria I made the night before and watched the first episode of this season's Stargate SG-1, "Flesh & Blood." It was enjoyable and capped the evening off nicely. In a few weeks we'll be caught up and, with a little luck, have a TV package that actually includes the SciFi channel. And of course, we'll keep our fingers crossed that somehow SciFi changes its mind and renews SG1 for an 11th season. If you want to add your voice to one or more of the campaigns to save the show, here's a link at savedanieljackson.com that points to several.

And now for some scenery...
Here are a couple of shots from the front of the house. I apologize for the power lines and buildings, but such is life.



Here's another from the front of the house. This was an afternoon shot with some really cool clouds on the mountain.


About a month ago, Emily and I went to Chipinque, a local park on the mountain visible out our bedroom window. We got some nice pictures there. We're definitely going back now that our hiking boots arrived with our household goods. The top of the trail, if I read the signs right, are at about 2km altitude, so over a mile high, but we just went to the end of the paved portion.





You can see a portion of Monterrey from here, but it covers such an area that you'd need a whole series of shots to get it all. We were maybe 2-3,000 feet up.


Note that the three "peaks" in the shot above are the same ones we see from our bedroom. I think of them as three dull teeth.

Lizards in Love and other beasties
Today I thought I'd add a little wildlife. There isn't a lot of it here. I spotted a hummingbird visiting our flowerpots again today (second or third time now). Boots is very disappointed that there are no bunnies, birdies, or squirrels in her yard to chase. A few birds visit our yard, but don't hang around for long. We've seen one baby oppossum while walking Boots (I'm sure she thought it was a rat) and one squirrel while hiking Chipinque, a local park. Thankfully she hasn't shown a lot of interest thus far in what is here: lizards and butterflies.

This was the first anole (often called chameleon) we spotted, and the largest yet. The body is probably about 5" or so long, with a longer tail.



A day or two later, Boots alerted me to something odd. She was sitting in front of the sliding glass door to the patio, drooling and making nose prints. I looked and only saw what I initially took for a few dead leaves, until they moved. The big anole was back, and had a "friend." I didn't want to interrupt them (how would you feel about some guy with a camera?), so I didn't get too close for the picture.



It's probably a coincidence, but a few weeks later, I spot this little guy and one other in one of our bushes. Body: about 1-1.5".



Soon after, we started spotting our nocturnal visitors: geckos. We've seen up to four at a time. This one was spotted eating a moth on our porch wall. I've seen geckos from about 1.5" body to 5" body. They remind me of those rubbery toys that you hurl against a wall and they stick.



Here are a few butterfly shots Emily took while we hiked on Chipinque. There's a butterfly garden there full of flowers.

Soggy Bloggy
Today was dreary: cloudy throughout and intermittent rain. Boots didn't get to do any sunbathing, her favorite activity in Mexico, other than walks on the Calzada. The real rain didn't start until about 5:30 PM, with several stops and starts until about 7 PM or so, at which point the monsoon began. Here is a shot of the patio with rain coming off the roof.

The rain continued, steady and heavy. I finally gave up on the rain diminishing and dashed out to rescue some potted plants (basil) that were absolutely drowning. To give you an idea of how much rain we've had, we discussed the rain in Spanish class last week. We were already on our third day of overcast and intmittent rain at that point. We haven't had a completely clear day since, and we've had rain nearly every one. I wouldn't be surprised if the dry riverbed in Monterrey proper was full.

The rain led to a potential problem: flooding. The maid's quarters in our house are reached by exiting through the laundry room and walking about ten feet across an open courtyard. (If we had a live-in maid, we'd have to really dislike her to make her live there. She'd need about six keys just to get in the house, exit the laundry, and enter her room. Then there's the room itself: tiny bedroom (good luck fitting a single bed in there!) and tiny (claustrophobic!) bathroom.) To get back on track, the courtyard has a single drain, just outside the maid's quarters door. It was clogged with leaves from the neighbor's tree and other bits (probably including drowned roaches, but I try not to think about it). As a result, the water was about an inch from coming under the door into the laundry room and less than half an inch from entering the maid's quarters. Wading through about eight inches of water, I went into the maid's quarters bath, the only place we had a plunger (what planning!), cleared the drain with my fingers, then plunged it a couple times just in case. After removing the obstruction, I could immediately feel a strong current.

Within just a few minutes, the water level had visibly dropped. I declared victory!



Perhaps tomorrow I'll get some scenery shots up. The maid called in sick, postponing until Thursday. That means I have Spanish class in the morning, but plenty of time for college stress in the afternoon. Until then, stay dry.

I had just decided to take a break from evaluating what online college classes to take and write a bit about the frustrations of going back to college, when Hem's "Reservoir" came on Radioparadise... which reminded me that I left the CD in the car, which is at work with Emily. Guess I won't be listening to that one today.

I can't accurately describe what Hem's music is - folksy, old-timey, traditional, chamber music overtones? All I know is Hem has been my favorite band for about five years now. I first heard them on NPR, bought their "Rabbit Songs" CD (still my favorite) and visited their website to join their fan list. That list has netted me numerous free MP3s, concert announcements, and advanced ordering of their newer CDs. An autographed copy of "Eveningland" was Fedexed to my doorstep the morning the CD released (talk about service!). I should be receiving an additional CD of material as a reward for ordering their newest release, "Funnel Cloud," in advance.

Emily and I have seen Hem at Iota in Arlington, Rams Head Tavern in Annapolis, and The Birchmere in Alexandria. I've never bothered seeing another band or musician more than once. We bought tickets for a February show in NYC, at the Lincoln Center, with plans to take a couple days off for the show and trip. When Emily's Foreign Service dream job came through, we had to sell the tix on Craigs List. Interestingly enough, the Hem list sent out a link to a bootleg video someone made of the entire show, with a distinctly "nudge, nudge, wink, wink" tone to the message.

I highly recommend any and all of their music, with "Half Acre" from "Rabbit Songs" as my all-time favorite. A few months ago, before we left the States, I heard "Half Acre" as the background music on a Liberty Mutual commercial. For samples, go to the various websites below or Amazon for snippets from the various CDs.

Hem
Hem's MySpace page
"All about hem"

No, I didn't consciously choose September 11 to start this blog. Although I'm sure politics will crop up from time to time here, today probably won't be one of them (no promises). I have no special plans for the day to personally commemorate the event, but it's nearly impossible not to remember the day.

I was working at my (then) new job, having started nearly a month prior at AHC, Inc. in Manassas. Although audio-visual equipment wasn't specifically listed as part of my support work, I was attempting my best to weed through the cables and connections to get the big screen TV and VCR working for a marketing department employee. The issue was complicated by the absence of some other components and a non-functional satellite system that was still connected. After a few minutes, I managed to get audio, at which point we heard something about a plane striking one of the Twin Towers. At this point I was urged to get the video working, and did. Several others gathered around to watch the unfolding events for a few minutes and a manager came by to say that the TV in the lunch room was showing it, too.

I spent the next several hours, even after the staff was officially dismissed, attempting to get any additional solid information from the internet (pretty fruitless) and talking to my co-worker in the Florida office, Mike. I served six years in the infantry, VA National Guard, and Mike was a former Army nurse and medic. It was a scary, almost surreal day. Later that evening, with serious thoughts of reenlisting going through my head, I spent some time listening to music such as Gordon Lightfoot's "Protocol" and Dire Straits "Brothers in Arms," while embibing too much bourbon. Ultimately, this is what it came down to as far as personal impact: my freshman roommate from JMU was booked on the plane that hit the Pentagon. About a week prior, his boss changed the schedule and flew him to LA a week early. I didn't personally know anyone who died at any of the sites.

Five years later, do I feel safer? Safer from what? Planes used as weapons? Yes, the sheer inconvenience of air travel these days is likely to prevent that precise attack. Safer overall? No, not really. I have no confidence that the current political environment will foster better relations with those who might wish us harm, let alone prevent them. (Sorry, but I said "no promises.)

The US is an open, nearly impossible to secure environment. Remember, I lived in the region the DC Snipers stalked. One of the victims was slain about a mile from my workplace, a location I passed on my way home perhaps an hour before the crime was committed. My biggest fear at the time was that it was not home-grown lunacy. I am extremely thankful that we've had no "copy-cats" thus far. Americans are just not used to thinking in security terms. After five years, I see only limited proof of change. One good example: the tank farm on 28 in Chantilly near Dulles Airport finally got some limited protection. How many others out there are unsecured and easy targets?

In closing, if you have any opinion on the current state of affairs in our nation and our world, do the one thing that you can do to make a difference: VOTE.

In the beginning, there was blog...

Actually, there wasn't, and therein lies the problem. After many delays, most self-inflicted, I have finally set up my blog. I can't promise daily updates, but I'll certainly try. For those of you with whom I've been out of touch (sorry!) or those who don't know me or Emily (mucho gusto), we are now living in Monterrey, Mexico, otherwise known as Far South Texas. I apologize in advance for the length of this first posting, but there's a lot of ground to cover.

(For additional background, see my complete profile.)

We arrived in mid-July, received most of our household goods a few weeks ago, and made our first back-to-the-border dash last Saturday. The primary purpose in our trip was, as was our bidding for foreign posts, dog driven. Boots was nearly out of food and (zoinks!) Scooby Snacks (otherwise known as crack for dogs). Unfortunately we haven't found a local pet store that carries Nutro Natural Choice Large Breed Senior or Scoobies. Our other purpose was diplomatic and, we thought, mandatory: renew the Temporary Import Permit (TIP) on the car.

The trip went smoothly, presenting our diplomatic credentials to the nice, assault-rifle-toting soldiers only once (of two military checkpoints) and once to a Mexican customs official. After presenting our IDs to the US Customs officers and telling them we were shopping for dog food in Laredo, the officers then offered helpful advice: Petco is a better choice than Petland (we confirmed this later). We missed our turn after the Columbia bridge and ended up paying a $2 toll and driving several miles out of our way. This ended up as our only U-turn of the entire trip, of which we are justifiably proud.

After picking up dog food for ourselves and one of Emily's co-workers (he has a horse, I mean, Great Dane) at Petco, we hit Walmart, Target, and HEB for other necessities such as Baked Cheetos (how can they NOT carry them in MX?!), a couple DVDs (Serenity, Ultraviolet), angel hair pasta (only available as "nests" or 2" pieces here), and other assorted items, we headed back. In route, I spotted a sports bar named "Buck Ugly." I wonder if the locals shorten it to "bugly?"

We stopped to renew the TIP, only to have the kindly officials tell us that we didn't need to, simply wait for our Diplomatic plates. Argh! Why couldn't they have mentioned this in the letter they sent from Mexico City? Oh well, live and learn. We've already passed that little golden nugget on to some of the others here. Perhaps it'll save them a trip.

I did see several notable signs and such on the trip, cursing the lack of a camera. Next time I will remember it (pack it the night before) and post the photos here. I had no idea Ducks Unlimited operated down here. Apparently Pokemon live in Mexico, too, but you'll have to wait for the photos.

As always, don't mind me; I don't.