Wordslinger

So here we are in Austin, back where we first met. It doesn't look a thing like it did nearly 40 years ago... well, parts of it don't. We got up early, drove down to the Lady Bird Johnson Wildlife center and did the easier tour. Luckily many of the plants are labeled. I'm going to make myself a photo album of plants to help me learn them faster.

And, of course, I obsessed on the grasses. The more I learn, the better I can map areas at Audubon.

I was surprised at the lack of variety of dragonflies until Bruce pointed out that there aren't many ponds on the property (0h! Duh!) There are butterflies, though, all over the late blooming bushes and we saw a fat "wooly bear" caterpillar that hurried out of our way. It may be a Giant Leopard Moth caterpillar but the jury's still out on that one:
http://www.hiltonpond.org/ThisWeek020608.html

"My prisoner" got his sentencing in Ft. Worth today, and they said they were satisfied with what Dallas had mandated and the sentences can run concurrently. So he will be out on March 10th or 11th. He'll miss Thanksgiving (but the family can see him this weekend) and he'll miss Christmas (but they can have a "full contact" visit with lots of (supervised) hugs) and his wife's birthday.

I'm happy that they didn't sentence him to something longer and that he can be back with his family (they need him so much) and dealing with ordinary problems in four months.

The prison system is nightmarish for families -- prisoners get transferred around and when this happens they get "lost" (nobody knows where they are.) Phones are expensive (this "hey, I can call anyone anywhere when I'm in prison" myth shown on tv is not reality), and oftentimes the only way they can keep track of where the prisoners are is when another prisoner calls THEIR family and asks that family to contact the transferee's family.

Anyway, I'm relieved. I'm working on seeing about charities to get stuff for the kids for Christmas and asked the wife to check with the mortgage company to see if they can get some sort of break until Tim gets out of prison and is able to work again. It's humiliating for them to ask for charity... but they have to do it for the sake of their adopted children.

...just in case everyone forgot:
http://www.radiocomix.com/comix/coyote/

Facebook is having a LOT of trouble... I suspect it has to do with the sheer size of the application. It's creating issues with games like Hatchlings and the farming games -- and I really do enjoy Hatchlings but if Facebook is going to act like this I will have to reduce the number of pets.

Apparently the latest round of literature for ultra-conservatives is a series of children's books, the first titled (I kid you not) "Help, Mom, there are liberals hiding under my bed!"
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Help-Mom-There-Liberals-Under/dp/0976726904

Some of the Amazon-suggested tags for the book included "waste of trees."

It actually has a Wikipedia entry, and there are other books in the series. People who bought them (including arch conservatives) are giving the book two stars out of five:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Help!_Mom!_There_Are_Liberals_Under_My_Bed

Other books in the series include (no, I'm really not making these up) "Help! Mom! The 9th Circuit Nabbed the Nativity! (or, How the Liberals Stole Christmas)" and "Help! Mom! Hollywood's in My Hamper!"

I'm sure someone appreciates them. But I don't foresee myself buying any for my granddaughter or anyone else.

Busy week! Bruce and I had a "prairie grass class" at Audubon today and it totally rocked! There are 500 common grasses in Texas, 115 of them (or so) are of reasonably high commercial value, and we covered about 50 of them today and how they're used in soil remediation and livestock planning. The focus was on soil remediation for Audubon, and this was a class aimed at master naturalists and master gardeners.

It left our heads spinning (we're niether) -- but in a good way and I'm determined to learn more! I did take photos.

Meanwhile, it's the newest chapter of Coyote! http://www.radiocomix.com/comix/coyote/

And I snuck in two updates of Duncan and Mallory, too!
http://www.radiocomix.com/comix/duncan-and-mallory/

I found this rather thought-provoking commentary on the actions of a soldier tweeting a "play-by-play" account of the Ft. Hood shootings. The point made that the view of someone inside a situation while it's going on can be very biased by rumor, hysteria, and the reactions of others is very valid, as is the one that our use of social media seems to be turning us into attention hogs and sometimes at the wrong moment. The example he cites is of a citizen filming Neda Agha Soltan bleeding to death rather than dropping the stupid camera phone and trying to help her.
http://www.techcrunch.com/2009/11/07/nsfw-after-fort-hood-another-example-of-how-citizen-journalists-cant-handle-the-truth/

I think I agree with him, but also recognize that there are those of us for whom the "tweet the moment/record the moment" will never be part of the way we operate. Many years ago I was doing a photo shoot of a festival when a storm blew up and knocked tents over, bowling over a vendor. I slung down my camera and ran to help get the woman to her feet and go help secure tents. Others got interesting shots... me, I tried to help the vendors save their livelihood.

Different set of priorities.

Bruce and I had a lovely hike on "my trail" today -- the most delightful thing that happened was when someone told us that the walk reminded him of the time he spent in the woods as a boy. When I heard that, I knew that we had picked just the right spots.

The new Coyote is up... and the tale is about to take (oh heck. I won't spoil it):
http://www.radiocomix.com/comix/coyote/

And my inmate is "lost" from Lew Sterett, which means he's FINALLY being transferred to Ft. Worth. This is good news.

As you remember, it started with someone smashing my car windown and stealing my GPS. Calls to the police non-emergency line went unanswered (I'm paying how much for city services?), ditto calls to insurance agent.

So on Monday, I took the car to my trusty mechanic, got loaner car, DROVE to the police department to make my report, swapped out teaching kits, did work on Alamosaurus. The paleontologists looked at my work and declared the vertebra was finished -- all I need to do now is glue it up. And yes, I'll post a picture or two once it's done. But not all the pictures I've taken -- there's over 100 of them. Also called insurance company and was told that the mechanic isn't one of their "authorized mechanics." The Customer Service Representative started reading the script to me, and I hung up. Turns out (explained by my mechanic who did NOT read a script to me) that I pay for it and they reimburse me.

Tuesday was the day that I helped break trail for the new trail (an Eagle Scout's project) at Audubon Trinity Center. It was fun to go through the forest, looking for focal points for a trail and marking what would be cleared and what would be taken out. Discovered a delightful angle grinder (junked) that had been welded to a post that would make a great trail marker or art piece (suggested we leave it in place.) That night I rubbed my itchy face.

Wednesday morning I discovered that the itchy face was poison ivy. Then I learned that the car glass people sent wrong glass to my mechanic, who called and chewed them out. The kids in afterschool Mad Science program were just... unpleasant and out of control.

Thursday, poison ivy was much worse, and I put a patch over my eye because I looked like I'd been in a number of brawls. Ron, the paleontologist, looked at my face and said "I'd hate to see the other guy." I said "he was short, green, and had 3 leaves." I finally got some answers for assistance on prisoner's family I'm trying to help (dad in prison (non violent -- parole violation because he lost his job and couldn't continue paying restitution), family has SEVEN kids (not theirs; nieces and nephews abandoned by brothers and sisters. They've adopted 3 of the kids already -- two are autistic.) She'd covered a lot of resources, but with Christmas and Thanksgiving coming up it will be a difficult year. Charities are strapped for cash... I'm still looking.

Friday, I took my face to the doctor and was given a steroid shot and pills (the standard treatment) and the face did start to look better by evening. Went to Audubon to do some GPS work and was told that work on the trail had started.

Today (Saturday) I went out to the dinosaur dig to start the GPS mapping there. Decided to drive down rather than walk down the hill. Ahead of me, in the muddy road, I saw a truck that was stuck and thought I might be able to help rescue the drive (in my Nissan Altima) by driving on the edge and in the grass. Bad move. 30 feet in, the Nissan got stuck in mud in the field up to his frame. So, on the theory that misery loves company, I went over to the two women and checked out the situation. It was a Ford F150 with 4 wheel drive and it was stuck on a high hump. There was no way that 3 60-something women were going to push it off. We saw one of the dig crew, asked him to send back help... and 20 minutes later a 28 year old guy comes strolling up. Needless to say, the four of us didn't have enough muscle power to push anything out. Meanwhile, the professor's assistant and a full class of students wanders past our stuck truck (50 yards away) and doesn't stop. The other ladies fumed a bit, then one of them called her brother. He arrives to help and is blocked at the gate to the dirt road by three vehicles sitting next to each other and blocking the gate.

I marched over to the assistant and the class and yelled "EXCUSE ME! WE NEED SOME HELP!" If you haven't heard me bellow, I was in choir and know how to yell from the diaphragm... I can outshout many crowds. Scared 'em half to death. I said that we'd been stuck for 90 minutes, we finally got a tow truck and that the gate was blocked by 3 vehicles owned by someone at the dig and I was Getting Peeved. Hasty phone calls were made, brother shows up with Ford 150, second brother shows up with Ford 450, and we are hauled out. The ladies leave (a bit angered at the crew ignoring crew pleas for help) but I went off to the dig, found the guy who had come to help us (and gotten mighty muddy) and gave him the $15 we collected to help pay for his lunch and laundry. I told him that just the fact that he showed up helped immeasurably.

Then Derek came along with a class... and since I was there to GPS, I followed him around and marked stuff. After that, I headed to Audubon where I was greeted with the delightful news that "my trail" was finished! Dana drove me down to where it started and I walked, enchanted and amazed. We'd done a good job of picking the right places and the trail showed off a number of very nice microregions including a riparian (forest) pond. It's still very new, so more work needs to be done, but my trail IS finished!

They left in the woods (I suggested it) the old angle grinder, which will be turned into a geocache marker and trail marker. And I'm SO pleased with the trail. Bruce and I will walk it tomorrow and do some nice photos.

I have a rather bright red face now; steroids and sunshine aren't the best of mixes. However, what's a little inconvenience when you can have adventures?

My favorite quote is from the play, "Auntie Mame" -- "Life is a banquet, and most poor suckers are starving to death." I had three full courses this week AND dessert, too!

I had a marvelous time doing trailblazing for Audubon Trinity River, but ended up with poison ivy ... on the face. Around the eyes. I'm sorta miserable right now but it'll get better and I don't regret a minute of my expedition.

Teaching this week went poorly. I know I'm being boring and need to change it.

Derek Main at the Arlington Archosaur Site wants me to Geomap the site and locations of the digs to see what other information we can deduce.

AND... grand finale... Ron gave the final blessing to my dinosaur vertebra. Now all I have to do is glue it together (Monday), and it's done. Totally. Finished. Have to do field notes and send along all the photos, but after three years the bone is done.

Came out today to find that my side window had been smashed and my GPS (Biffette) had been stolen. The more expensive one was still in the car, but Biffette and all my addresses were gone. I tried calling the police nonemergency number, spent 10 minutes on hold and was told to call the main desk. That rang without answer for 15 minutes.

So I got a GPS (couldn't get another Biffette and I need a GPS tomorrow to make it to the school where I teach), and put it on my debt card. It goes through... then a check on the account shows that the debit card will NOT block transactions if they cause the account to bounce. So I have to go back tomorrow and deposit $400 in the account... and find a place for windshield repair.

I am not a happy camper at all.

It could be worse. We're not homeless, we're not on our last dollar, we're not ill, etc, etc. But I wish robbers would only pick on other robbers and leave the rest of us alone. We worked hard for our money.

I'm not setting aside time for art and writing like I should (though I seem to be doing a lot of Warcraft.) I think the leveling (and the guild) is sating some sort of "itch" in me, but it needs to be sated by art and not Internet. On the other hand, in the guild we have guild chat for instances... and it's actually one of the few times I talk to people. So I enjoy the conversation-with-purpose.

Got Bruce off to Fossilrama in Glen Rose (about a 90 minute drive), which was interesting. I bought some crystals (to help inspire my short story along... it's about a crystalworker), and stared at the fossils and bought the whole kit from the Arlington Archosaur site. I'm particularly proud of the tee shirt which says "digging team."

What fascinated me was the number of fake fossils that were going for a fairly hefty price. One replica of a small dinosaur (nice looking) had a $900 price tag on it and I saw many others (therapod toe) that were genuine replicas.

Some of the giant trilobites (no advisory on the item saying it was a fake) were clearly manufactured; crisp little critters rising from the stone, with the chisel marks of screwdrivers around them. Other delicate sea creatures showed a pattern of heavy scribe marks -- someone with that kind of technique would have shattered the little thing into fragments.

I think that casts are wonderful things, but ought to be clearly labeled as casts.

On the way home, I played "name that tree" and "name that grass" with myself. I did okay on the trees, but failed miserably at the grasses. We will go to Audubon tomorrow (on a walk) and I'll remedy that with a trip to the reference shelf.

As of today, Bruce and I have been married for 36 years. For the first 5 years of our marrige, I was terrified that he (like my first husband) would decide that I was an insufferable person and that he simply couldn't live with someone like me. Needless to say, that fear's long vanished.

There were no grounds for my fears -- Bruce and I never argued, never had cross words, never put each other down. But a long experience of "never being good enough" and a divorce for what I saw as the same cause left me skeptical and fearful for many years.

Needless to say, I've signed up for another 36 years with him. :)

Actually, he's been going on all along. I just forgot to update:
http://www.radiocomix.com/comix/coyote/

D&M got knocked back a week but is now up.
http://www.radiocomix.com/comix/duncan-and-mallory/

My new client (actually, request from a brother) is an inmate who has been jailed multiple times for violence, particularly against women. Looking over his arrest records, I am not sure this man can change (also has alcohol problems.) I am not certain (given the number of times he was in jail) that he is NOT a manipulative person.

Yet... he does deserve to get the correct medications for blood pressure.

I'm taking a middle ground with the Texas Commission on jail standards -- reporting that the inmate has made certain complaints to his brother and that he did have an emergency trip to Parkland (which treats jail inmates.) I'll ask them if they can verify the story and check to see if he's getting consistent meds.

His brother's worried, and I think that he deserves some peace of mind.

I ran into this as a wizard on FurryMuck... even the biggest jerk around *can* be right on some issues. When justice favors the jerks, it can be troublesome, but it isn't justice if it favors only the well educated, well mannered, and well spoken.

Yes, the new page was up yesterday (but nobody could see it because yours truly forgot to tell Wordpress just where the image was supposed to go!) Mallory is about to get creative with financing. http://www.radiocomix.com/comix/duncan-and-mallory

I just read the blog of my good friend and fellow filker, Margaret Middleton and discovered that her few weeks of silence were NOT due to being very busy, but to being ill with H1N1 flu. She's on the road to recovery, she says... but... it's still evil scary stuff: http://msminlr.livejournal.com/120039.html

I'm so glad she's better today!

Yes, Greatmother Coyote is Up To Something.
http://www.radiocomix.com/comix/coyote

Bruce went off to spend the day with his mom today, so I took myself off to Audubon (rather than cleaning house) and started on the "explore the north woods" adventure. When I was a girl of 11, I could have done it more quickly. But that time is long past and I am larger and heavier, but I still had that childhood sense of adventure in going off to hike.

The grown-up child was fitted out with backpack, water, hiking stick, GPS, palmpilot, knife and pruning shears, gloves, and phone -- my younger self just wore clothes and didn't worry about the other details.

The first task was to find a suitable place to start the trail, and I did. It was closer to the amphitheater than I would have liked, but the land dictated no other easy way in. After crashing through some privet scrub, I found myself in a lovely stretch of red cedars. Lack of sunlight had killed the lower branches, so I could easily make my way through by using my hiking stick to break the brittle dead branches.

There's a lot to see in the cedar woods -- patterns of water flow, old trash (this is on a reclaimed landfill), old boundary fences, the occasional out of place tree (a Hercules Club tree, struggling toward the light), small temporary ponds, the wreckage of a stand of trees after water had flooded the area. Deer tracks, animal dens (did not see prints), and then the meadows and lots of ragweed and poverty weed. I lasted a bit over an hour and had to come in, shower, and go lie down.

Still, I was pleased with the initial survey and much more needs to be done. I will mark points on Google Earth (and learn how to do that) so that when the actual trail blazers come in, they have a goal and a purpose and an idea of where they're going.

So I'm letting dinner simmer now and sitting back, tired and content, from another day of adventure.

I was shocked and dismayed to learn that the lead scientist (a PhD) at Audubon center is leaving the place (forever) next week. I don't know if the position was terminated or what, but they'll no longer have her out there.

This means that I am now in charge of the Tree Team research.

Ooooohboy.

I know next to nothing about trees. I do know how to do research, but it's zero for zip (mostly) on trees. So now, in addition to learning dinosaur anatomy and how to blaze hiking trails, my new skill set is going to include botannical research.

Somewhere the gods are laughing.

Sooooooo.... this is going to be yet another piece (several) of research that will end up in publications. If I'm gonna be a doggone volunteer, I'm gonna get publications out of it!

Coyote -- The Eyeball Soup Thickens (and perhaps sickens) http://www.radiocomix.com/comix/coyote/

In other news, I filed an appeal to the Texas Department of Justice to have my prisoner's medical condition reviewed. I'm told by the TJP people that what happens is they ask the jail, and the jail says "of COURSE we have given him his meds"... and THEN they run off and make sure he gets his meds.

I'll update his wife and check back with them. We do have another dog to toss into the fight if they neglect him.

And we do have a small donation to help the family. Still haven't looked up the electric company to see if they can get a break ... that will come tomorrow.