Randy’s Blog

This winter has finally turned snowy! We've gotten several rounds of snow the past week and a half, with the biggest coming on Saturday, when we got nearly 6 inches! I've been dutifully measuring snowfall each day and reporting my totals to CoCoRaHS (I've mentioned this citizen science project a few times in previous posts). It's fun to see how my measurements compare to others in the area.

When it comes to weather around Chicago, Tom Skilling is the go-to meteorologist. He's the chief meteorologist for WGN TV, and has been the most popular weather forecaster in Chicago for pretty much forever. He's basically a celebrity, known for his love of weather. That really comes across in the WGN weather blog, where he has an "Ask Tom" article each day, and generally geeks out with all kinds of weather information.

For example, here is a fun fact: Today on the WGN weather blog, I learned that this January Chicago received only 18% of possible sunshine, making it the cloudiest January on record! The records began in 1894. It's also the 2nd cloudiest month ever in Chicago! That's the kind of geeky weather fun Skilling provides. (Here's a not-so-fun fact, though, that I learned today: Tom Skilling's brother was CEO of Enron during its accounting scandal and spent over a decade in jail.)

I mention all of this because sometimes Skilling will report CoCoRaHS totals on the weather blog, and sometimes my measurement makes the report. It's very cool when it happens. This morning, though, one of my co-workers said that during last night's TV forecast, Skilling showed McHenry as having gotten 11.1 inches of snow in the last 9 days. My co-worker wanted to know if that was from my snow measurements. I didn't know, so I looked up my data, added up the totals, and discovered I had exactly 11.1 inches! It really was my measurement!

I eventually found the video of the forecast, but I couldn't find a way to link to it. So instead, here's a screenshot of Tom Skilling himself pointing at my snow totals for the last 9 days!

How cool is that!

For at least the past month, if not longer, every time I've gone to the store to buy pet supplies I've seen these little collapsible cat cubes for sale. When collapsed, they form a small cat bed:

When expanded, they form a little cube that cats can curl up inside:

Even though I really wanted to buy them, I resisted. It's a slippery slope because there are so many cute cat accessories out there that I want to buy.

Fortunately, my patience paid off. I went to the store the weekend after Thanksgiving, and there was a big display of these cat cubes with a sign saying they were 60% off. My will power collapsed, just like the cubes, and I bought two.

Shortly after I got home and set them on the floor, both cats went inside:

Now they sleep in their cubes on a regular basis, and it is adorable. As I typed this, I realized I hadn't seen Chili in a while. I went upstairs and he was curled up in his cube. I am so glad I bought them, and extra glad I got them on sale!

Finally, I am happy to report that Jalapeno has become a soccer fan thanks to the World Cup. He was really into the France-Poland game this morning! Here is a short video of his enthusiasm:

About a month or so ago I was vacuuming the house in preparation for Wendy's parents coming for a visit. I don't remember what I was thinking about, but I must have been a bit hungry, because I turned off the vacuum and said to to Wendy: "Isn't there some kind of crunchy, cheesy snack called Conquistadors?"

Wendy was using her laptop right then. She did a quick search, and discovered that there's not one called Conquistadors, but there used to be one called Cornquistos:

That's exactly what I was thinking of! I have no idea why it popped into my head while vacuuming, but it did, and it led to a trip down memory lane.

First of all, Cornquistos came out in the 1980s, and are no longer made, which is a bummer. They had a crunchy corn shell with Mexican-flavored fillings, like nacho cheese, taco, and picante. They're similar to Combos, which are still made, but Combos use a pretzel shell and are not nearly as good, according to Cornquistos fans.

Secondly, there are a couple of memorable commercials for Cornquistos. One uses the slogan "The corn crunch with fillings that say... Olé!":

And the other commercial, which is where I must have gotten the conquistadors confusion, features CORNquistadors on an airplane, on a quest to bring Cornquistos to the United States ("One crunch and you're conquered"). Click the link below to watch it; I couldn't get it to embed properly.

https://www.dailymotion.com/video/x926s4

The funny thing is that I don't even remember if I liked Cornquistos! But I figure I must have, and I wish they were still made so that I could try them again.

Anyone else remember them?

In a recent blog post I wrote about 2 wild turkeys Wendy and I saw last month during a walk around our neighborhood. It turns out that was just a prelude to even more turkey excitement! (I've already shared most of the pictures in this post with family and friends, but I wanted to document it on my blog for posterity.)

A couple of weeks ago, we had unseasonably warm weather for early November. It was late afternoon, and I was working from home with all the doors and windows open so I could enjoy the weather. At one point I decided to look out the window, and I saw two wild turkeys in our backyard! They were eating the food from our bird feeder that had fallen to the ground.

I ran downstairs, grabbed my phone, and starting taking lots of pictures and videos. Our cats were super interested, as you can imagine! The turkeys were right outside our basement window. At times they were only a few feet away from myself and the cats.

They hung around our backyard for nearly 30 minutes! At one point they walked up onto our deck; one of them flapped its wings to sort of fly/jump up the deck steps. I ran upstairs to get a better angle, but I think I scared them off the deck. Then they wandered into our neighbor's yard for a bit, and I thought they were gone for good, but they wandered back into our yard again. After a while they disappeared to the side of the house and were gone for good.

Here are some pics of the event, starting with some very interested cats:

A cat-turkey stare down!

I really liked this picture, because if you look closely, you can see cats, turkeys, a squirrel under the feeder, and a bird at the feeder: 

And finally, here's a video of the turkeys:

It was a very memorable afternoon!

The weather was so nice today that I decided to take the afternoon off and rake the leaves that had overtaken the yard. I took these photos before I started:

And about 2 and a half hours later I took these photos:

Now I am quite tired!

A couple of Fridays ago, Wendy and I went for a walk around the neighborhood during lunch, and we saw 2 wild turkeys!

I was super excited to see them, because I've never seen turkeys in our neighborhood before. For Wendy, it was a routine experience, since she often sees turkeys on her commute to work.

I don't know why the turkeys crossed the road, but I do at least have video evidence of them doing so:

Exciting!

Trees

The past week or so we've heard the first acorns drop from the trees, bounce off the roof, and land on the deck. It's a sure sign that summer is nearing the end and fall is right around the corner. And with fall, leaves. 

Last year was unusual because the majority of leaves fell remarkably late. Our trash company comes by twice each fall and vacuums up any leaves that we rake to the curb. Because the leaves fell so late, we barely had any for them to collect both times they came by. I assumed they would make a third pass at some point, so I raked the leaves to the curb once they finally fell. As the days went by with no sign of a leaf-vacuum truck, I started to question my assumption. So I called to find out what their plans were, and they said they would not make a third pass, but they were still accepting bagged leaves as part of normal trash pick up for a few more weeks.

Being rule followers, Wendy and I spent an entire day bagging leaves. It was a lot of work. When we finished, we had 27 bags of leaves sitting by the curb! Trash day came and thankfully they took them all. However, the next week the trash company sent a brief, strongly-worded statement to our subdivision stating there was a limit of 8 bags of leaves per household! Well, at least our leaves were gone!

As it turned out, we didn't need to bag the leaves. Enough people in the county complained about the leaves that our township rented a leaf-vacuum truck(!), and made a pass through all the township roads. I think they visited our neighborhood sometime in late December, but I don't recall for sure. Anyway, it was rather frustrating that our bagging effort wasn't necessary!

It will be interesting to see what transpires this year with the leaves.

Trail Cam

I can't believe it was only last year that I bought my trail cam. It feels like I've had it for years. Perhaps that's a sign of how ingrained in my daily life it's become. For example, there have been many evenings in the last year and a half, where we think we hear something outside (or smell something, in the case of a skunk!), or our cats are looking out the basement window with great interest, and we take note of the time, so that when I check the trail cam the next morning, we can see if there was an animal in the backyard at that moment.

Well, not a single time has it ever happened that I found a video of an animal at that moment. Not once, until this week!

Thursday evening the weather was very pleasant, so we had all the doors and windows open. Shortly before 11pm, we heard our neighbor's dogs start barking, and keep barking for a while. The neighbors came out and yelled at the dogs to stop. Wendy looked up at the clock and said "It's 10:55pm. We should remember that to see if their dogs are barking at an animal on the trail cam." That was a good point; it hadn't occurred to me.

And sure enough, she was right. The next morning I checked, and at 10:51pm there was this video of a coyote running through our yard. Mystery solved!

Several months ago I got this awesome book called Animal Speak:

It's an incredibly thorough guide to interpreting the signs of nature through the animals you encounter. What does it mean when a fox crosses your path? Or a particular type of bird keeps catching your attention? Or you dream of a certain animal? According to the author (Ted Andrews), "nature -- in the guise of animals -- is a means by which the spiritual links to the physical." Throughout the book he examines "the symbolic and mythical aspects attributed to animals and how that should speak to us personally."

He also says:

When we learn to speak with the animals, to listen with animal ears and to see through animal eyes... it is then that the animals are no longer our subordinates. They become our teachers, our friends, and our companions.

Usually around this time of year I write a post about all the animals I've seen around our neighborhood. I'll do that again in this post, but include comments from Animal Speak to see what can be learned.

Fish Kill

On Tuesday, March 8, I went for a walk around the neighborhood during lunch. I noticed a surprisingly large dead fish on the shore of the pond:

Then I looked further along the shore and was horrified to see hundreds upon hundreds of small dead fish along the edge of the pond:

At first I didn't believe they could all be fish, so I started to get closer for a better look. I didn't get very far, though, because the stench was overpowering. That answered my question. It really was a bunch of dead fish. Apparently fish kills like this occur when there are large temperature swings that affect the oxygen levels in the lake. A few days before this it was unseasonably warm, so that likely explains it.

I think our HOA must have hired a company to clean up the mess. Several times I saw buckets, shovels, and large plastic bags sitting by the edge of the lake. The awful smell lingered for weeks, even after the dead fish were gone.

I haven't found much mention of fish in Animal Speak, other than a reference to fish and water symbolizing intuition and the creative element of life. There was an entire chapter, though, on signs and omens. People around the world "have held strong the idea that the changing aspects of Nature reflect changes that are likely to occur within their own life." In other words: "The divine forces speak to humanity through Nature and its varied expressions."

The book cautions that there's a difference between omens and superstitions. Reading omens is based on reason and a strong knowledge base of the environment and animals within it. Superstition is based on irrational fears. Having taken many walks around our neighborhood over the last decade and a half, I know from first-hand experience that a fish kill like this is unusual. Given what happened with both my dad and Wendy's grandfather right after this event, I can't help but think it was an omen.

Hawk

Exactly one week later, on March 15, I was in the kitchen and heard a loud thud from downstairs. I looked around the corner and saw a hawk right outside the basement window!

It must have flown into the window and been momentarily stunned. Fortunately, it was stunned long enough for me to grab my phone and take a picture. It flew off shortly afterwards. Later, Wendy did some bird sleuthing and determined this is probably a Cooper's hawk. It eats other birds, so it makes sense that it would be around our backyard bird feeder!

Animal Speak says that, in general, hawks possess great visionary power that "awakens our vision and inspires us to a creative life purpose". Also: "the ability to soar and glide upon the currents is part of what hawk can teach." There are many different species of hawk, so the book picks only one to look at in-depth (the red-tailed hawk). It encourages study of the specific species you encounter, but it does mention Cooper's hawk briefly, saying that since it mostly eats other birds, it "reflects the old idea that what you eat, you become." 

Skunk

Around the same time, on March 12 and March 14, my trail cam finally recorded video of a skunk! I've smelled their presence numerous times over the years (and once I even caught a skunk in a chipmunk trap!), but it took almost an entire year for my trail cam to record one:

According to Animal Speak, the skunk is an animal of great respect ("Just look at how people respond to it") and it can teach us to give and expect respect by recognizing and asserting our own qualities. "The skunk does not get out of the way of any animal... It is self-assured and confident in itself." Skunks are fearless, but very peaceful, and always give warnings before spraying. Those warnings include:

• Stamping its feet and turning its back on you.
• Raising up its tail
• Looking back over its shoulder.

However: "Once the skunk has seen you over its shoulder, it is too late. [It] can spray 12-15 feet with tremendous accuracy." It can also "repeat the spraying five to six times before it must build up again naturally."

A skunk can also indicate a need to use or study fragrances and aromatherapy. Since skunks are mostly solitary animals, they can also represent a need to balance attracting people and spending time alone.

There's a great deal more about skunks in the book, but it concludes by saying "When skunk shows up as a totem you are going to have opportunities to bring out new respect and self-esteem... Remember that people are going to notice you. How they notice and remember can be controlled by you. This is what skunk can help teach."

Cardinal

It's fairly common to see cardinals in our backyard and at the bird feeder. What is slightly unusual is that a couple of weeks ago, as I went outside for a walk during lunch, I saw two male cardinals in one of our trees, chattering away at each other:

Animal Speak says "That which you most notice when out in nature has spoken to you." So what do these two cardinals have to teach? The book summarizes these birds as "Renewed vitality through recognizing self-importance". It also says that while most female birds are quiet, the female cardinal joins in on the whistling with the the males, which is unusual. "This reflects that we should be listening to the inner voice (the feminine) more closely for our own health and well-being."

Also noteworthy is that cardinals eat many weed seeds and injurious insects, such as the 17-year cicada. This "can reflect a need to be more careful about your diet, that what you are eating may be injurious to yourself and affecting your overall vitality." It did not escape my attention that I saw these two cardinals right after eating a Jimmy Johns sandwich for lunch!

"When [cardinals] appear as a totem, they do so to remind us to become like them. Add color to your life, and remember that everything you do is of importance."

Wrapping up

I could go on with the coyotes, raccoons, rabbits, and turtles I've seen recently, but I'll wrap up this post here. I'm not done reading the book, so there is still much more to learn. I'll end with this quote, which I quite like:

Humanity has lost that instinctive tie to the rhythms and patterns of Nature, and with that loss has come a loss of the reality of magic. Nature tries to show us everyday that all forms of life can teach us. As we learn to listen to Nature, we break down our outworn perceptions. We find that magical creation is the force of life inherent in all things. And it is this, above all else, that Nature teaches to those who will learn from Her.

Last week we drove down to Kentucky to see Wendy's family for Christmas. It was cloudy for most of the drive; towards the end the sun finally made an appearance and I was surprised how much it lifted my mood. It was just nice to see a bit of sunshine.

A couple of days ago, while running some errands around town, I heard the song "Sunshine On My Shoulders" by John Denver:

That perfectly describes how I felt seeing the sun on the drive to Kentucky!

Yesterday the new year greeted us with close to 4 inches of snow. When I shoveled the driveway this morning, the sky was clear and the sun shined brightly. I thought again of the John Denver song, especially the line "Sunshine nearly always makes me high".  It occurred to me that it's pretty much the polar opposite of the song "Rainy days and Mondays always get me down" by the Carpenters.

This afternoon, as we took down the Christmas tree, I streamed some John Denver songs through the speaker, including "Sunshine On My Shoulders". Great music!

In other news, we've adopted two kittens! They are 5 months old, both male. We're keeping the names they had at the shelter: Chili and Jalapeno. Wendy has nicknamed them the "Spicy Pepper Boys", which I quite like. So far Chili seems to be the more outgoing of the two, and Jalapeno the cautious one.

When we adopted our previous cat, Gordon, he was 6 years old. This is our first experience with kittens, and I don't think we realized just how much energy they would have! The first couple of days we alternated between "They're so cute!" and "What have we done?!"

They've just about fully explored the lower level of our house, and identified the best running lanes when sprinting all around. It's so funny when they spot each other from across the room. They'll crouch down and stare intently at the other one for a few seconds. Then they'll wiggle their butt, run full speed, and jump up and attack each other mid-air. Yesterday one of them landed in the trash can! It was hilarious to see the confused look on his face, with his head and paws sticking out of the trash!

Bird Feeder

A few posts ago I wrote about the trapped bird and how I bought a new bird feeder called the Squirrel Buster Plus. Unfortunately, it just didn't work out, and I have no idea why. The birds seemed to like it at first, and ate a decent chunk of the food in it, but then they just stopped coming by. Week after week went by without any birds, which turned into month after month. It was kind of depressing. I never had this problem with the old feeder.

So a couple weeks ago I bought another SquirrelAway bird feeder, which is what the old one was (this post was the first time I mentioned it). Here's what it looks like:

As you recall, the problem with the old one was that two times a bird got stuck in it (the first one died, detailed here). But that didn't start happening until after squirrels managed to grab hold of the feeder, gnaw on some of the port holes and make them wider. I'm hoping that birds won't get stuck on the new feeder with normal sized holes, and that the baffle I installed on the pole a few years ago will prevent squirrels from ever gnawing on it again.

The day after I put out the new SquirrelAway feeder, the birds were back in full force, and I was happy to see them! For whatever reason, they seem to really like this feeder, and as I type this I see a cardinal eating away at it. So, hurray! The birds are back!

Trail Cam

I didn't check my trail cam for videos Saturday morning because it was cold, wet, and snowing (we got almost two and half inches of rain that night before a cold front moved through). When I checked it this morning (Sunday) there were 11 videos on it. Normally when it captures a bunch of videos they're almost all of rabbits, patiently hopping around our backyard and eating away at the grass. So I asked Wendy to guess how many of the 11 were rabbits. She guessed 8. I guessed 10.

It turned out to be zero! There were 6 videos of raccoons (some quite fat) and 5 videos of coyotes. Here are some of the better ones:

A fat raccoon:

A curious raccoon:

Coyotes:

Bike Ride

Finally, the weather today was sunny and upper 40s, so Wendy and I went on a rare December bike ride around our neighborhood. We rode for 3 miles. I bundled up with a jacket, ear muffs, and gloves. It was cold, but still enjoyable. A week or two ago I went for a bike ride at lunch because it was in the 50s. I may actually have another chance this week, because Wednesday the predicted high is 62.