Randy’s Blog

Here's the latest on our backyard animal sightings, thanks to my new trail cam:

First up are two videos of an opossum:

I went down a small rabbit hole (opossum hole?) while writing this post trying to figure out whether I should use "possum" or "opossum" and whether to use "a" or "an" in front of "opossum". I read articles from mentalfloss, grammarly, and english.stackexchange.com before deciding on "an opossum".

Fortunately, a fox has no such confusion. It's the next animal on this brief tour:

And finally, a coyote... I think?

That's the end of the tour. No skunks or raccoons yet, but I'm sure they're out there.

Several years ago I wrote this blog post about a book of word-search puzzles I bought at Sam's. I've still got it, and for the past week I've been solving a puzzle each day. Last night I worked on a puzzle where each word in the list started and ended with the same letter. At one point I found the word SPANK, which was not on the word list. Eventually I realized that spelled backwards it formed the beginning of the word KNAPSACK, which was on the word list. I had never realized that KNAPSACK contained SPANK in reverse.

Which got me thinking, what other words contain words spelled backwards? I looked online to see what I could find, but all the search results were focused on palindromes (words that read the same backward and forward, like "madam") and semordnilaps (words that spell a different word when reversed, like "war" and "raw"). But that wasn't quite what I was looking for. So I did what any nerd would do: I wrote a computer program to figure it out. My Linux system came with a standard dictionary of around 100,000 words, so I used that since it was readily available.

Reading through the results, I was struck by how funny some of the combinations were. Below is a list of some of the more notable ones. The first word on each line contains the second word spelled backwards.

adrenals => nerd
aerobic => bore
alright => girl
anemone => omen
benevolence => love
whorehouse => hero    (I can't stop singing this to the tune of "Juke Box Hero")

Episcopalians => snail
amoral => aroma
asparagus => sugar
cardiovascular => avoid
chestnuts => stunt
cognate => tango
cohesion => noise
deviant => naive
drowsy => sword
herons => snore
knapsack => spank   (proof that my program worked!)
lameness => enema
lightning => ninth
matrons => snort
muffins => sniff
myriad => dairy
nightlife => filth
revolt => lover
spacecraft => farce
strafe => farts
televangelist => navel
vegetarian => irate
weightlifter => filth

Tylenol => lonely
dairymaid => myriad
drawers => reward
excitement => emetic    (I had to look up emetic -- it means inducing vomiting!)
explained => denial
partner => entrap
werewolf => flower

phenomena => anemone

sensuousness => sensuous

I can't get over that last example. What are the odds that the word "sensuousness" contains "sensuous" spelled backwards!

Anyway, this was my idea of a fun Friday night.

We had many more video recordings last night! Most of them were of rabbits. This one is notable because all you can see are two glowing, darting eyes in the distance:

I thought it was kind of creepy at first, until I realized they were rabbits. Later videos showed them more clearly, but I'll skip those and get right to the good one:

We think it's a fox. What do you think?

My patience is starting to pay off! For several weeks my new trail cam recorded absolutely nothing. But the past few days, things have started happening!

First, the mount: I wasn't sure what to mount the trail cam to, so originally I strapped it to a wooden board and leaned the board against the side of the house. That worked fine, until we had several very windy days, and the board kept blowing over. I did some research on the internet, where I discovered many creative and unique ways to mount a trail cam. In the end, though, I decided to buy a special mount just for trail cams that can be pushed into the ground to anchor it. There's a small screw at the top to attach the camera. So far it's been great:

And now, the videos! As the weeks ticked by and nothing was recorded, I started wondering if the trail cam might not be sensitive enough. I figured if there were animals crossing our yard, they would probably be small, and cross on the far side of the yard, by the fence. Well, ask and ye shall receive, because a few days later the camera recorded a squirrel running across right by the fence:

As videos go, it's not too exciting, but I was glad to have proof that the camera works as expected.

Then a few days after that, we got a video of a bunny in the middle of the night. When Wendy saw it, she said she hoped we'd eventually get to see videos of other animals, like coyotes. Once again, ask and ye shall receive, because last night we recorded two animals! One was another bunny:

And the other was... a coyote? Or a dog? Anyone care to offer their opinion?

Regardless, I'm happy the trail cam has started to record animals. I can't believe I didn't think of doing this years ago!

Finally, continuing the theme of ask and ye shall receive, I hope we get videos that show how so much bird food got knocked out of the feeder. And I hope we get videos of Sasquatch.

For the past 9 years, every time we heard a random creak on the stairs, we would look up and see Mr. Gordon going up or coming down the stairs. For the past month, every time we hear a random creak, we instinctively look up. But there's no one there. Do we have a ghost cat? Or just creaky stairs?

***

I haven't mentioned the bird feeder in a while. A couple weeks ago I noticed something strange: a quarter of the food in the bird feeder disappeared over night, but there was a pile of bird food on the ground underneath it that wasn't there the day before. How did it get there? Did some animal come along and shake it out? This happened several times over the course of a week. So a few days ago I bought a small motion-activated/night-vision trail cam, set it up in the backyard, and configured it to record only at night. Two nights later, the level of food in the feeder hasn't changed and the camera has not recorded a single thing.

I must channel my inner Sonny Crockett, and be patient.

Truth be told, I'm really hoping it's a sasquatch!

Here's a collection of quotes I've encountered over the past year or two that have really stuck with me. Some are funny, some are profound, some are just random.

Miscellaneous Quotes

"You're dirty, ace. And I'm patient."
--Sonny Crockett, talking to the leader of a drug cartel, in the Miami Vice episode "The Prodigal Son"

"The less we know about our own evil, the more we see it in other people"
--Jungian analyst Deldon Anne McNeely on the Speaking of Jung podcast, Episode 13

"There is a higher power, somewhere up there looking down on us, watching everything we do. That's why I'm very careful never to pick my nose!"
--Resident of Cobblestone Canyon in the video game Dragon Quest XI: Echoes of an Elusive Age

Quotes from the Columbo TV show

"An exciting meal has been ruined by the presence of this LIQUID FILTH!"
--Wine connoisseur (and murderer) in the Columbo episode "Any Old Port in a Storm"

"Lieutenant Columbo, you're remarkable. You have intelligence. You have perception. You have great tenacity. You've got everything except proof."
--Doctor (and murderer) played by Leonard Nimoy in the Columbo episode "A Stitch in Crime"

"This happens to be Lieutenant Columbo of the LAPD, who is your everyday, average, typical, downtrodden, American husband. Don't you agree?"
--A celebrity TV chef (and murderer) in the Columbo episode "Double Shock"

Quotes from the Edgar Cayce readings

"(Q) Kindly give me any advice that will benefit me spiritually, physically, mentally.
(A) ... It isn't the great things. No great deeds of valor are accomplished without AGES of preparation in the SOUL of one that accomplishes same. It is just being kind, just being gentle, just being patient, FIRST with self and self's relationships to thy fellow man."
--Edgar Cayce reading 416-7

"The more and more each is impelled by that which is intuitive, or the relying upon the soul force within, the greater, the farther, the deeper, the broader, the more constructive may be the result."
--Edgar Cayce reading 792-2

"But do not put off today that which will bring hope and help to the mind of another. How did He say? "In a more convenient season I will hear thee"? Those things that make for the putting off become a joy never fulfilled."
--Edgar Cayce reading 877-9

Almonds. I like them, and always have. Wendy doesn't. She says they taste good for the first couple of seconds, but then it's like eating dirt. I can see why she says that, but for me they're still tasty.

Many years ago, back when we lived in Colorado, I remember trying a new flavor of Nature Valley granola bars: roasted almond.

They were really good. But I remember, as I was eating it, thinking "Huh. This tastes like birthday cake. That's weird." I didn't think much more about it.

Some time later, while visiting my family over the holidays, Joy made a comment about how the almond extract Mom adds to cake frosting makes it so delicious. The light bulb went on in my head, and the mystery of the granola bar was solved.

Mom learned to make frosting that way from a cake decorating class she took years ago. As I told her recently, that class certainly paid for itself in deliciousness!

There's more to say about almonds, but first I have to take a short detour. I've always been fascinated by the psychic readings of Edgar Cayce (1877-1945). I keep thinking I'll write a blog post about him, and I even have an outline of one, but it's too huge for a single post. There's a lot to say about him.

Basically, Edgar Cayce could be put into a trance (really a light sleep), and his higher self would answer any question that was asked. When the trance was over, Cayce would wake up and have no recollection of what was said. Eventually they learned the person putting him into trance affected the quality of answers, so his wife became the only one allowed to do so. Cayce became a minor celebrity; the NY Times wrote several articles about him, and many people sought his advice on how to cure their ailments.

He gave over 14,000 readings in his life. They were thoroughly documented, cataloged, and eventually digitized. The majority of those readings were health-related; the rest were on metaphysical topics.

Now, back to almonds. My hands have been very dry the past few months, as is typical of winter. A few weeks ago I was thinking about how Cayce frequently recommended massage, and that he had suggested several combinations of oils that were good for the skin, both as a massage oil and as a general skin lotion. I thought what the heck, I have nothing to lose, so I ordered one of the formulas, called Olivae Skin Lotion. It's a combination of peanut oil, olive oil, and... almond oil!

I've been using it for the past week or so, and I am surprised at just how much it smells like almonds. Basically, I smell delicious after putting it on. Just like birthday cake! From some of the reviews at the above link, people love it and have used it for years with good results, so I think I'll keep it up and see how it goes.

There's another interesting thing Cayce had to say about almonds. Several readings suggested that eating two or three almonds a day could help prevent cancer. Here are some quotes from the readings:

"Other characters of nuts are well, though especially almonds are good and if an almond is taken each day, and kept up, you'll never have accumulations of tumors or such conditions through the body. An almond a day is much more in accord with keeping the doctor away, especially certain types of doctors, than apples.  For the apple was the fall, not almond - for the almond blossomed when everything else died.  Remember this is life!" Reading 3180-3

"And know, if ye would take each day, through thy experience, two almonds, ye will never have skin blemishes, ye will never be tempted even in body toward cancer nor towards those things that make blemishes in the body-forces themselves." Reading 1206-13

"And, just as indicated in other suggestions - those who would eat two to three almonds each day need never fear cancer.  Those who would take a peanut oil rub each week need never fear arthritis." Reading 1158-31

Does this really work? Who knows. Almonds these days are pasteurized (even raw ones) so who knows if that changes anything. But, as Cayce said in one reading "Expect much, you will obtain much!  Expect little, you will obtain little!" (Reading 5325-1). Thus, a year or so ago I thought what the heck, I have nothing to lose, so I started a habit of eating a few almonds each day. As experiments go, it's certainly a tasty one!

Way back in 2016 I wrote a blog post about the book The Super Natural and how I was amazed that a professor of religious studies had taken up the study of UFOs. In 2019, another religious studies professor released a UFO book! It's called American Cosmic: UFOs, Religion, Technology written by D.W. Pasulka, who teaches at the University of North Carolina Wilmington.

I actually read this book right after it was published, while Wendy and I were on a cruise. I distinctly remember reading a passage in the book where the author quoted someone who had a UFO sighting in Guatemala; at that moment our cruise ship was heading to Guatemala for our next stop! (Also, this morning when I got the book down from the shelf to write this post, I discovered it was holding a Holland America business card that reads: "Your stateroom is serviced by: Wayan". Thank you, Wayan!)

At any rate, I read the book two years ago and I've been meaning to write a post about it ever since. Several things really stuck with me.

Pasulka got interested in UFOs by way of purgatory. She had just finished writing a book about Catholic purgatory (a place where souls not perfect enough for heaven go for purification) based on obscure texts dating from 1300 to 1880. They included descriptions of orbs, luminous beings, shining aerial discs, and other phenomenon that were purported to be souls from purgatory. A friend of hers commented that they sounded like UFOs, and invited her to a local UFO conference the next weekend. Thus began her trip down the rabbit hole.

The thing that stuck with me most from the book are her comments about absurdity. For example, she talked about taking some students to meet a man who'd had a UFO encounter. He was a businessman, a pilot, and a credible, well-regarded community member. He described his UFO sighting while on a fishing trip, and her students were completely absorbed in his account, right up until he said he had an out of body experience, flew to Mars, and saw Bigfoot. Stunned, the students turned to look at her, as if to ask "Are we supposed to believe this?"

She explained that religions have relied on absurdity in different ways:

• In the early days of Christianity, she says, the Roman ruling class dismissed the new religion because they viewed Christians as cannibals, who eat their god during the act of communion. That absurdity gave Christianity time to grow on the fringes of society, until it "erupted into a new state religion... with billions of practitioners"
• In Zen Buddhism, absurdity is used in a different way, through koans such as "What is the sound of one hand clapping?" These koans are designed to "fatigue the rational mind" (I love that phrase!) to make way for something new. In this case, enlightenment.

Pasulka suggests both elements of the absurd are at play with UFOs. The idea of Bigfoot and astral travel to Mars is so absurd many people, especially in the upper layers of society, will dismiss it entirely, relegating the subject to the fringes. And she quotes the UFO researcher Jacques Vallee, who wonders if a UFO sighting acts just like a koan, opening up the viewer to some new state of consciousness beyond what we consider normal.

As she got deeper into the field of UFOs, Pasulka encountered more and more scientists (some of whom run research labs at major universities) who not only believe that an extraterrestrial intelligence has visited earth, but that they have worked with its technology, leading to various breakthroughs, such as better capacitors for pacemakers, new treatment for bone cancer, and even technology used in smart phones. That might sound crazy, but she also points out that it's nothing new. Founders of both the Russian and American space program believed they were in contact with and being guided by extraterrestrials! Konstantin Tsiolkovsky, "the founding father of rocketry and aeronautics", and Jack Parsons, a rocket engineer who co-founded the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, both believed these things. I find this fascinating. Pasulka notes that most people at NASA she's talked to either aren't aware of this bit of history, or they know about it but are too embarrassed by it to discuss it. I find that fascinating, too!

This was a very thought-provoking book. Even after two years, I felt compelled to write a blog post about it. It's a much gentler introduction to the world of UFOs and religion than The Super Natural, so if you're interested in these topics, I recommend reading American Cosmic first.

Yesterday we had our cat Gordon put to sleep. His health started deteriorating in December, and the vet diagnosed him with cancer. She prescribed some medicine to help alleviate his symptoms. The meds helped for a while, but last weekend Gordon took a turn for the worse. He was barely eating and really struggled to walk. We knew it was time. We loved him very much; it was very hard and very sad to say goodbye.

Gordon was 15 years old. He spent the first 6 years of his life in a shelter, and the last 9 years with us. Today, actually, is the 9 year anniversary of him coming to live with us.

Wendy said something yesterday, which I whole-heartedly agree with: "I've always felt sorry for people when they had to have their pet put to sleep. But now that I've been through it, I realize I haven't felt sorry enough!" It's just an awful thing to go through.

I'm also grateful that Wendy reminded me of a blog post I wrote a year ago about a book called "After Life". I wrote this:

"[The book] mentioned the five stages of grief, but said the problem with it is that it implies a linear approach, where you come out the other end suddenly feeling better. The book suggested a different idea, the shape of the number 8, where grief is more like a cycle. The positive feelings are on top and the negative on the bottom, and you can move around in any order, at any time."

1. We didn't travel for Christmas, so we didn't have to leave Gordon while he was sick.
2. Since we both have to work remotely, we've been around Gordon all day every day for the last 10 months. For example, I usually keep the door to the office closed while I work. When Gordon wanted to hang out with me during the day, he would scratch at the door until I let him in. And when he was done hanging out with me, he would sit with his nose about an inch away from the door until I let him out. We performed that dance many, many times thanks to the pandemic.
   

I'll end this post with some pictures. RIP, Mr. G.

Several years ago we had our kitchen remodeled, and a year or so after that, our bathrooms remodeled. It all turned out very well, and we're happy with how they look and the work that all the contractors did. But the weird thing is that we've had all kinds of trouble with the various new fixtures that we had installed, like faucets, faucet handles, and shower heads. We bought these things from a variety of places, like a specialty shop (which we were told had higher quality items), big box stores like Home Depot and Lowes, and even Amazon. Here's a rundown of the issues:

Master Bath shower head

A few months after the bathrooms were remodeled, the shower head in the master bath started making a constant, high-pitched sound when taking a shower. I put up with it for a while, but it got really annoying to hear that noise right by my head every. single. morning. Since it was brand new, I didn't think the holes in the shower head could be clogged, but I tried cleaning them anyway. It didn't help. Finally, I called the specialty store we bought it from and explained what was going on. Bizarrely, they couldn't find any record of my order in their system, even though I still had all the order information from the receipt. But they sent me a new shower head regardless (free of charge) and it's worked fine ever since. (Knock on wood)

Hall Bath sink faucet

In the hall bathroom, we had a new sink and faucet installed during the remodel. Over time, the hot-water handle slowly got harder and harder to turn. The cold-water handle was totally fine. Wendy mainly uses this bathroom, so I wasn't aware of how bad it was getting. Eventually, the handle got impossible to turn, so for a while she just stopped using hot water. Around this time, we had guests planning to come visit, so that provided the motivation to get it fixed. I called the manufacturer this time, and they sent me a new handle free of charge. After painstaking effort, I managed to get the stuck handle off; the new one installed easily and all was well. I wish I could say it has worked fine ever since, but I noticed recently that it's now harder to turn than usual. Sigh.

Hall Bath tub stopper

We also got a new bathtub during the remodel, and it came with a neat drain stopper that clicks closed when pushed, and clicks open when pushed again. I really liked it because it seemed fancy. Unfortunately, after a while it fell apart, and despite my best attempts I couldn't put it back together. The specialty store wasn't any help, so I turned to the internet. But no matter how much I searched, I couldn't find an exact replacement anywhere. Bummer! So I bought a cheap drain stopper from Home Depot. And then, after a few months, it broke. And then I forgot that it broke. So during all this time, which was many months, if not years, we couldn't take baths because we didn't have a working bathtub drain stopper. A few months ago I rediscovered this whole problem, and started investigating it all over again. This time, I found an online supply store in Canada with the exact push-to-click drain stopper we had originally. I bought it, and it's been working great ever since. We can now take baths again!

Kitchen sink faucet

Now it's time to talk about the kitchen. We got new cabinets, a new sink, and a new faucet. After a couple of years the faucet started making a horrendous squeaking/scraping sound when it rotated. It truly sounded awful. So I contacted the manufacturer through their website, and uploaded a video of the problem. I just realized as I'm typing this that I still have the video. Here it is. Enjoy!

Since it had a lifetime warranty, the manufacturer sent me a new faucet, which I installed myself (and I was quite proud of that). Thankfully, the new faucet rotated without a sound. I was so glad it was fixed.

A year later, though, the new faucet started leaking. It had a pull-down spout, and whenever the faucet was turned on, water sprayed out of the hose connected to the spout.

So, I went back to the manufacturer's website and uploaded some photos. They sent me a new faucet again (which I installed myself again).

However! One year later, the finish on the handle started to peel. A lot. And it looked disgusting. So I contacted the manufacturer a THIRD time and uploaded a photo:

This time they just sent me a new handle. But that presented a whole new problem because I couldn't remove the tiny screw that held the old handle in place! It was all rusted over due to the peeling. Frustrated, I went online and discovered many reviews of this faucet with the same peeling problem. Enough was enough, so I cut ties with that manufacturer (Pfister) and bought a different faucet made by a different company. It's working great.

Kitchen sink

And finally, the kitchen sink. We got a new stainless steel sink as part of the kitchen remodel. Last year, we noticed it had cracked. I kid you not:

It wasn't a big crack, but it was definitely a noticeable one. In a stainless steel sink, of all places. I don't know about you, but in my experience, cracks tend to get worse over time, not better. So I contacted the manufacturer via their website and uploaded pictures. A few weeks later I got my one and only response from them: a shipping notice that a new sink was on its way.

I was not confident that I could install a new sink by myself, so I hired a plumber to do the job. He said he'd never seen a crack in a stainless steel sink before, and that it looked like a manufacturing defect. That was small comfort when it came time to pay his bill.

If memory serves, those are all of the plumbing fixture issues we had. And with any luck, that will be the last of them. But I'm casting a wary and disapproving eye towards that faucet handle in the hall bath that's getting harder and harder to turn.