Friday, May 29, 2020

The Dude Abides





Not sure I like the idea of booger deciding to change the blog interface. Cosmetic bullshit on a poorly maintained and marginally functional system. I guess I'll try to work with it for a bit but I may migrate my shit somewhere else. We'll see.

Also not sure why I chose the above title for this post, other than it's a line I like from the movie (for some reason) and the fact that the Pronghorn harem(s) have kicked the males loose while they're having and nurturing babies. When this happens the males take up a solitary existence, not wanting to be knifed in their sleep.




You can quickly (?) tell males from females (both sexes having prominent pronged horns) by the black stripe on the face at the back of the jaw. You can also more closely examine the horn shape and stature and compare behavior. The males act more male than the females do, guarding and guiding their harem. But the females also stand sentry and the difference in behavior is often subtle. It's something you have to learn over time.

Here's a too-long and too-shaky cow tour video.



A chicken video...



Western Salsify (Tragopogon dubius). A favorite spring flower of mine. Of course nearly all spring flowers are favorites of mine.



Goldfinches! Shaky video again. It's hard to see the phone screen sometimes in bright sunlight. Plus I was in a hurry for some reason.



Work hardening and finally caused the brass connector for the positive battery terminal on my Ranger to crack through. It still works but also slips off, requiring reattachment. Usually when it's raining.




The tornado in repose...


Be well and embrace the blessings of liberty.




16 comments:

  1. Good morning. Beautiful there and beautiful here and that is a wonderful thing. We have a tornado in Louisiana that we plan to go visit along with her other family members. Ours is a little older and has some vector with her velocity. She is also able to explain her actions and request interaction on the part of others. It's all fun. Do you take care of the cows or just check and report? Stay safe and well.

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    1. Max fun indeed. This tornado just turned 2. She speaks better than I do and can explain and demand. She also ignores all guidance except for 50 percent of Mom's Special Guidance. That last bit is some serious Jedi-level stuff, amazing to watch. ;-)

      I mostly check and report but share in the caring of. This time of year they pretty much care for themselves and observation generates SSDD on most days. Which is good considering all the fence work I'm doing; wouldn't work out at all if they needed much care.

      Thanks for stopping by and commenting Mark!

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  2. Yeah, booger changing the interface, they have time to do that but not time to give us a comment editor, which WordPress has. The new interface (which sucks by the way) was sprung on me a couple of weeks ago. So I sent Blogger a "WTF" message, ranting and raving I was. Right after I hit "Send" I noticed a button to revert to the old interface. Which I did. Supposedly the plan to give us the option to revert, but hey, promises from tech giants, I always believe those.

    In my experience, crappy software engineers dick with the interface so they can keep getting paid. I mean come on, when the software is done, it's done, why continue to futz with it?

    Also in my experience, software is never done as it's usually a half-ass design to begin with. I could rant about "self-driving cars" and "unmanned aircraft" but I'll save that for another time.

    Dang, my soapbox is really worn out...

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    1. As with the rest of goondoggle, they're pretty busy behaving in an evil fashion and doing their best to destroy the Republic and Her Constitution. I see mass hangings for crimes against humanity in future. Lots of Himmlers and Heydrichs there if frisko.

      Plus their platforms are devolving to shit.

      Thanks for stopping by and commenting Sarge!

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    2. In my software life, too many bad ideas stemmed from several sources - managers wanting to put their oar in the water (respeckt mah authoritah), and the rush directive to get it out the door: There's never enough time to do it right, but always time to redo it with fixes(which was also mgmt), and lastly - where in the world did they find THESE programmers, and why do they keep them (mgmt again).
      Frank

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    3. Frank -- I guess it's regular old human behavior with a software twist...

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  3. I know that you have no control over the things that come up at the end of your videos, but on the first video a Clint Eastwood/Dirty Harry option came up and I got diverted for a time.

    As usual, previous commenters wrote much of what I would have, but I do want to say ( write ) that I enjoy your videos and don't think they are too long.

    Thanks for the post.
    Paul L. Quandt

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    1. I don't get any cool clint eastwood recommendations!

      Thanks for the kind words, and thanks for stopping by and commenting Paul!

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  4. I could sputter out dozens of quotes from The Dude, but I won't.

    I don't think I've seen any pronghorn since we've been here. Plenty of deer, some elk, a few bears, and all kinds of other furry creatures, but not a pronghorn. Maybe they're more a plains animal than a foothills animal?

    Anyway, enjoy the weather out there, Shaun. I always look at the radar for up your way, and other than some storms the other day, looks like you're bright and sunny today.

    Oh...and keep the rug after it gets cleaned. It ties the whole room together......

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    1. One hell of a memorable movie!

      Hard to tell on the Pronghorn regarding their range. They do seem to prefer open prairie and they can be very shy. I'd guess they're present down your way but might be hard to find. Interesting how only a very few miles and tree cover/topography is the difference between bears and no bears.

      We're behind normal on precip but we've had enough to get by. Coolish too, but it's finally acting like summer is here. Supposed to be quite warm this weekend and into June with temps in the 90's.

      Who knew rugs could be so powerful?

      Thanks for stopping by and commenting drjim!

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  5. Chickens 'n cows 'n two year old dormant tornadoes, does it get any better?
    It does when you throw in Pronghorns. (heh! almost wrote pornhorns)

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    1. It's a pretty great life here in flyover country. :-)

      Thanks for stopping by and commenting Skip!

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  6. For that battery connection, do you have a spare vise-grip pliers you could use as a temporary fix - temporary, like the pyramids?

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    1. I've got more vice grips than carter's has liver pills. However, every time I've seen them used in such a fashion a vehicle fire has ensued...

      Thanks for stopping by and commenting!

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    2. Guess it's time to break out the trusty old bronze soldering iron :)

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