Saturday, April 17, 2010 - Bosque Birdwatchers RV Park, San Antonio NM

Great-tailed Grackle, San Antonio NM, April 13, 2010

Whoa!

I must say I was a bit startled when I first saw this picture come up in Lightroom. While I'm out and about firing away at every bird that will sit still long enough to push the button, flighty beasts that they are I often miss wonderful things I don't know I've captured until I get images uploaded into the laptop.

Great-tailed Grackle, San Antonio NM, April 13, 2010

Phew, had me fooled there for a second. This is New Mexico after all. Stranger things have been sighted here.

This high tech world is great

I was lying in bed early this morning with my iPod Touch, listening to a Diane Rehm Show podcast, Sy Montgomery: "Birdology", an interview with Sy Montgomery and her new book Birdology: Adventures with a Pack of Hens, a Peck of Pigeons, Cantankerous Crows, Fierce Falcons, Hip Hop Parrots, Baby Hummingbirds, and One Murderously Big Living Dinosaur and soon decided I wanted to read the book. A minute later, the show still playing, I had a copy downloaded and open on the touch. Pure magic. I love it - this instant gratification.

When it works

Last night I had a good scare with my treasured MacBook Pro laptop. I was sitting here doing my thing and began to smell hot electronics. By the time I'd had a good look around the room and finally discovered the left rear quadrant of the laptop was feeling noticeably warmer than usual, ... the screen shut down. Yikes! Without a screen I can't even get online to find out what to do next... Ah, I can get online with the touch.... But only for a while - the touch charges through the laptop (gotta get me a charger).

Anyway, I turned the laptop off and let it cool down for a while and it fired right back up and has been fine since. Gotta research this mystery a bit. And develop a fallback plan. My hard drive is backed up but without the laptop I can't access it.

It's interesting to realize how attached to and dependent on this technology so many of us have become. And how vulnerable we are to its frailties.

A rainy day

It rained off and on all night and it's raining now in a way that feels like it will be an all day soaker. I'm startled to realize it's been a very long time since I've enjoyed a quiet, gentle rainy day. It'll be a good time to kick back, read my new book, fiddle with this website, work on a leather project I have going and just enjoy the soothing patter of raindrops on the roof. We like it.

Night camp

Site 16 - Bosque Bird Watcher's RV Park, San Antonio NM

• This is a basic, small Mom & Pop RV Park with full hookups.
• Verizon cell phone and Broadband service are available here with a strong signal.
• Locate Bosque Bird Watcher's RV Park on my Night Camps map
• Click for Google street view
• Check the weather in San Antonio NM