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Tuesday, July 01, 2008

Adios, Mike!

On the next to the last posting comment section, regular commenter, Mike Green, is bidding buh-bye. Mike, (one of the few people to actually sign on and add his sane, sweet, often funny, sensible comments while posting his real name, instead of hiding behind some anonymouse persona) and his wife are going to "become vagabonds," for a "2 year meander across America, Canada and Mexico." They'll be renting their house out (so if you live near Mike, keep an eye on the place!) so they'll have a place to return to in a few years.

Maybe by that time most of the Hideous Sewer Wars will be over and while the streets will all be torn up and dust everywhere, life will be returning to "normal." Maybe.

Meantime, Bon Voyage, Mike. Do let us all know if you set up a blogsite to keep us informed about your rambles.

O.K. Bee Count

Been trying to spend as much time as I can in Kifani's Corner of my yard (koff-koff with all the sour smoke smell drifting down from Big Sur. State's burning, a taste of our future. Not good). And while out there, I've noticed about two or three bumblebees having a wonderful time rambling around on the lavender spears and tumbling about in the mallow blooms.

BUT so far this summer, I've counted maybe three honey bees doing the same. Scientists and beekeepers are all alarmed (and rightly so) with colony collapse, an as-yet unknown malady that's killing off the bees. This is truly an alarming problem since so much of the earth's plants depend on bees.

I've seen bee hives now out along the farms out on Los Osos Valley Road, but unlike a few years ago, there are almost no bees poking around in my yard.

So, Dear & Gentle Reader, let's have your bee reports. How's you garden doing, bee wise?

O.K. Trigger, Blow Into The Mouthpiece

Finally, racehorses will now be tested for steroids and other drugs. Well, sort of. Right now it's voluntary. Big Brown's stable has stepped forward to declare that their horses will run clean.

Notes the L.A. Times (6/24/08) "Whether other owners come forward and take a similar stance might not matter. The NTRA [National Thoroughbred Racing Association] and the Racing Medication and Testing Consortium are pushing the 38 racing states to adopt a model rule that would ban all but four steroids considered theraputic in nature.

"Under the model rule, which could be in place in each of the states by the end of the year, horses that are administered one of the four approved steroids -- including stanozolol--would be prohibited from racing for 30 days. Once they return to the track, they must test under the allowable threshold for the drug or the trainer and owner would be subject to penalties and fines.

"If they're not going to do it properly, it's going to be imposed upon them," said California Horse Racing Board chairman Robert Shapiro. "I applaud anybody who can see the writing on the wall."

Of course, when it comes to Big $$$$$$, the writing on the wall usually gets so erased or covered over with loopholes, there ends up little or no wall, let along any writing on it.

So, we'll see.

Better To Move To France Than Change Your Internet
Provider

Oy, France is looking good right now. Been weeks since getting a re-done, updated computer and a new provider, and I'm still spending endless hours futzing with the new email program, still have to fully complete my address book, am still pulling my hair out over a program that's downright snotty -- follow its prompts to set up something, click all the proper boxes only to have it suddenly claim absolute ignornance of all that went before -- "Nuh-huh, I don't know anything about "categories," what are you talking about, don't look at me, Nuh, huh."

Or just gets balky and goes "Pfffttttt, ain't gonna, doan hafta, I'm busy go away."

Saw a card once with an enraged duck attacking a computer and keyboard with a sledge hammer. Open up the card and it said, simply, "To start, hit any key."

Right.

Where's mah ax?

6 comments:

Unknown said...

Ann, I use a site called www.plaxo.com that allows me to network with friends and colleagues... and one of the benefits is that it offers to backup my addressbook.

After my system totally crashed a while back forcing me to reformat the hard drive, I was able to import all of my contacts right back into my address book.

It works across multiple email programs as well.

Check it out.

Unknown said...

I like to watch the Discovery Channel show "Verminators" in short doses... watching too long causes my skin to crawl.

Occasionally they find bee hives that have taken up residence in peoples homes.

Being exterminators, their response is to poison and kill the entire hive. This absolutely infuriates me.

One phone call to a local beekeeper and the hive will be collected and moved offsite... and the beekeeper will be glad to have it.

I don't understand why they allow exterminators to kill these hives... and why they themselves think its okay.

If any of you reading this ever hear of a hive in or too near a residence... please don't poison it... call a beekeeper and they can take care of it for you.

Ron said...

Ann wrote:

"How's your garden doing, bee wise?"

So far, so good. Although, I really won't know until the pumpkin blossoms pop, and they're about to pop.

Found this on wiki:

"Colony Collapse Disorder (or CCD) is a poorly understood phenomenon in which worker bees from a beehive or Western honey bee colony abruptly disappear."

Ann wrote:

... for a "2 year meander across America, Canada"...

I did that for a summer once. Highlight of the trip? One word: Yellowstone!

#2 highlight? Drinking Molson beer on draft in Canada, on a muggy, 90-degree day (or 31C, as they put it in Canada, eh?), with a heavy mist from Niagra Falls falling over us.

Have a great time, Mike. Start a blog. Post pictures!

Steven wrote:

"call a beekeeper and they can take care of it for you."

Good advice.

Churadogs said...

Apparently the bees under discussion . . . disappear? Like there are no bodies lying around? Like they're being teleported? Only die when they're out on pollen patrol but never die in the hive? This is weird. You'd think if it's some kind of disease or parasite you'd find little bodies lying around and could call in the Bee CSI or something. Strange.

And thanks for the Plaxo info. I'll check it out.

Mike Green said...

Thanks to everyone for all the kind words!
I'm super busy right now but try this link and let me know if it's working:
http://meandergreen.blogspot.com/

Bev. De Witt-Moylan said...

BEE COUNT
My usual strategy is to get out early to get to my lavender before it's necessary to negotiate with the bees for space. Lately though, only two or three at a time graze there, and I can cut lavender at will. The creeping thyme, blanketed with bees in other years saw only one today, with another one dividing its attention between the thyme and lavender.

There was a time when our dog, Clare, who loved to pick flowers in the garden would regularly come to me with a swollen lip from accidentally biting a bee along with a blossom. Nowadays, she would probably have been able to spend her hours there with little likelihood of being stung.

For the past couple of years Bill and I have noticed that the frogs that inhabited the drainage ditches on Paso Robles Street have become silent, quite a change from the days when they would sing loudly at night, all going quiet at once with the slightest disturbance such as someone walking by with a dog. Then like credulous children they would take up their one note chirping song immediately after the perceived danger had passed. Where did they go?

I like to believe that the small contributions to reducing our carbon footprint each of us makes in our own lives has a collective impact great enough to stave off disaster, but unknown causes and unknown outcomes to things such as the decline of the frogs and the bees, leave a lot of room for doubt.