mellowcat

early to rise

mellowcat — Fri, 27 Jan 2012 00:18:21 +0000

Saw two raccoons on my morning run, either coming or going from a storm drain. They stared at me.

on urgent business

mellowcat — Sat, 21 Jan 2012 05:31:13 +0000

Lest we forget, January 21st is National Squirrel Appreciation Day. Feel free to observe in the manner you see fit.

This fellow is working the problem at Mt. Vernon, Virginia. I’m not certain what he’s doing right at the moment, but I can assure you it is of the utmost urgency.

making good progress

mellowcat — Thu, 19 Jan 2012 16:23:29 +0000

The rain is knocking on the door, but I suppose there’s still time for the front to shear apart and miss us completely.

can’t miss

mellowcat — Tue, 17 Jan 2012 18:17:32 +0000

OK, so I was wrong about my prediction of rain returning on the 15th. It was cloudy that day, so I call that close enough. But now, take a look at this baby:

With a frontal boundary stretching from Oregon to Hawaii, we stand a decent chance of getting some rain.

ridgetop

mellowcat — Tue, 17 Jan 2012 03:50:42 +0000

A fine day out on Tomales Point, Point Reyes National Seashore. The last spectacular day before the storm door opens.

Not only did we see a few herds of Tule Elk, but we also saw a bobcat running across the road on the way out there. He was a large gent, and stopped in a field to let us observe him more closely, and hear his power song. The Resident Expert borrowed my Mountain Warfare knit cap for the hike. It was pretty darn cold out there; not as cold as it would be in June or July, but chilly nonetheless.

game day

mellowcat — Sat, 14 Jan 2012 19:18:58 +0000

I was out early this morning, taking the Subie in for a smog test, and noted an early exodus of locals heading up to the ‘Stick for today’s Niners game. Somewhat surprising to see that at 8am when the game doesn’t start until 1:30, but I suppose you want to make the most of it when it’s the first home field playoff game in nearly a decade. They’re technically a hometown team, due to their legacy training camp in the neighborhood, and the fans are out in force today.

lone wolf

mellowcat — Thu, 12 Jan 2012 00:13:08 +0000

This just in from the Fantastic News desk: a lone gray wolf wandered into Northern California last month. They tell us that wolves were last seen in the state about 85 years ago, so, welcome back. Always nice to get a keystone predator back in the mix. (Heads up, deer.)

This guy walked over 700 miles from northeastern Oregon all the way down into the Siskiyous. The wildlife biologists gave him the name “OR-7″, and an Oregon group held a contest to come up with a slightly better name. The winner? “Journey”.

Don’t stop believing.

Photo credit: California Dept. of Fish and Game

full moon fever

mellowcat — Mon, 09 Jan 2012 21:32:37 +0000

I see that The Letter went out for a moonlight run and didn’t tell me. As compensation, I will steal one of his pictures to decorate my blog.

I did take advantage of the full moon to plant some crops – a half dozen spinach starts went in just as the moon was rising. The squirrels are probably uprooting them right now.

And the cat was wandering around the house in the evening shouting about something. I figured it was due to the moon or an impending major earthquake, but it turned out that she wanted to jump up on the bed, but the quilt was a little bit out of position and she was afraid.

you heard it hear first

mellowcat — Sun, 08 Jan 2012 05:41:05 +0000

Several days ago I told the Resident Expert that our persistent winter dry spell would end on January 15th. I had no reason to state this with certainty, other than I wanted it to start raining eventually. Just letting you know, it’s going to start raining on the 15th.

and it’s good

mellowcat — Sat, 07 Jan 2012 04:48:11 +0000

Here’s a very rare professional sports related blog post for you. I am totally against field goals in football. And this is not just because of the Fiesta Bowl, although that does serve to bolster my argument. My feeling is that the field goal is unsatisfactory in all respects. I’ve thought about this a lot (five minutes); let’s look at this from two perspectives. First, you’re on offense and you have the ball at the other guy’s 20 yard line. It’s fourth and 4. Any red-blooded fan is thinking, c’mon, go for it. But out comes the kicking team. If he makes it, yay, 3 points. The field goal kicker doesn’t look like the other guys though. Some players pat him on the shoulder, but you know they’re all thinking, “should have gone for it”. And what if he misses? Oh god. There is nothing worse. I mean it. And secondly, if you’re on defense, you basically just become a spectator. You have to watch out for trick plays, and in one out of a hundred tries you might block it, but you’re basically just watching like everybody else. Did he make it? Oh.

So I don’t think they should award points for the field goal. If you want to kick one, fine. But you’re not getting any points for it. And it goes without saying that the extra point after a touchdown is off the list as well. Not sure how that thing ever got introduced into the game to begin with. Just win, baby.