Monday, November 30, 2020

Introducing Bruno!


      This is a good day to introduce Bruno, a Denver Dumb Friends League pup, rescued from the same place as Maizie, the night before election day.




     Bruno joined foster pup, Millie, and the two were hysterical romping, spooning, and whispering to each other. It made election night lots more fun. They had a blast together until Millie went to her furever home with a veteran and his parrot the day before Thanksgiving.




     Bruno is 4 years old and was surrendered with his 7 year old mom. He needed someone to pal around with for awhile. And in return, Bruno taught Millie, also 4, the art of house training. A win-win for everyone!



     I did consider adopting both of them but when this vet held Millie, close to tears of joy in his eyes, I knew Millie needed to be with him. He lost his dog at the same time that Maizie died. We are planning playdates so they will be together again.



      

       We are already looking forward to a Christmastime visit to the Great Sand Dunes to roam the dunes and let some of Maizie's ashes blow in that beautiful wind. I sure miss Maizie but Bruno's curious, slightly shy, and funny nature is helping me with grief.





         We'll get back to science topics next month, after the last 3 weeks of school. In the meantime, I would love to hear your dog tales, cat tales, gerbil tales, parrot tales...


With dogged determination,

Steph and Bruno



57 comments:

  1. Congratulations on bring forth Bruno. I trust he will bring as much joy as Maizie.

    Is he also a toy (or is it miniature) poodle like Maizie? I have a hard time distinguishing from Bichon Frise. Apparently shedding doesn't bring you joy.

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    1. Bruno was surrendered in the outside kennels at the DDFL in the middle of the night so we don't know his history. I imagine he, like Maizie, has both poodle and bichon in his mix.

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    2. eco, that is true about shedding. Both of my kids have allergies to dog and cat dander.

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  2. Replies
    1. I wonder if that sign gets replaced as often as the ones near Intercourse, PA? Or the milepost 420 signs, wherever they still exist?

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    2. The town was in the news lately; the council voted to change the name to Frugging, precisely because their signs were getting stolen. Note that it's not far across the border to the German towns of Petting and Tittmoning.

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    3. My friends live on High Street. The street sign near their house has been stolen at least a dozen times.

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    4. They could get their revenge on the folks on Low Road. A little musical distraction is good to atone for the low road I've started.

      Haight/ Ashbury signs in SF are frequently taken.

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    5. Yes, eco, quite the low road you started us down.

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  3. So you want something with a little higher tone? Remember to use your incave voice.

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  4. Replies
    1. At the end of my project in Escalante the clients took me on one of their favorite hikes.

      After passing beautiful arched rocks, ancient structures built on the faces of cliffs, and some ancient irrigated fields (and my experimentation with letting a fire ant bite me), we had lunch at a lovely bend in the creek.

      The surrounding rocks were completely covered with petroglyphs, and the sand bank was littered with hundreds, perhaps thousands, of potsherds and corn cobs. My hosts told me those had been carbon dated to around 1200 CE.

      It took us hours to clean up the mess people had left behind.

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    2. Why the fire ant experimentation? And how was it?

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    3. Perverse curiosity, I suppose. We don't have them here, I'd heard they have an incredible bite, and when we came upon a nest I let one crawl on my foot and take a bite.

      It wasn't horrendous (a yellowjacket bite at the start of a Yosemite backpack trip was both more painful and, at 3 days, longer lasting), but it was surprising how much punch there was in the mandibles of such a small creature. I wouldn't want a host of them biting me at once. So I suppose the experiment was a success.

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    4. eco, congrats on your experiment.

      At a trailhead in the foothills, I unknowingly sat on a bunch of fire ants. The sting was quite painful but also ended quickly.

      In my 20's I also sat on cholla cactus in the Sonoran desert. That was REALLY painful.

      Both were accidental. I am more careful about where I sit now. . .

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    5. Looking backwards is the best way to avoid getting pain in arrears.

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  5. "When the moon is in the Seventh House,
    And Jupiter aligns with ... Saturn"
    ???

    I suppose the latest lockdown in this nanny state prohibits viewing the Geminids, a chilly winter treat. Too many lights in my neighborhood.

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    1. Yes! We are incorporating the conjunction into our annual Solstice Celebration on 12-21. I am looking forward to it.

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    2. It's supposed to be mostly clear here on Tuesday evening, when these two are close enough and the ISS flies right over head shortly after sunset. Might keep a granddaughter or two late at the playground that day.

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    3. Hmmm, jan, your link is "forbidden."

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    4. That's what comes of passing links around on the internet. Maybe this will work.

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    5. Haha. Yes, my kids and I saw Mt. Rushmore just like that one October.

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    6. Anyway, just a comment on the futility of watching for ephemeral astronomical events on a cloud-shrouded planet. My brother- and sister-in-law had thought about going to Argentina to see the solar eclipse earlier this month, before the pandemic intervened. Good thing, too, as it was too cloudy where they'd planned to be.

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    7. We've had clear skies most evenings, and I've gone out a couple of times for a viewing. It's kind of cool to see two dots so close to each other, but not an overwhelming site in sight.

      My best binoculars and telephoto lenses just show them as larger dots in the sky; unfortunately I don't have a telescope (not too late for you to rush order one and have it delivered by Christmas, hint hint).

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  6. We know males are mostly old fossils, but why are old fossils mostly males?

    The answer may be here. 20 years ago powerpoint files like this were pretty common in construction emails.

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    1. This dictionary points out the distinction and possible confusion.

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    2. I guess words are your métier...

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    3. BTW, that dictionary entry includes one of my pet peeves as an example. (You keep dogs, I keep peeves.) "A meteoric rise in popularity." Bah. Meteors don't rise, they fall. They weren't meteors until they fell into Earth's atmosphere.

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    4. Touché, jan.

      I agree with you on meteoric rising vs. falling as to direction, though I believe the meaning is to the speed, brilliance, or brevity of a meteor. As a pet peeve though, it's a good one.

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    5. I know about Martian meteorites, i.e., pieces of Mars that have gotten knocked off (by asteroid collisions with Mars, presumably) and make their way to Earth. But, with all the telescopes and Mars orbiters we've got, has anyone ever seen a Martian meteor, i.e., an incandescent body streaking through the Martian atmosphere? I assume they happen all the time, given all the craters seen there, and I know that Earth-orbiting satellites and astronauts have looked down on meteors here, but I haven't seen pix or videos of Martian meteors.

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    6. Mars may be too far away, but there have been sightings of meteorites hitting the moon.

      Aren't most meteors seen here are incredibly small, bits of dust not much larger than sand? We can only see them as they burn in front of the very dark sky, wouldn't it be really hard to see them against the bright reflection of Mars?

      And seeing them ignite against the slightly darker background of the atmospheric corona around Mars seems a challenge, especially as the Martian atmosphere is less dense and (perhaps) thinner than earth's.

      Makes me wonder if there might be more surviving meteorites on Mars, less atmosphere to burn them out. I vaguely recall meteorites were easier to find on the moon.

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    7. The probes orbiting Mars should be able to see meteorite trails when they're over the night side of the planet. But I haven't found any pictures of these.

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    8. Taking pictures of the dark side? Doesn't seem very probe-able.

      What's the difference between Ray Walston and Richard Wolff?

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    9. jan, I've not found any images either.

      eco, tell us the difference please!

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    10. Why, eco? Half of each orbit is in the dark.

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    11. Why would we waste film taking pictures of the dark side? A day on Mars is only a little longer than an earth-day. Much more of the surface can be discerned with the sunny side up in the photo op (change the second to last letter for a palindr---, er, series of letters that are the same backwards and forwards.

      Ray Walston is My Favorite Martian.
      Richard Wolff is My Favorite Marxian.

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    12. I don't get the fascination with palindromes, especially if they don't actually make words in reverse. Ooh, re:verse. . .

      eco, have you been reading Heather Cox Richardson's "Letters from an American?" Highly recommend.

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    13. I read a couple of her posts; she writes a very good consolidation of events, with some historic and broader overlays. But I'm more interested in reading the larger, and deeper, picture of what's happening in this country. The underlying disease that is causing the depths of depravity have been scratched, but not fully realized (my opinion). Maybe she addresses this, I haven't read all her posts.

      And while it's been fun reading Bandy X. Lee's and Mary Trump's analyses of the Grift Pumpkin's psychopathology, I'm more interested in the psyche of his supporters. (How) Can we stop this from happening again? The next Fear Leader might not be such a buffoon.

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  8. Replies
    1. jan, thanks for the intriguing article.

      Proxima cause in SETI.

      Happy New Year, everyone everywhere.

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  9. New post on "Slower Than Expected Plate Tectonic Movement Based on Northwest Australian Rocks" is now up.

    All the best for 2021!

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