Chasing Owls

I joined a group that went to a dry river in the High Desert to find and collect owl pellets. If you're not familiar with owl pellets, they are the little bundles of fur that are left over when an owl eats. OK, it sounds kind of gross. But the truth of the matter is that they are no worse than the typical process that happens in nature all the time. Owl finds kangaroo rat, owl eats rat, owl drops pellet.

The dry river was a great spot to gather them because there are plenty of trees that the owls use for their hunting ground, and I learned a trick to collecting the things. When I've done this sort of work before, it mostly involves walking to a tree, circling the tree looking for small lumps in the sand and then moving on to another tree. Hunting started slowly. I walked around for a good hour and came up mostly empty handed.

Our guide called me over to show me a nest. This was a large tree with a hole about 12 feet off the ground. At the base of the tree was a large pile of bones, which was interesting as long as you're not a kangaroo rat. If you ARE a kangaroo rat, then it probably looks like the killing fields. Very gruesome and spooky! But for people, its an interesting sight. It became even more interesting when the resident owl finally got fed up with us tromping around his front porch and took flight from the hole. He (or she) was amazing! Large, boxy and about as impressive as anything I've encountered in the wild. The owl took off and circled us for a bit before alighting on another tree further on. He ticked of a raven in the area which proceeded to 'churk' and make that distinctive sound which is similar to stones rolling around a tin can. So for the rest of the pellet hunt, we knew exactly where the owl was!

At the end of the trip, I'd collected a good sackfull of the gray bundles and was ready to call it a day. Walking through sand is exhausting, and although the morning was cold, the sun was rapidly heating us up. The pellets will make their way into a classroom where students can study them and learn about owls, nature, and the rather traumatic life cycle of the kangaroo rat.

Pacific Grove and Butterflies

butterflies are a big deal around here. Pacific Grove names itself the Butterfly City because the Monarch butterflies make a point of using this area as an endpoint on their annual migration. One end of the route is firmly planted in Mexico somewhere, and the other stretches up the state to wrap itself around Monterey.

It's beautiful here. It's raining, the waves are coming in like semis crashing along the beaches and the air is cool with a hint of storms. Everything that I look for in a mid November.

The best part about this trip was that I got to meet a relative which Kathy had uncovered from her work in genealogy. This would be my Grandfathers-Brothers-Daughter, which translates into 'second cousin' if you do all the math. Math has never been my strong suit, so I'll just say she's a relative and one that I'm happy to have met. She's a lot of fun, has a great smile and made me feel very welcome when we showed up on her doorstep! I'm hoping that we can return the favor if she ever decides to make a trip to Southern CA. Ideally, we can meet up with her in Cape Cod if she's willing to make the trip.

Monterey in the Rain

Is it worth driving about 7 hours to spend a few days in Monterey just for the rain? Actually, yes it is. If you've suddenly found yourself living in an area that gets rain about once every three months, then it's well worth the drive to the beach. It's beautiful out here right now. Lots of fog, heavy rain and leaden, overcast skies.

I'm taking the guitar on the road, along with a variety of laptops. For this trip I'm not traveling lightly. Sometimes it's very freeing to just get in the car and head for the horizon, not caring where the travels will take you. Then sometimes you've got baggage. This is a baggage trip.
I'm on the clock for Zurich, which means that I have to keep in constant contact with my employers, just in case they need me for a project. As it turns out, they do. The moment I logged in from the hotel I found some messages waiting for me asking me to log onto the FTP server for some last minute projects. Thank goodness I'd set up the netbook for FTP access. Its got PhotoShop and Adobe InDesign loaded as well, although I have yet to put them through their paces on the lightweight system. Still, it should work for basic projects.

And I guess this is the perfect time to try it out. I'm in the motel room right now and the sounds of rain are pattering against the window. Time to get to work.

Screwtape Review

I'm famous! Appearing on page B1 or the Mountaineer Progress Newspaper counts as fame, right? Humm. On second thought, never mind.

It's a glowing review, but keep in mind that the author has a crush on the director of the play, so some good press was pretty much a given. Still, it's nice to see everyone involved in the production given acknowledgment for the hard work. I'm not sure if the journalist was in the audience for the opening night performance, or if she attended the second night's showing. I hope the latter is the case! No reviewer should have seen that first night. Hopefully all involved will forget the experience in time.

I'm glad the photo-journalist got that second shot. It's from one of the best 'staged' scenes of the play. I don't know who took the picture, but they captured it perfectly.