Month of March 2023 (Nat’l Avg $3.359)

Nothing as satisfying as good food after a lot of hard work. Mmmm, makes me hungry and it isn't lunch time yet for me.

 

Our dog will eat any time, anywhere. Instead of his healthy weight of 20 lbs, he’d be 50 pounds if we didn’t watch his diet.

 

Yesterday, I took the big-tired auto Elantra to the river. Even tho I had the Pennecrest 7-15 power zoom binoculars, I only saw a few Megansers, one lone female Goldeneye & one Bald Eagle. Wow, what a statement! I remember when I was a kid, my friend & I would consider seeing 1 Bald Eagle in months, a major birding adventure. Also, I haven’t seen any Elk, where I saw 2 multiple Elk sightings in 1 month, nearly 2 years ago. That’s one reason, I keep going back to the river at that particular viewpoint.

Anyhow, with the lack of birds seen during the day, I decided to walk the nighttime neighborhood at 9:30PM, last night with the large 9x63mm Remington binoculars. I didn’t see any birds, tho if I had thought to, I might have glimpsed bats a thousand feet high, against the 100% cloud cover. I’ll have to try that. I used to see bats flick across the eyepiece field of view, against the clear sky when I had my big astronomical telescopes while observing celestial objects, when I was young.
What I did see was the landing lights of airliners on their approach routes to SEA-TAC airport. Visually, I couldn’t see any clouds illuminated by the near Searchlight bright headlights on the airliners, which indicated the cloud cover was thousands of feet higher than even the flying airliners. But, the 9x63mm Remington’s did show that the airliner headlights did light up some of the faint air glow given off by the atmosphere itself, for hundreds of yards ahead of the airliners. That was some pretty good seeing. Sometimes, the headlights show low clouds near the flight path of the airliners for miles ahead of the airplanes. Later, I used the 9x63mm Remingtons on the dark green belts that the housing project developments had left. Yes, even when the green belts appeared completely black to the eye, the 9x63mm optics could detect some of the trees deeper into the green belts.

 

To the river with the big-tired auto Elantra again. Had the Tasco 7-15power zooms. Even fewer birds today, than yesterday. I did see a small flock of flying swans, between the trees, but they were 2 miles away. A few Megansers were around, but there were fewer actions with the coming Spring, than on warmer, sunnier days previously. Yes, a bit chilly & windy. The clouds were a combination of lighter & much darker, not quite dramatic, tho. I forgot my thick vest & wool cap & mittens. I did shorten my walk & moved on to home.

 

Went for a drive today. My wife was driving the manual Elantra. As often said, she is a safe driver, but not an efficient driver. I try not to observe, but it’s hard to watch her on the brakes too much AND not coasting or shifting down to save the brakes(already have one unnecessary brake job). Also she won’t move to another lane to pick up spaces. In two stoplight interactions she lost five car places & then was stopped by an unnecessary stoplight. I had to go to sleep.

 

To pick up spaces ? I'm not understandung.

 

Move to shorter lines of traffic.

 

In the mid-day, went to the river in the big-tired Elantra, with the B&L 7x35mm & Pentax 20x60mm binoculars. Unlike our usual rain (which was covering California), we had a nice sunny day with temperatures above 50degF. The B&L gave its nicest & sharpest performance…..which is NOT unusual for the sweet, but only 7 power optic. As for the Pentax’s, there were some heatwaves in the air, so the Pentax wasn’t up to its normal snuff. So I used the B&L’s mostly. Even could see a male Common Goldeneye white cheek circle at over 250 yards. That was nice seeing. Good sharp clarity for the Common Merganser’s too. Towards the end of the river walk, I saw 15 Cormorants, gathered together. One was on the shore, but 14 of the birds were all piled together on a log rising from the river bottom. There were plenty of logs rising from the river bottom, but they all decided they really liked the one. Must have been the log’s Happy Hour……I don’t know which cormorant paid the bar tab.

 

Ah…..just like the cormorants in the post above this one:

“….Towards the end of the river walk, I saw 15 Cormorants, gathered together…..14 of the birds were all piled together on a log rising from the river bottom. There were plenty of logs rising from the river bottom, but the Cormorants almost all decided they really liked the one. Must have been the log’s Happy Hour……I don’t know which cormorant paid the bar tab….”

 

R U still getting that FREE electricity?
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GOOD FOR YOU!!!!!!!

 

Ya know……….yesterday I went to the river with the Tasco 7-15 power, 35mm zooms. Yes, the B&L 7x35mm are my G0-TO optic for pleasant sharpness. But, I must say with extra care in focusing, these Tasco’s are very sharp too. The Merganser’s & Goldeneye at 10 to 14 power are very detailed & the impact of the image size is stunning.

If you have a sharp 7x35mm binocular, be happy with them. The image is excellent…..& probably wide angle, too. But, if you don’t have a sharp higher power optic ALSO, either single focal length or zoom binocular, you are missing some of the outdoors. Yes, I’m very happy with the B&L 7x35mm binoculars. But some of that happiness is because I also have higher power binoculars to accompany them, that really reach into NATURE.

Low & high power optics. They work together superbly.

 

Excellent charge management as usual, Gord.

 

Retired & without an EV yet, I can only speak of theoretical opportunities. In retirement, I think I wlll have more chances of charging than when I was working. I’m not talking about the greater numbers of today’s EV chargers either, but also about my extra time. Years ago before I retired, there were good equipment (not EV) 220 & 440Volt electrical capabilities on the work premises which was an advantage compared to other work sites. With the future looking to workers ABSOLUTELY NEEDING EV charging facilities on the work premise, there must be good EV charging for workers now. But, that was before all the charging problems emerged with Tesla vs. CCS & EV charger breakdowns. I don’t care about work or their capabilities now.

 

In my area, I'm seeing NO interest by businesses to support customer charging aspirations let alone their employees'. They're not seeing the need yet, just expenses to the business. Never mind they can have the chargers installed with grants and they can set the charging fees so the employees can pay a fair share. Nope, no interest whatsoever. And they're surprised employees who have been working remotely are not flocking to work in the office. Low or no cost solar installations are also garnering no interest by the businesses.

(local?) Government support for on-street parking and charging may be a way forward for downtown areas. Housing complexes need to support their own community charging. Private homes, hey, they're private so they'll do what they need to when the time comes.

 

For the 2nd day in a row, I took the Tasco 7-15 power, 35mm zooms to the river. & for the 2nd day in a row, I found no reason to have taken “my better” optics with me. In two cases, I found advantages to the Tasco’s, that the Pentax 20power x 60mm didn’t have. First, the heatwaves (tho the temperature was only 60degF) may have degraded Pentax 60mm image quality more than using the Tasco’s 35mm lenses. I’ve noted that aspect, the first time I really tested the Tasco’s. At 1 mile & greater, the Tasco image at higher powers wasn’t good. But, I think the Pentax 60mm image would have been worse. At 1/3rd of a mile the Tasco image was holding very well. I don’t think the Pentax image quality would have been as good as the Tasco’s. Even if the Tasco image at higher power hadn’t been good at closer distances, the zoom can drop its power, which really helps for “smiles of seeing”. Yes, Merganser’s & Goldeneye were sweetly sharp with the Tasco’s. I saw two sets of Bald Eagles twice. The last pair were flying in the air, circling each other. Second, at 14 power, both Eagles, in the same field-of-view(FOV), were detailed & sharp. The narrow field Pentax would never have gotten both Eagles in the same view.