A few pictures

Not sure what this cat was trying to do but he stood still long enough for a picture. This one is friendly when he visits the food bowls out back to the point of being a pest at times. Almost tripped me once with his antics. But when we get a shot like this it’s all worth it.

The hostas are still blooming and we don’t mind seeing that. We do wish the days wouldn’t be shorter as sunset seems to come around 6 pm now. That leaves less time to get pictures taken that don’t involve the moon. Nothing wrong with the moon, we just like a little color.

This one makes us laugh as it’s the biggest bee on the smallest flower we’ve ever seen. Have to admit that is one determined critter regardless. Guess that goes back to ‘every little bit helps’.

Don’t know the name of this flower but thought it looked like a good subject to get a picture of. This one was all by its lonesome in a neighbors yard surrounded by green. We didn’t get close enough to see if any bees were inside and we’re ok with that.

Finally, this guy on the goldenrod having lunch. As we’ve watched the last few summers, they usually don’t stay in one place too long. This one broke that mold and kept busy without giving us a second glance. That is all the pictures for today. If things go as we hope we might have some more pictures in a day or two.

Took the camera out yesterday, eye shield and all, to get a few pictures yet have no idea how they turned out. We do think we got a few of a kestrel But aren’t sure. Have been seeing one around lately so we hope we did. As the smallest flying predator they are interesting. If the pictures aren’t of a kestrel we’ll find out soon. Using the autofocus and using the eye not usually chosen for the chore, we’ll see.

Enjoy our Thursday as that means Friday is only a dream away. Now for some coffee.

Still waiting…

Had the eye surgery today and admit to being frustrated and still waiting. For some reason I was under the impression that vision improvement would be instantaneous and found it that just isn’t so. Putting three different eye drops in the eye every few hours doesn’t help. But came away happy and am hoping for the best.

Noticed a couple of things and one involved sunglasses. After the recovery part, which involved getting some water to drink and a ton of eyedrops I was ready to leave and told to put on my sunglasses. The nurse did not look happy when I told her I don’t remember being told I needed them and left them at home. So, with a promise that I would keep my one eye closed until we were in the house at home the nurse said goodbye.

After being home a short time I noticed that the lights that were on did have halos around them for the first time. It almost looked like 3 lights for each seen. And I even learned something. Glancing through the ‘shield’ that I was told not to take off unless I was using eyedrops, I noticed that this ‘shield’ appeared to be just an oversized lens with holes in it. And it was clear so it didn’t block out any light.

And it hit me. I asked the wife if the only purpose of the shield was to keep idiots from rubbing their eyes she laughed and said yes. Not one who usually rubs my eyes I also found that humorous but will wear the shield per doctors orders. If their are any typos, or this doesn’t make any sense, remember that I can’t see for the eye drops and I’m not getting any younger. Things will improve.

Enjoy our Wednesday. Now I need more coffee and a darker spot to hide in.

Not giving up

Some things just aren’t meant to be. It’s been a well kept secret that I can’t tie shoes. However I learned to do it. when people see me tying my shoelaces they break out laughing. Guess it’s because I usually wear boots or slip on shoes. And I thought that was my only cross to bear, until Sunday.

Sunday I started pre-op eye drops for my cataract surgery tomorrow. Seemed pretty straight forward. Open the bottle, tilt your head back, and put a drop in your eye. Found out my hand/eye coordination sucks. So far I’ve hit my upper eye lid, my lower eyelashes, and somehow, my nose! With one more day left I better start getting some in my eye.

The wife said to go across the nose with my thumb and finger and that will automatically align the drop to the eye. The end result looked like I was crying. She can put one eye drop in for me in the morning, and I appreciate that, but I have to learn to do it anyway. It’s just I’ve never had problems with my eyes before where the drops were needed. When I did get any drops in my eyes the eye doctor put them in during an exam.

Since there will be more drops after the surgery I better figure this out quick, or buy more eye drops. But I’m not giving up and I’m not a quitter. If I don’t get some drops in today I’ll just refocus and learn how normal people tie their shoes. One problem at a time and that one is older.

Enjoy our Tuesday. Now for some coffee, at least I don’t have a problem with that.

Here we go

Was out taking pictures of critters yesterday and this morning overslept big time. The instant I made it to the kitchen table the madness started. The wife left to take her mother for some tests and the phone started ringing. Supposed to have cataract surgery Wednesday and both the surgery center and doctors office called almost back to back.

Before all that happened I had another dream and in this dream everybody liked Biden. Yeah, it was scary. The dream had Biden, the CDC, and other government entities allowing the use of hydroxychloroquine and ivermectin as treatments for the virus! Thought that perhaps they had quit listening to the voices.

In this strange dream the government also made vaccines voluntary. And both sides of the issues actually got along. It does seem like that those of us who choose not to get the vaccine feel it’s our choice yet don’t belittle those who do get it. Those who do get the vaccine, for some part, claim we unvaccinated are putting their families in danger and are basically red headed step children if we choose not to.

I realized it was a dream who Biden announced that our military would be going back to Afghanistan to bring back all Americans left behind. Even dreaming one can only believe so much. Sorry for the late post and we’ll try not to let it happen again.

Enjoy our Monday. Now for some coffee.

Sunday snicker

A priest and a mayor were very friendly, although the mayor was very atheist and sometimes argued about God or miracles.

One day they both went fishing in the lake with a rowboat. When they were in the middle of the lake, the oars fell by mistake and were floating several meters from the boat.

The priest took out a medal that wore to his neck, made a little prayer, kissed her… And coming out of the boat was walking on the water, took the oars and returned with them to the boat.

When the mayor’s wife came home, she asked how the day was.
-All right, by the way, can you believe the priest doesn’t know how to swim? The mayor said.

Remember…

Today we observe a solemn 20th anniversary. And as the names of the victims are being read at ground zero we remember. That day I was working in a friends shop putting a quarter panel on his Chevy and had just finished tack welding the panel in place. As soon as I took off my welding helmet, my phone rang.

The wife asked if I heard the news of the plane hitting the towers as the second plane hadn’t hit yet. Admitted I had not as I was busy working on the car. Went into the shop office and sure enough, it was all over the news on TV. We’re sure those of you who are old enough remember where you were when the news came.

We should not, and cannot, forget. The attacks of that day saddened, and united us as a country. We were saddened for those who lost their lives and enraged at those who had done this to us. So please observe a moment of silence today in remembrance of the events We will have a snicker for tomorrow but today is for remembering.

Learn something new…

The wife had yesterday off so we dined out for a late breakfast. Didn’t remember the place was a Greek restaurant when the waitress asked if I’d like eggs with my biscuits and gravy. Thinking I could handle 2 eggs along with the rest I said ‘sure’. I remembered it was a Greek restaurant when the plates came and I had 4 eggs with my biscuits and gravy.

Later we took the camera out to see what the creatures were up to. The picture above got me thinking about fine art. How you ask? Well, way back in the school art class we saw a famous painting called ‘the scream’, or something close. The picture makes it look as if the butterfly has his mouth wide open like in the painting.

And the bees were all over the goldenrod again. This one was energetic and we needed patience to finally get a picture. Really something to see with all the bees darting around the yellow flowers and well worth a few minutes time to do it.

This one actually posed for us, or was busy getting all the pollen they wanted. Again, we like the colors.

And didn’t know the praying mantis eats bumble bees. We knew they eat garden pests, but the bees are beneficial to said gardens. Almost missed the mantis having a meal as thought it was part of the goldenrod at first. Their coloring sure works to their advantage when they’re under the flowers.

Here’s a closer shot of the mantis eating the bee. The face almost looks like something out of a sci-fi movie. Not sure how much longer these creatures will be around this year so we keep an eye out for them while we can. Wish we could have seen how the bee got caught.

So you can learn something new every day and if you’re older it’s even easier as we old farts forget a lot. So sometimes we think we’re learning something new when it’s actually something we forgot. But since we’re old farts it counts.

Enjoy our Friday as it looks to be the start of a good weekend. Now for some coffee.

Overthought things

We’ll preface this one with the fact that it was breezy yesterday here on the east coast of Iowa. Saw this white object in one of the bushes and thought it was alive as it looked like it was moving. Wondered if it some new species never before seen by human eyes, or a critter that we hadn’t seen before. Turns out it is part of a seed pod that opened and the wind blew it into the bush where it stuck. Can’t get that time back.

When we finally figured out the mystery of the creature in the bush we noticed this spider web and how the shady parts made it look broken. It was not. We managed to get a decent shot in the calm between the breezes. The spider must not care for the wind as he was nowhere to be seen.

Got another surprise on the other end of the house when we ran across this hosta in bloom. Always liked these little flowers and didn’t expect to see any this late in the year. Remember as a child we’d pick them before they opened and pop them in between our fingers. Our pet chicken must have been in the shop.

Out by the the tool room we met this cicada who was laid back and enjoying the day. We watched this critter for a while as they are interesting to look at. After he didn’t move for a half hour we lost interest and looked elsewhere for something that needed photo op. And we found it.

We read somewhere that bees love goldenrod so we went to the side of the house that we planted some and found a whole lot of critters. Problem was, most of them didn’t sit still long enough to get a good picture. This one did. Must be true as we saw all kinds of bees in the goldenrod and more circling for a landing. The flowers are bright too.

Enjoy our Wednesday as we will. Now I need coffee.

Good days

Was out watching this spider who seemed to be guarding the web. We wondered what happened that caused the spider to be this way. We also noticed it stayed near the top of the web while looking around. If he hangs around much longer, we’ll have to name him. We were probably 5 feet away looking through a zoom lens and got tunnel vision.

After we took the camera from our eye, we noticed this praying mantis just below the spider web. Again, this shot was taken from 5 feet away with a zoom lens. As we watched the mantis didn’t move and thought it must also be honed in on something it considered prey. Thought this was an interesting development so we watched for a while.

Until we heard a cat raising a fuss, saw this walnut on the ground, then saw a flash of color as the cat chased the squirrel who had dropped his dinner. It all happened so fast we could only get a picture of the walnut as everyone else involved was out of sight and the walnut was still there.

So we went back to watching the praying mantis. If had moved and was watching us watching him, or her. We had a little stare down going through the lens, which wasn’t easy as this one didn’t blink. Seemed almost as if the mantis was wondering if we were a threat or not. And the main reason we went out that time was to get some bird pictures! the mantis did look darker when in the shade as this picture shows. We aren’t disappointed though.

After watching the insect world, and the squirrel chase, we did finally see two European starlings in the one fork of the old pine tree. They were enjoying the day and getting some sun but kept an eye on us as we got a little closer. All in all, we’d call that a good day.

Enjoy our Wednesday as we will. Now for some coffee.

The cats are out

Been looking into something we heard that we consider to be a rumor until we get more information. If found to be true it’s the scariest thing we’ve ever heard. So while we’re looking into this rumor we’ll share some pictures.

This is Puka, the Alpha male feral cat who is responsible for any new kittens found roaming around our yards. He is one of, if not the biggest cats we’ve had around the neighborhood.

This one is a fairly new feral cat to our neighborhood who doesn’t seem to know if he wants to be in the sun to warm up or in the shade to cool down. Guess he chose both. Sure has some orange eyes to match his fur.

Not a great shot of the new kitten, but it was taken through two screen doors as this one is really skittish. We’ll get some better shots at some point. We did find out that the kitten can run like a normal cat without hopping around like a rabbit. And it is fast too.

This little girl was just watching the other cats from the safety of the alley. She sure is watching intently.

Finally, and not a cat, we noticed this feather on the hood of the wifes car and thought it might make a good picture. Not sure what kind of bird lost it but the colors really stood out against the dark hood. Hope it fell out naturally and wasn’t the result of a cat attack.

Enjoy our Tuesday as the holiday is over. Now for come coffee and a little time with the wife.