Kevin Standlee: Fandom Is My Way of Life

This afternoon, I heard a quail calling with the distinctive "chi-ca-go" call that they used to call in their flock or attract a mate. I peeked through the front door and saw him perched on the rail of the fence.

( Photos Before he Noticed Me )

Right after I took the second photo, the quail realized I was there and left.

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Meanwhile, in Europe, Lisa decided to go on to Oslo while Chris spends a couple of days in Gothenburg. Further complicating things was that the hotel in Gothenburg needed additional documentation of me authorizing the charge to my credit card, even though I'm the one who made the reservation and provided the credit card information in the first place. I filled out, signed, and returned the form to them, and shortly thereafter they called me and said that took care of what was necessary. Because it's going to be the same chain in Bergen, I sent them a similar form and they said that covered everything.

Turning my attention to the hotel in Oslo, I was fortunate to find that I could change the reservation there so that Lisa could check in today for three nights, as opposed to the original reservation, which was for a single night checking in two days from now. Making things even more complicated was that there did not seem to be any way to telephone the hotel — at least when I called what was supposed to be their number, it just rang forever. Also, the hotel doesn't have telephones in the rooms, so there is no way to contact her by telephone. I assume that more and more places assume that anyone without a mobile phone isn't worth considering. Anyway, I got it fixed for now. Lisa needs more time to rest on trips like these, so a series of one-night stops are very hard on her. Making everything work has been very tricky for me, but for the most part I've been able to make it happen.

We held off moving the small wood box off the porch on account of how cold it was at the start of the month, but moved it yesterday. As this weekend is the "ceremonial" start of summer (which runs more or less from Memorial Day to Labor Day), we could now use the whole front porch for relaxing and bird watching.

( Chairs and Birds )

If we sit still enough, the birds seem to forget that we are here and start coming back to the feeder, with some birds going to the feeder while others putter around the base of the feeder eating the seed that the other birds knock out of it.

I think the birds forgot that we are here, just because I ran out of birdseed for a few weeks. I've laid out more birdseed in various places, and have seen almost no birds for the past several days. I hope some of them will come by and rediscover that there's a place for them here.

Lisa discovered an unopened box of saltine crackers this week. Unfortunately, the sell-by date was in 2020. Still, we reckon than the birds won't mind if they're that stale. So I will start crumbling them up into small-bird-bite-sized pieces and spreading them in the East Lot.

We have some sagebrush on the far side of the East Lot that we call the "bird bushes" because the smaller birds tend to perch there; however, the larger birds usually only use them as places to shelter. Indeed, I've seen some of them run under the bushes to get away from hawks, which are too large to go into the bushes. However, sometimes the quail can be seen perching as well.

( Guard Duty )

We're almost out of birdseed. A trip to Big R is in the near future.

This morning, while turning the kettle on for my morning coffee, I peered outside and realized that it had snowed overnight.

( Two Days Apart )

The snow rapidly started melting after sunrise, and never did stick on the paved surfaces. I did sweep the 1-2 cm accumulation from the porch because the porch, having a cold air space under it, doesn't melt so quickly.

So far, the electric heaters in the house are keeping things warm enough, but I do still have a lot of wood, so if it gets any colder, I'll have to restart the fire.

If this was Thursday (when we leave for the Bay Area and Costume-Con 39), I'd be worried, as there are chain controls up over Donner Summit, but the current weather forecast predicts relatively clear weather. I expect to see a whole lot of snow accumulation up top, though.

Things have changed quite a bit in a mere six days days.

( End of the Snow for the Season? )

I think that we might have finally seen the last snow of the season. The ten-day weather forecast doesn't even have a significant change of rain. We haven't needed the fireplace for the past few days. I even turned the electric heater off for much of yesterday and today, only turning it on overnight. I guess all of the snow and rain put enough water into the ground that as soon as the sun showed up, the plants started going into overtime to take advantage of the short desert spring. That would explain why I've started sneezing, I think.

Friday's brief snow started melting later in the morning after the overcast cleared and the sun came, out, but while it lasted, I took a couple more pictures of the snowbird sanctuary we're running in the East Lot.

( Fernley Snowbirds )

The snow had all melted by noon. Today felt cold enough for snow, but stayed clear. The forecast suggests we may still get a tiny bit of snow over the next week. Some ski areas in the Sierra Nevada have announced they should be open until Independence Day weekend.

We had (by our local standards) a pretty good snowfall over Friday night into Saturday. For a change, the snow got all the way up to the door, even though there is a metal awning over the front door.

( Another Snow Day )

After getting rid of the snow, I trudged through the ankle-deep snow to the Wigwam to get breakfast and to let the birds get back to eating theirs.

This appears to have been the worst part of what looks to be around another week of unsettled weather. For example, last night we had light icy rain, which made me glad that I'd iced the walks. The rest of the week doesn't appear to have a whole lot of snow accumulation expected. But driving across the Sierra Nevada is still something I wouldn't want to do.

This morning, while looking out the kitchen window, I saw that at least a couple of the local birds finally discovered the new bird feeder.

( Finally Found the Feeder )

This afternoon after work, I had a number of local errands: collecting several packages that were waiting for me at the post office, buying some milk and other perishables, and refueling the minivan in the wake of our Sacramento trip. It's a good thing I didn't put it off any longer today than I did.

( Mini Blizzard )

Yesterday I went to bed early and slept around ten hours. I may do the same thing tonight. It's cold outside and warmer in bed.