Wildlife

Posted on July 26, 2004
Filed Under Living | 2 Comments

There is a tree just outside my kitchen window. I don’t know what kind of tree it is, it was a volunteer. Way too close to the foundation. It’s a messy tree, dropping all kinds of crap. Sticky seeds that cling to the bottom of your shoes, mess up cars. Just a dirty tree. It is about 2 feet from the window. This morning, as I was making coffee, I noticed a small face looking in the window. A raccoon. A new one, very small. I said good morning. It freaked. I don’t think anyone had ever said good morning to it before. Now with the river and the park close by it is not unusual to see raccoons, and opossum’s and skunks. Last year one night as I was walking up the narrow confined drive by the side of the house I came face to face with a whole pack? Heard? Group of raccoons. I think a family. About a half dozen. We had this wonderful moment of frozen stillness with them looking at me and me looking at them and everyone trying decide what it is we wanted to do. They chose to all, in a very disorderly fashion, duck underneath a convenient car. I continued up the drive watching all these pairs of eyes, glowing in the dark underneath the car and tracking me as I walked by. It is unusual however to see a raccoon in broad daylight. I slept in late this morning so it was very bright outside. I don’t know where it went, when it freaked it ran back up the tree. Might still be there. But I was reminded of the last time time I saw a raccoon outside in the daylight.

Six or seven years ago I lived on a lake in an area completely surrounded by state parks and bird sanctuaries. We had many thousands of pairs of Sandhill Cranes. Sandhills are about as big as birds get around here. In the summer except for the red blaze on their heads they are brown. We would have folks come by and say, “Hey, look at all the deer in the field!” And we would tell them to look again. The sound that many cranes make when they all get talking to each other, usually in the evening, is something that has to be heard. The locals called it the call of the wild. But the point is this was out in the country and we had lots of wild life in addition to the cranes. One day we pulled into the garage and there was a raccoon in there and it ran up the wall and managed to ensconce itself in the soffet. You could see it eyes peering out. This is kind of pain because now we had a raccoon in the garage. Unless we wanted it too stay we had to leave a door open and if we left a door open we might end up with more critters moving in. Apparently that is what we had inadvertently done to allow this raccoon to move in. So we left the door open. About mid day the next day I happened to see this raccoon come out of the garage. I have never seen a poorer specimen of raccoonhood in my life. There was something very seriously wrong with this little guy. It was very disheveled looking, its hind quarters where not tracking right and in kind weaved around the yard and around to the lake side of the house. Where it climbed up the steps to our 3 season porch and leaned against the sliding glass door. Where it stayed. This drove my dog insane. She spent several hours trying to chew through the glass. The raccoon ignored her and just stayed there leaning against the glass.

Now I am not a wildlife expert but I knew this was not normal raccoon behavior. This was also not a normal looking raccoon. It was also a Friday. During the week the lake was very quiet and the fishing great. On weekends it became a zoo as the weekenders arrived with kids in tow. I didn’t think a sick raccoon and hoards of small children running around were a good mix. I called state natural resources office and talked to someone about what we should do about the raccoon. In this state they can have rabies. Raccoons that is not DNR employees. They said they couldn’t get anyone out to take care of it anytime soon. Did I have a gun? Nope. So I went and talked to the guy next door and told him the situation and he had seen the critter earlier and was concerned. He did have a gun.

This lead to a logistical problem as the sick raccoon was still leaning against the glass door. So I went inside and attempted to chase the raccoon away from the door and my neighbor waited between the houses to see if he could get a shot, if it moved. I was able to get it to move by opening the door and sliding it back and forth. It only growled and hissed a little then sort of fell down the steps out onto the lawn were it was suddenly enveloped in a small explosion of sand and grass as the shotgun caught it square on. It died instantly. We packed it away for the DNR who came the next day to pick it up and check it for rabies I suppose. We never heard back.

More Security vs Photography

Posted on July 18, 2004
Filed Under Living | Leave a Comment

In this post I linked to a disturbing article illustrating a very disturbing trend. If you are a photographer here in the US you should be concerned.

Here is more.

Yahoo! News - Questioning of Photo Student Challenged
“We’ve seen the constant erosion of our civil liberties amid this cry for homeland security by doing things that have an appearance of making us safe, but in reality it’s a sham,” Winslow said. “No one showed up at the World Trade Center and took photographs from nine different angles before they flew planes into it.”

Terror in the Skies, Again?

Posted on July 16, 2004
Filed Under General | Leave a Comment

This article has been linked to a lot the last couple of days. I’ve seen it all over. It is one of those you should read. Truly disturbing.

Terror in the Skies, Again? - WomensWallStreet
“On June 29, 2004, at 12:28 p.m., I flew on Northwest Airlines flight #327 from Detroit to Los Angeles with my husband and our young son. Also on our flight were 14 Middle Eastern men between the ages of approximately 20 and 50 years old. What I experienced during that flight has caused me to question whether the United States of America can realistically uphold the civil liberties of every individual, even non-citizens, and protect its citizens from terrorist threats.”

AAAARGH!

Posted on July 14, 2004
Filed Under General | Leave a Comment

I have been suffering through some major computer problems and finally broke down and got a new one. So I have been having fun transferring stuff over and learning a new OS. Nice machine though. Even liquid cooled. More later, assuming I don’t blow something up

Security

Posted on July 9, 2004
Filed Under Living | 1 Comment

Over the last couple of years I have been reading in various photography forums online of incidents of photographers, who are doing nothing illegal, just taking photos of public buildings etc. being hassled by security guards and police in the name of homeland security. It is very worrisome not to mention brain dead on the part of the authorities in question.

The times we live in.

You can read about just such an incident here;

The Artist’s Statement
“Within a half an hour of my returning home I found myself confronted by two uniformed Seattle Police officers, both of which had their hands casually resting on their sidearms. (This is definitely not something you want to see at the door of your home.) I was sincerely surprised and alarmed to learn they were looking for me!”

— keep looking »

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