It's been an easy summer...so far

I know, I know. I shouldn't say things like that. God is an arrogant buzz-killer just waiting to hear a comment like that -- so he can zap the person with ill fortune. Because god is love, or something.

But it truly has been pleasant, at least here in the northeast. After a bracingly cold winter, I don't think any of us knew what to expect this summer. Would it be fiercely hot? Would there be incredible hurricanes? Would it rain all summer? Surely something bad was coming.

The question we never considered is "will it be a pleasant summer with hardly any heat-waves?" It is! And I'm lovin' it.

On the other hand, there's a climate nightmare going on in California. Their drought seems like it might continue for decades. Water rationing is just the beginning of the problems heading their way.

You have to wonder if maybe Jesus heard someone in California say, "We have the most wonderful weather on Earth, don't we Maisie? We are blessed!" You know how god hates that kind of talk. And so Jesus brought the drought to California. And because he was in a particularly vicious mood that day, he put a "keep going until further notice" sticker on it. Brrrr. He's a cold one, he is.

Anyway, here's hoping the various gods blessed your area this summer. Or maybe demons. Whichever. It doesn't really matter since they're all fairytale creatures. There are no gods, children. None at all.

Dog, it's nice outside!

Keeping an ear out for cicadas

I can't wait to hear the first cicada. Here in the northeast, the brood is about to awaken.

The last time they awoke was either 13 or 17 years ago. I think we're expecting the 17-year brood this Spring. Personally, I'm hoping it's bigger than the last awakening. They cite these astronomically high numbers when telling us what to expect, but it was no big deal last time this happened.

In fact, it was kind of fun. Yes, you heard them in the trees but not incessantly. And there certainly weren't billions, or even millions of them in our neck of the woods. They were about as common as sparrows, I'd say. No more, no less. But that may have been the 13-year brood. This year could be different.

I think everyone over the age of 30 has a story to tell about the day a cicada reared up in their car as they were driving. That happened to me and it's such a shocking thing. You don't realize you have one in the car and then it lifts into the air and begins to "sing". The noise is deafening, especially inside a car. And cicadas are notoriously clumsy. They'll fly right into you, including inside your car as you're driving. I didn't crash and I don't know of anyone else who did. But it's an event that you'll always remember.

And then it was over and their bodies were scattered on the ground. They have such a short lifespan. It seems like a helluva way to live. Anyway, wake up, cicadas! If nothing else, the local animals will have a ton of good meals.

Got a good cicada story? Share it in the comments.

Image: Wikipedia Commons
Note that you can hear the cicada's song at the Wikipedia link above. Look for the "song" link in the right column on the page. It says "Calling song of the Magicicada Cassini" (which is the exact brand of cicada that's about to awaken).

Not too bloggy today

It's been one of those days, over at my house. First-off, it's 90 degrees on April 16th. What's wrong with this picture? 90 degrees in the northeast at this time of year? What's August going to be like?

Plus a guy came to the house to switch my DVR to an HD system and it took six hours! He kept calling for help from the cable company but no one in India had the answers to his questions. I swear I heard this guy tell 20 different people the story, from start to finish, each time giving all the numbers and codes. How he didn't explode at their incompetence, I don't know.

But the good thing is that he succeeded -- and was one of the nicest guys ever. During the installation we discussed every aspect of our lives. He was an English major and he's basically doing this job to earn money in a bad economy. So I revved him up and by the time he left, he was determined to write a novel and work his way out of his dead-end job.

He was so grateful for the push to write that he gave me his home number, told me his days off and said he'd be happy to help if I ever had any TV problems. And no, it wasn't a gay thing. He's straight and married and believe me when I say I'm positive he's straight. It's just that we really, really talked.

When life gives you lemons...and hey, I finally got HD TV out here in the woods! I'll bet baseball's gonna look a little better, huh?

Whither Winter?

Real Spring, without the mud.

It seems Winter won't reach the northeast this . . . uh . . . Winter. It's been a rainy spring for months. So rainy, in fact, that our lawn has gone the way of the dodo. It's just mud. The grass suffocated under the water. The excessive wetness makes me worry about the roots of the largest trees. We've got huge trees on our property. Can their roots possibly be stable after living in water for months? I'll bet they've rotted, which means a high wind could cause them to topple over.

Because it's warm, the plants and trees are budding and the pollen is running wild. I'm an allergic wreck. But it's even worse than that: I've got Spring Fever. I swear, I haven't been able to focus my mind for a couple of weeks. It's definitely Spring Fever -- at the end of February.

Making things totally super-terrific, they had to shut the water off in my house yesterday. A pipe broke under the house and they're going to have to bring in digging machines to get to it. In the interim, it's bone dry in here. If you've ever lived through this, you know that a house without water is a true pain in the butt, especially when you have mayonnaise on your hand.

And the geese never migrated. It's going to be a very odd Spring this year. There are serious complications for the geese. I plan to post about this very soon. And dog only knows what the summer will bring. Super heat? I don't look forward to that.

How is it in your area? Any other Spring Fever sufferers out there?

Late Winter confusing the geese

Milo, the finest goose in the world.

It's still Spring in New York state. The problem with this is that it's January 26th. This shouldn't be, and it's confusing the geese.

The poor guys are waiting for their cue to migrate but it never comes. I've noticed over the years that the first snowfall doesn't drive them away. They needs lots of convincing. But this year they're not getting it.

We had one weird, early snow in October and one light snow recently. Mind you, it got very cold with the second snowfall. The whole pond froze -- and there were children ice-skating on the surface, much to my horror. It had just been 45 degrees the day before. You do not go ice skating unless the temperature has been below freezing for three or more days. Then it's solid. Luckily, they were light, skinny kids so none of them went under.

Anyway, back to the geese. They're acting oddly. Lots of fights within the flock and between flocks (there are two here at the moment). Milo's doing his best to keep order but I think he's feeling stress over the climate situation. It's just not normal. And when he finally takes the flock south (if and when Winter arrives), the season that greets him there will be a bit off too, because of the odd timing.

Climate change is going to affect all of us in the end. This is just a precursor event, rippling through the geese world.

Republished to fix tags. Blogger has this idiotic auto-insert thing going on for tags. It's always putting irrelevant tags into documents. Aaaargh!

You're all set!

Flo was a gem.

Where does this expression come from? You hear it all the time. The waitress puts your food down on the table and says, "There, you're all set!" The travel agent hands you everything you need for your trip and says, "You're all set." Everyone's always telling us we're all set. Where does this phrase come from?

What do you think? Is it a shortening of a longer statement? All set for . . . what?

At Word Detective, I found a semi-reference. It's really about another expression: "Bob's your uncle". Here's how WD explained it:

"Bob's your uncle" is a way of saying "you're all set" or "you've got it made." 

Well, I don't see "you've got it made" as the equivalent of "you're all set". So no help there. Any suggestions from folks out there in Peanut Land? Raise your hand!

One last note. This page has a zillion comments about the phrase and some of them are funny. The commenters focus on whether the phrase is used throughout the US or only in the northeast. We seem to have a festering pocket of you're all set usage here. We're mad about it. I find it funny that many of the commenters used the waitress remark as an example. "Y'all set, honey?" The hive mind at work. So what do you guys think? What's with this phrase? I think it's weird.

Great bird book

I got this book at Amazon for four bucks. It's terrific. There are tons of color photographs inside, and not just in one little section -- they're peppered throughout the book. For four bucks!

I'll soon know what kind of birds I'm feeding. There have been lovely new additions to my wild menagerie and I plan to look every one of them up. However, my sister Maria snatched the book the moment she saw it! Looks like I'll have to wait for her to finish it first. 

Drat! (Nah, I love Maria. She can do whatever she wants.) Very cool book, though. I guess you can get one of these field guides for any area of the United States. I highly recommend the series.