Month: February 2021

THUD!

While sitting on the couch watching CBS Sunday Morning we were startled by a loud thud against the big picture window in the living room. We had heard this sound once before and knew exactly what it was — a bird flying into the window.

Donna got up and looked outside to see if there was a dead bird in the driveway below. She said, “It looks hurt.” From my seated position I said, “I’m not a bird doctor, I don’t know what I can do for it.” But I got up and looked anyway. Turns out it wasn’t just one bird, it was one hurt bird with another bird on top pinning it down.

Hard to tell from the zoomed in cell phone camera, but my guess is a small red-tailed hawk brought down a dove in mid-flight and its momentum crashed them into the window.

Now I Can Be In The Same Room

Earlier this winter my trusty personal heater of several years quit working. I guess I finally just wore out the tilt-over safety switch. For the longest time I would have to lift it up and sort of manually push the switch in and out before being able put it down and have the heater work, but one day it just wouldn’t come on.

Because I’m naturally cold all the time, I wear long sleeves during the summer, having a nice little heater is important. The next day was our usual grocery shopping day, so when we got to Fred Meyer, before putting any food in the cart, we went to back and I picked out a small space heater. When we got home and I plugged it in it was a lot louder than the old one. But, it was compact, had 2 settings, high or low, and the low was heat enough. I vowed to get used to the increased noise.

After a week or so I realized the fan noise was going to be a deal breaker. I could still hear it when using the over the ear headphones and sometimes I’d rather not have the headphones on. A new heater was needed, but this time I needed to do a little research first

A bunch of online reviews and a couple of “best space heater” comparison articles pointed me to the Lasko 5307. Several reviews mentioned that it was was quiet enough be in the same room with it. We have a winner. It turned out it was actually cheaper from Home Depot than it was from Amazon even with paying for shipping and the wait wasn’t that much longer.

Now, upon arrival, either the reviews were wrong or this particular unit is slightly defective, as the unit makes an annoying vibration sound when the fan is running (which is anytime you are asking for heat.) The heater had an oscillation function that swept it through about a 40 degree angle and the noise would pause at each end of the oscillation. It did also stop making that rattle it you picked up the unit, so it had to be the connection from the unit to the base. I found that if you propped the front or back of the base on the electrical cord that would sometimes stop the noise.

So with a couple of thin slices of a pool noodle (why we have one of these is a post for another day) and some double stick tape to attach them to the base of the heater, I can now be in the same room as the heater and not be annoyed by the rattling noise.

Dang Deer

Back in South Carolina we had some bird feeders out. But we had to worry about the wildlife getting to the seeds. We had a squirrel proof feeder that, at least, one squirrel figured out how to defeat. I finally figured a way to keep the squirrel out, but keeping a local raccoon out was much harder. You can read about the battles here.

Here in Klamath Falls we have seen very few gray squirrels, our yard and immediate neighbors don’t have any nut bearing trees, so none have discovered the bird feeders. We did see one raccoon cross the street at dawn a week or so ago, but it wasn’t the problem.

About three weeks ago the two bird feeders that are out front (one ours and the other the neighbor’s) were getting emptied out practically overnight about every 3rd or 4th day. At first we thought maybe a flock of birds were showing up and just gorging themselves. But then one day the neighbor’s bird feeder was laying empty on the ground and while ours was still hanging, it was empty as well and one side had the spring-loaded perch broken off.

I filled them both up again and the next morning they were completely empty. It had snowed lightly overnight and there was a half inch of accumulation on the ground and in that snow were a set of deer tracks leading right up to the bird feeders. Aha! A clue. One real reliable way to keep deer out of a birdfeeder is to place it high enough that they can’t reach it, about 8 feet up, this is not really an option I wanted to take.

The other one sure way is to take the darn thing down every evening and put it back up every morning. This is the way I have chosen to go. I go out early 4 days a week to get the local newspaper anyway… To help me not forget to do this1 I have downloaded an app that allows me to set an alarm for sunrise and sunset.

Well, That Was A Nice Surprise

A month ago I wrote about the 2020 Moss Motoring Challenge and how it was the last one and it looked like we finished out of the money. In today’s mail was an envelope from Moss Motors and inside was a $50 gift certificate.

Wow, that was not expected, but thank you very much. I guess because it was the last year of hosting this event they were extra generous with prizes. In spite of COVID-19 there were 6 people who scored 304 points, only missing the five points each for visiting the Moss warehouses. Also probably because of the pandemic there were quite a few who signed up (looks like about 200 total) and nearly half scored no points at all.

I have already spent the prize money on some new silicon wiper blades. When I drove the Miata to the a doctor’s appointment back in January it started to sprinkle on the way back and when I turned on the wipers they squealed like a stuck pig. Needless to say, on the short drive home, they were used sparingly.

I Haven’t Posted Anything In A Week

Miss me? I was busy binging seasons 4 & 5 of The Expanse whenever I had some computer time. I watched the first 3 seasons when they were first released. I started season 4, Watched episode 1 and part of 2, before stopping with our move into our own new universe.

Promptly forgot about it until season 5 started last December. But when I heard they were going to start experimenting with a weekly release of episodes, decided to wait until they dropped them all. That way I could binge all of them at once.

I may rewatch all five seasons from the beginning this coming December to coincide with release of the sixth and supposed final season, we’ll see.