Winter has officially begun. Get that Mr. Titmouse?
A brutal ice storm and then back-to-back snowstorms before they’ve gotten all the electricity hooked back up. Now the snow is done and the wind is picking up. Snowblowing in a stiff wind is pure torture. Especially when you’ve aimed the discharge chute into the wind such that ALL the snow you’re blowing whips directly into your face! Thankfully it’s only a temporary situation which only needs to end as soon as possible.
A fun gift from my friend vermonter! Saints be praised!
Didn’t know that Saint Clare was the patron saint of television. Pope Pius decided that in 1958. Jeez, she would be happy to know that we’re now in the Golden Age of Television!
We can all benefit from the faith and patience of the saints. No, really! Our friends in Rome have been designating saints for well over a thousand years. That’s a long time! The index of saints is truly humbling. I guess it’s comforting to know that Rome has designated so many good people as such. It sorta makes up for the Crusades and all those heathens they killed, huh? Or not. I know I know, I am now excommunicated! It’s OK, I’m Jewish! It’s OK!!
I like this picture because …
Because it’s “apples and oranges”. Get it? It’s like a metaphor for how not to compare stuff. Get it? Metaphor … compare?? Funny! I find most of the thinking my brain does is “apples and oranges”. There must be something wrong with my brain. So, I will attempt to turn off my brain for a period of time. Hibernate. I am on vacation for a couple of weeks. I will be keeping the bird feeder filled with sunflower seeds and watching the winter birds come and go.
And I will be moving snow around. I bought a snow rake (for getting snow off of the roof) today and fixed a frozen chute control cable on the snowblower. It seems to be official now, 2008 is the wettest year on record for New Hampshire, since records have been kept (1870). We’ve had 57.39 inches of liquid precipitation, more than 2005 and 2006. Woot!
Thoughts-0-Dave 
I love feeding the birds. I could watch them for hours. We got a snowstorm here on the Cape which is early for us. Tomorrow the forecast is rain. I like snow but I don’t have to shovel it or even go out in it.
Have a wonderful Hanukkah!!
We love watching the birds too. Had to take the bird feeders in at 3 am the wind got so bad. They hang on chains just outside our windows. Theory is that they could crash into and break windows, though this hasn’t happened yet. But it would suck if it did.
Merry Happy Christmahanukawanzaa to you too! 😀
By: joanharvest on December 23, 2008
at 11:54 pm
Happy Holidays, David! 😀 I like the picture of the titmouse, and the fact that I knew it was a titmouse, and the word titmouse, because I’m just goofy like that. 😛 Take care.
Thank you Peter, you too. 😀 The titmice (?) don’t come to the feeders as often as I’d like …
By: Peter Parkour on December 24, 2008
at 2:31 am
Thanks for reminding me that, as a saint, I ain’t. How sad is it to be dropped as a saint?
I feel your snowy pain. From Friday to Monday I spent 15 hours out in the crap.
The only bird we have around now is a turkey. We’ll be standing near a window and he’ll be peeping in. He catches me naked one more time and I’m calling the cops!
St. Christopher? He coulda been SOMEBODY! Like the patron saint of hilarious bald guys maybe? Fuckin’ ROME, huh?!?
The only redeeming quality of snow-moving is that it’s honest and purposeful exercise. The pain it gives is GOOD pain. Unfortunately, GOOD pain still hurts.
Ben Franklin was right about the turkey, wasn’t he?
Happy Holidays B&G!
By: boundandgags on December 24, 2008
at 9:54 am
Of course the snowflakes drift towards the cursor, not, as I said, away from it. HOWEVER, I think I am going to send you a beautiful Christmas card to your mail box.
Imagine. You there in your country have some 280 “denominations” (isn’t that the name?) most of them founded with the noble idea to warn the good people of the “whore in Rome”.
Thanks to that you acmust accept that any Rick Whathisname interviews your candidates to the presidency on national TV for two hours!!!!!!!!!! Making them confess publicly what they believe and what they do not believe and how often they pray and to whom, and nobody says a thing!
!!!!!!!!!!! Oink, oink, oink!
However, that is not yet all. Imagine that by the millions they are told that they are being told only what is in the Bible.
The problem is not that this is not true. The problem is that it is impossible and but not contradicted.
Oink!
And to top it off you put the mason’s symbols on your money and add “in God we trust.
Jeeeeeeeez.
This comment expanded a little beyond my ken, maybe, though I think I get the oinks. I don’t know who Rick Whathisname is either though your scenario is all too familiar. Of the bible I have only read bits and pieces and I cannot fully apologize for all the errors of my nation. MY favorite piece of US currency is the Walking Liberty Half Dollar. It’s the most beautiful coin ever minted. I hate that eyeball-floating-above-the-pyramid crap as much as you do!
Jeeeeeeez, INDEED!!
By: cantueso on December 24, 2008
at 12:59 pm
The bird at the top is nice. Funny to see such a big round belly and those little strong feet beneath it. But this one is also funny because of his cartoonit’s eye. When cartoonists draw somebody who is afraid, for instance somebody who might need some waterboarding according to the latest interpretation of the US law and its holy Saint Judges and Lawyers and sits at a table in a bar and sees the police walking by.
In such cases the cartoonists draw the endangered individual seen in profile looking straight ahead of himself with one eye looking the other way.
I’m glad you like the photo but this titmouse is NOT GUILTY. We put the seeds out there FOR ALL BIRDKIND. I’m going to go out on a limb here and suggest that you’ve read a little too much into the bird’s expression. 😀
By: cantueso on December 24, 2008
at 1:06 pm
Yes, hibernations and vacations are great, but part of my hibernation is eating tons of food on Christmas Eve, then laying in bed for a while till the next meal/prep time, and squeezing in some Internet-ness during “lay down” time (like right now)…it’s just enough time to say: Merry Christmas Dave! 🙂
That’s [belch] a fun part of our hibernation too Romi. Thanks for taking the internet-ness break to say hi. Hope you had a nice xmas day. Now isn’t tomorrow Boxing Day? Don’t you Canadian folk celebrate boxing or something? Tell us it’s just another commercial gag?
By: romi41 on December 24, 2008
at 4:17 pm
What a great random post. I love the bird pictures. Personally, I think people should be allowed to go into hibernation from the world. I can’t wake up easily without the sun. Sigh.
Merry Christmas!
Thank you maleesha. Randomness R Us! I hope you had a Merry Christmas too. Glad you agree on the need for hibernation. 🙂 Hope you get yours too.
By: maleesha on December 25, 2008
at 1:50 am
It is both ways. Today now the flakes drift away from the cursor.
They used to accumulate a little at the bottom of the window too, but now don’t seem to any more. I wish they would accumulate a little. 🙂
By: cantueso on December 25, 2008
at 3:04 am
No, it is not that I read too much into that bird’s eye, but read in the same mood. There is something in American literalism. When I wrote above, I had just been on an American Catholic Forum.
I have also read very little Bible, but enough of it to see that it is not a catechism; it is mainly history, law, and poetry; I like the explanation that Cardinal Newman gave of it: it is the testimony of a faith.
However, I have not been able to figure out what exactly that is, a silly search for exactitude in your 280 denominations and the academic nihilism pushing in the opposite direction.
Well I’ll attribute that to your keen eye then. And perhaps your own sense of literalism.
I would not waste an ounce more of your energy trying to figure out that truly “silly search” as you call it. I think that the USA just applied their humorless Calvinist work ethic to the ancient Problem of Truth.
That’s what I think.
And stop saying “YOUR 280 denominations” please. They are NOT mine and I would have nothing what ever to with them. Like your husband I am anti-religious. But not an atheist.
Have a nice day. 🙂
By: cantueso on December 26, 2008
at 11:36 am
Anyway, you’d have to admit that the difference between you and an Arab and a Chinaman is basically due to The Book that created a sense of what is right and wrong which makes The West different from the rest of the world.
It is really oink oink that now in the US and in many places in Europe one has to act as if religion and Walt Disney were the same kind of thing. That is basically a lie, and it has been generated mainly by the universities.
NO difference between me, the Arab, or the Chinaman. We’re all pitiful wanderers in the darkness.
Not The Book, nor any Book, but the Disney-headed yutzes that read them and start yelling. Busybodies! Straining out the gnats. Fuck them I say.
Oink! 🙂
By: cantueso on December 26, 2008
at 11:41 am
I think the snow does not accumulate because the US is in crisis, and Mullenweg (the founder of WordPress) said already last year that these snowflakes are hard on his computers.
Well it used to accumulate a little bit at the bottom. It never piled up much, but the flakes would settle there for a few seconds. I liked that. I imagine that those server farms do labor under that load a little. And for what?
Maybe we should all turn off the snow “in this economy”. 😦
By: cantueso on December 26, 2008
at 11:44 am
I da-no…..I just wanted to say how much I love your birds….the photos are excellent !
A healthy and prosperous New Year to you and your family David ! Oh,and you too Oliver !( ya little cutie!)
Thanks Joann. 🙂 Happy New Year to you too! I think Oliver is ready for 2009. He’d better be since he has no choice in the matter.
By: joann on December 27, 2008
at 8:52 pm
That’s some serious bird feeding there. I used to always have a feeder up somewhere. You’ve inspired me to get busy and do it again.
(And thanks for adding me to your blogroll. I just noticed it this evening and have added you to mine.)
Happy New Year from Denver!
Hey Pied Type, thanks for your comment and HNY to you too! The bird feeding industry here has been successful largely due to the fact that our house has rather wide eaves- like 24 inches. This allowed the hanging of feeders right outside a window and well out of reach of any non-flying creatures. Squirrels and chipmunks can avail themselves of the many seeds which fall (or are flung by the woodpeckers) to the ground below. There is a rosebush right below where the cat waits in ambush for chipmunks and less wary birds. Once she got a male cardinal, which, for some reason, made us sadder than all the many other drably colored birds she’s captured.
I noticed your blog a while back, initially intrigued by its title, being a fan of typography. Your tagline is humbly amusing too. I’m still looking for that handle … Normally I have a slight allergy to political matters, considering them as unresolvable as all of history’s Great Questions … (e.g. vanilla or chocolate, which is better and are they really opposites??) but your blog is charming so I added it. Thanks for adding mine 🙂
By: PiedType on January 1, 2009
at 12:50 am
Oh, I’d have been devastated to lose a cardinal! I’ve had cardinals around all my life — until I moved to Denver. A lady at the bird seed place told me their range doesn’t include Denver. Very sad not having my favorite bird here.
Not sure which tagline tickled your fancy. I’ve tried so many …
We’ve had pairs of cardinals on and off over the years. The females are beautiful too, but those bright red males are a joy to look upon, especially on an overcast day.
Tagline … the current one: “I used to have a handle on life, but it broke”. It’s simultaneously Dylanesque, self-deprecating, and funny.
My tagline is very stale. I should change it and am tempted to go with something from Steven Wright, but have always felt that I need to explain the zero in the blog title, which is its own sort of nihilistic cop-out. So anyway …
By: PiedType on January 1, 2009
at 1:37 pm
Oh, did you see that? He thinks that questions that can’t be “resolved” should not be talked about.
See what? Who? ME?
I’ll grant you that I see little point in arguing questions that have been argued for centuries, here in the blogosphere as well as in real life. I naturally shrink from confrontation and hold such bad cards in my hand that I never make any bets. I am the very worst sort of American liberal. A namby-pamby vaguely theistic iconoclastic nihilist.
But I don’t mind talking about it, or else I would not go to the trouble of answering your comments, right? 🙂
By: cantueso on January 1, 2009
at 1:37 pm
Actually I find him willing to truly discuss lots of questions. I am only a small-time blog visitor, but I find David refreshing, respectful of others, and really interesting. Yea, that last R thing was the only thing I could think of…..my vocabulary sucks, hence the reason I don’t have a blog. Plus don’t have a lot of faith in my writing skills.
But David is always fun to ‘meander’ with, whether he is showing me why I am so glad I live in a southern state, or getting royalties for correctly determining what to call 2001-2009. I don’t know him, but I think he also correctly surmises that when some want to ‘discuss’ but do it in an argumentative tone, not much is achieved. I like his style. Think I’ll keep coming back!
Awww, thanks SD! 🙂 How nice of you! I think your vocabulary is just great, and even if you don’t want to have a blog of your own, it’s nice of you to visit and comment.
The primary reason I don’t get into many arguments is because I am an ignoramus and pretty much incapable of making up my mind about anything. Except money, about which my wife and I argue regularly and to little purpose.
So. Please do come back and chime in as you please. 🙂
By: Soapbox Diva on January 1, 2009
at 4:49 pm
(Big Smile!) I DO love invitations! But if you knew how verbose I can get….you’d be more careful about those!
Well of course there is no purpose to arguing with your wife. Speaking as one myself, we are always right!
No, no…you’re not an ignoramus. Your intelligent does seep through in your writing. And personally, I have found that trying to argue ANY subject with entirely different or opposing views rarely accomplishes anything worthwhile.
People, as a whole, are usually stuck on whatever their viewpoint is……and are usually unwilling to move off of how they choose to see the world. I have always found it much nicer just to ‘discuss’ views in a friendly, ‘this is how I see it’ way. I am much more likely to get someone to really ‘hear’ me that way! And in exchange, I always try to make sure that I really listen to them too.
I’ll be perusing by once in a while. Promise not to be as wordy as I am in other forums!
Eeeewwww! Seepage! I’m sorry about that. 😉
If I say I’m an ignoramus then I’m an ignoramus gosh darn it all!
Soapbox Diva please peruse whenever you like. Invitation reiterated. 🙂
By: Soapbox Diva on January 1, 2009
at 9:43 pm
Yes, of course they are stuck. That is not necessarily a bad thing to be. What’s bad is that some of those who are stuck don’t have a clear idea of views that are different from theirs. And why is that?
Could it be that they did not think they were worth finding out and talking about?
Yes, sometimes I just don’t care enough to entertain those differing views. It’s a defense mechanism. 😦 Problem is I’m not sure that what I’m defending is really worth defending. You, on the other hand, seem at times to relish critical contention. Which is also OK as long as it observes courteous boundaries. 🙂
By: cantueso on January 2, 2009
at 7:43 am
You say “I’ll grant you that I see little point in arguing questions that have been argued for centuries,”
I’d say that these questions are the only ones worth talking about, because for everything else you can take guidance from Google and from the Windows98 manual.
Yet another way is to let your new Leader decide. Wonderful.
Put that way I have to agree. The Big Questions are Big because they’ve persisted and have never been definitively answered. [I wonder whether they’re properly framed questions in the first place.] What annoys me about arguing them is that they’ve already been so well-considered by the greatest minds of the centuries. The only purpose served is that of conversation, which is a valid purpose after all. All the rest, as you indicate in your alternatives, is just more data. As are the opinions of our leaders. Though this new leader does give me hope, I’m not going to hold my breath.
By: cantueso on January 24, 2009
at 3:27 am