TODAY

What a day. What a perfect autumn day!
In a little while I can pick up the photos. I always do the one hour. By the time I bring in the film, it seems unfathomable to me to have to wait five days. It would be cheaper. To get things cheap can be a challenge. Find things in the dollars store or second hand. Be proud to have only paid so much for something you needed or really wanted. Ha!!!
I'm not sure the dollar store counts. The new store at the Highland Hills Mall is even cheaper. Much cheaper, you know, only 99cts, or more. (The 'more' is in the fine print on the sign.) Everything made in China. Underpaid workers. Also untrustworthy quality. Especially toys and food. But, the lure is irresistible. I walk in quite frequently. But I do weigh pro's and con's. You don't see me spend tens of dollars.
I do make many photos. Snapshots. Splurging on 1 hour development rather than five days I may as well spend an extra dollar ( I mean99cts) on a photo album, and have a place for the photos to go so they don't lie around. Easier to show off too.
It's time to pick up my photos. I will be back and tell you about them.
I am back. Much later than I had anticipated. Before I tell you about the photos I want to say that I have a new fountain. Today is Saturday. Saturdays, instead of going the usual walk, Simon and I go garage sale hunting. You all know by now that Simon is a dog. Simon likes going to garage sales. He trots along and waits patiently for me to look around, lying down in the midst of everything to be admired. People stop to look at him, to praise him for being beautiful and sweet, and well behaved. They ohh, and ahh over him. They talk to him pet him and sometimes kiddingly ask if he's for sale. Oh, Simon loves all the attention. He drinks it in quietly.
So at one of this morning's garage sales, I found a fountain for only four dollar. A stone staircase in a basin with pebbles. The water runs down the stairs. It's not very big. I set it up on the shelves by the windows of the living room. It looks and sounds neat. There are two more fountains in my living room. I like the gurgling of all that water. In the backyard, bordering on the living room there are another two fountains.
I am not going into details about all of them, although they all do have their own special story. But the one, a big, greenish metal , three levels one, with a man and a woman figure standing under an umbrella, being rained on when the fountain goes, that's the one the chickadees who live in the big Manitoba maple tree above it, like. They come to shower in it, bath in it, and drink from it. It took me about a million years to catch them on camera. I tried for weeks with lots of patience. Today I succeeded.
That's why I was extra impatient to get that film developed. Not even only the one chickadee I captured, but (see my previous story) also the rescued little turtles. The photos turned out surprisingly well. But you know, I do not have a zoom-in lens. So the target comes out very small. Last time when I caught the squirrel, outside on the pic nic table, eating out of the jar with peanut butter, I forgot to close, on camera, I went to the photo copy store and had the prints enlarged on the colour copier. That worked well. So I decided that I'd do the same with the chickadee and the little turtles. The store was closed. I wondered where another colour copier could be. I biked on a bit along Highland Road. Saw the photo store near Food Basics. Went in and asked if they had a colour copier. No, they didn't.
Well, they talked me into having professional enlargements done. I was offered a real good prize. They were soooo nice. Gave me some freebies too. So I ended up with six great pictures and some simple paper frames for them, and an extra set of four glass frames, on special, for another time, all just for twenty dollar.
Hey, I spent a lot more than I had intended. But the quantity and quality are super. So today I wasn't only cheap. Today I was also classy. Today was a marvelous and fun day all together. I am happy. Life is good.

Wild thing

AUTUMN BABIES
“That looks like a turtle, “ I said. Joanne looked down where I pointed. “Yes it does does, she said laughing, and we continued our conversation.
We were walking in the woods off Westheigts Drive, following the gravel path near the duck pond, our dogs running this way and that.
“Another one!” Joane disrupted the conversation, pointing down, “ this really IS a turtle, the other one must've been too then!” We carefully picked up the one and went back for the other.
You had to look well, they were so small. Could've been a combination of a little stone and a leaf. They were caked with gravel. We walked over with them to the pond, and carefully set them on the mud next to water. One started swimming right away. The other one stayed put. We watched for a while. Both our dogs sloshing in the water, the golden retriever, and the black cockepoo. They wanted to be right where we were looking. Like when your dog or cat sits right on the book or newspaper you want to read. We called them away so they wouldn't trample the turtles.
Satisfied that we had done our good 'brownie' deed, we continued walking, keeping an eye on the path.
Sure enough we saw another turtle and another and another... Babies? This time of the year, almost October? Weird.
We picked up one after another, bringing them to water until we saw a hole in the gravel path where they were crawling from. A small, deep hole. The nest. Wow!
“We need to put up a sign,” said Joanne, “people will step on them.” We went up in the woods a bit and found some hefty branch stumps. We arranged them around the nest.. I kept an eye out while Joanne walked over to a near home, and asked for help. The young woman she talked to caught the spirit right away. She constructed a sign, from cardboard and a stick, and came with a marker and a hammer. Joanne wrote on the marker, ” Watch your step, baby turtles on the path,” and we set it up near the barricade.
We thanked the woman and turned around to go home. Joanne had to go to work. No more time to waste. I regretted that I didn't have my camera with me.
Walking back we realized that we should have put up another sign on the beginning of the path. So, at home I made a second sign, and went back on my bike, armed with a camera. I put up the sign, but there were no turtles to be seen anymore. Not on the path, not coming from the hole. Figures! Had we scared them? Was it getting too warm , too late in the morning? Anyhow I took a picture of the nest and the sign. I went up to the water. Only one turtle was still there. Did the others swim away, dug themselves into the mud? I took a picture of the one. It didn't move. Had it died, or was it just stunted?
So many questions.
We guessed that they were snapping turtles. Info on the web tells that September is the month for them to get born. There is a long gestation time. There could be as many as 20 from one nest. When they come out they have to find water. They can live many days without.
Well, we saved, we hope, eight of them. Surely they had little chance not to be stepped on, on the gravel path. And the gravel caking them hampered their moving, and they may have dried up in the sun before they reached water.
Tomorrow morning we go have another look. We know there were more babies down there. We saw them. Will they come out, or have we scared them away and are they tunneling somewhere else now?
Snapping turtles can get as old as 150 or even 175 years. Most of them reach only 50. I've seen a large snapping turtle. They are huge. How long must it take those tiny babies to grow to that size? At least 50 years, I suppose.
Next day: We went back this morning. No turtles. Not on the path, not in the hole, We checked how deep the hole is. Not deep at all, just a small hollow. Not a nest. Did they just hide there? Where did they come from? We are still puzzled.

wild thing

Koestler and the Elephant

How do you eat an elephant?

For most of us, one small bite at a time.

We have a mass educational system that (rightfully so) attempts to educate youngsters on basic concepts and ideas developed centuries ago ( Newton, Darwin).

Koestler leaps across the centuries.

How do you digest Koestler?

One small bite at a time.

bobby bacon

Doors, Windows and Views

One can take the view that psychology is all a bunch of crap… and they would be right

Another view is that psychology makes the attempt to create a language and define the thought and feeling process. In turn it attempts to understand intent and motivations…

Both views are valid...

I tend toward the second… Why? Because I find it more interesting than the first...

I could say the exact same thing for religion...

Why my interest in Buddhism… Again, because life for me is more interesting when I view it through that window...

If alive and human we will experience suffering. Buddhism explores the nature of suffering and offers a perspective beyond "oh is me", "why me" and goes beyond blame. For me Buddhism offers me a process to conserve energy.

It too explores what is the nature of thinking, motivation and intent.

What are selfish thoughts and what are selfless thoughts?

If I feel bad often my thinking is selfish. When I feel good often my thinking is selfless.

So my dabbling as a complete and utter amateur in psychology and Buddhism life to me is far more interesting. Larry was talking to me about doors. Psychology and Buddhism are just doors for me and offers me different views about the nature of life.

And if its crap... well its crap that delights me.

Smiles

bobby bacon

Random Thought

My heart beats... fluids are pumped thru my body, pumping chemicals and proteins to the brain.. Chemical synapses... allow the neurons to form interconnected neural circuits... and thus biological computations that are perception and thought.

Ten thousand thoughts a day...

bobby bacon