Cop Car's Beat

"Heroism, like beauty, is in the eye of the beholder." CC

Brown-eyed Susans

Last year I scattered some brown-eyed Susan seeds in my miniature meadow (mm) in the back yard and planted a few potted blanket flowers. Inexplicably, I can find no photos of last year's mm, despite my belief that I had posted such photos last year. Oh, well. This year, a crop of brown-eyed Susan popped up in my mm, by which I was pleased. Early on, the first couple of times that Hunky Husband mowed our grass this year, he avoided one plant out in the middle of our "out back" because he thought it might be a flower that I had planted. Hmmm...eventually, it became obvious that it was a displaced brown-eyed Susan. I happen to like brown-eyed Susans from the plants that grew wild in our cow pastures WIWAK. The photo, below, shows the lone plant in the foreground and my mm in the background.

Had the brown-eyed Susans not come up this year, my mm would have been pretty barren once the daffodils wound down. A few blanket flowers came up, but they were so stunted that one would not know they were there unless one did a close inspection. Those few have already gone to seed (photo, below). Other than the rose and tomatoes which I purchased earlier this year, I've not broken isolation to buy seeds/plants.

Week in Review - 7/11/2020

I got a laugh at HH's expense - 7/9/2020

Hunky Husband casually mentioned, about an hour ago (11:00am) that he needed a plastic bag into which to place his pocket stuff and that he had to "be there" at 7:45am, tomorrow. "Where?" asked I. "For my MRI." said he. It seems that the medical scheduler had called HH, yesterday, to give him the information on his appointment. Today, he thought that he had told me; however, the last thing he had told me was that they would call him back with his final schedule, that they had five patients to fit into three slots. "Where is the MRI?" asked I. "Behind the pharmacy." "Here in Derby?" "Yes." "In the same building as the pharmacy or in the building behind the pharmacy where you had your hernia surgery?" "My hernia surgery was in Wichita. I don't know what building it's in." Then we discussed whether he needed me to drive him or not (perhaps they would dose him with anti-anxiety stuff, I thought - he is, after all, slightly claustrophobic), which he was sure was not the case. Thus, HH ran up to the medical offices (a 5-minute drive) to get more information. It seems they had told him nothing except the time and that he was to go behind the pharmacy, into the green doors (which I remember from when I took him for his hernia surgery.) UPDATE: The MRI suite was in the same building with the normal physical exam offices and pharmacy.

HH came back from the medical offices, in a panic. He couldn't wear his jeans to the MRI - or anything with metal. They told him to wear sweats - which he thought he didn't have; but, I dug out a pair of fleece sweats that I had bought him 20 years ago. he hadn't worn them more than once or twice; but, they had metal zippered pockets. Bummer! So, I gave HH a pair of my pull-on knit pants. This is the point at which I got to giggle. He tried putting on the pants without removing his socks. His socks snagged on the knit pants causing HH to dance about. However...that option turns out much more viable than my taking the metal zips out of his sweats. The sweats are so old that the elastic in the waistband has totally given up. In a pinch, I could have picked him up a pair of pants from one of the stores; but, I don't really want to take that risk in the middle of the day. Although, in the past, I have borrowed HH's jeans (and shirts) to wear, this will have been the first time that he has borrowed clothing from me. He's good with it.

Whiplash have we - 7/8/2020

Last Thursday, the Governor of Kansas issued an executive order that included the requirement that people wear masks when out in public. (There are some exceptions; but, go with me here.) The order went in to effect the next day - 7/3/2020. On Thursday, the County Commission of Sedgwick met and voted 3-2 to have people in our county consider the governor's order as "recommendations" rather than "requirements". Under the "Home Rule" laws of Kansas, lower divisions of government are allowed to do such things. Well...on Friday, the City Council of Wichita met and overturned the Sedgwick County Commissioners so that the governor's executive order would apply within the City of Wichita. Again...allowed under "Home Rule" laws of Kansas. The Wichita vote applies to Hunky Husband and me only if we venture north for several miles.

Today, on the 5 o'clock TV news (that we do not normally watch, but just happened to see), we learned the following (excerpted from the County of Sedgwick website):

(Sedgwick County, Kan.) – Dr. Garold Minns, Local Health Officer for Sedgwick County this afternoon signed an Emergency Public Health Order that will require any person within Sedgwick County to cover his or her mouth and nose with a mask or other face covering in situations such as:

• inside any indoor or outdoor public space where social distancing of six feet at all times is not possible
• in line and waiting to enter an indoor public space

This order will take effect at 12:01 a.m. Friday morning, July 10, 2020 and to be in place until at least midnight Sunday night, August 9, 2020.

Since Kansas is doing so poorly with COVID-19 these days (see yesterday's excerpt from the US News website, below), it only makes sense that we have the Emergency Public Health Order in place.

TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — Kansas is among the top 14 states in the country for the most rapid spread of coronavirus, and in the top 14 states for having the least restrictions on activities, the state's top health official said Tuesday.

Poor little dead tree - 7/8/2020

For the past few years we've been nursing along (not very well) the little sugar maple that was planted in our front yard in 2000. Hunky Husband really liked that tree and didn't want it taken out - hoping against hope (but not willing to spend a small fortune on the treatments the expert wanted to give it for a few years). Finally, I guess COVID-19 killed it off. At least, it was pushing out leaves and seeds this spring. I am happy that it finally died so that I can get it out of there. I've sent an email to "my" tree people to please come take it out. One can tell by the small size of the tree that it had failed to thrive.

Mid-week Laugh  - 7/7/2020

From All Hat No Cattle, today:

Hunky Husband's Car, today:

My car, today:

I hasten to add that 1) the masks are removed before we drive and 2) never, before, has either of us ever had anything hang from our rear view mirrors (I know this because neither of us had a car when we married - not until three or four weeks before Dudette was born). Hanging the masks this way allows us to doff a mask when we arrive home and hang it by an earpiece without touching the cloth portion. Since neither of us drives much, our ventures out are of short duration, and it is a few days (at least) between ventures, hanging the masks allow them to naturally let any virus disassemble.

I should go to Vegas - 7/6/2020

To beat the heat, I started my lawn work at 6:15am, this morning. The first thing I did was to rake the detritus out of the edge of the grass along our 120 feet of curbing, scoop it up, and add it to the compost pile. When I had finished, one could see the rake scrapings along the curb. Instead of immediately sweeping up the leavings (and you can imagine that I did not wish to overwork that particular set of muscles lest I develop aching), I cleaned out the cover of the curb-side drain, pulled creepers out of the woods, and wound up the hose that I had left strung out when watering the trees, yesterday. I had every good intention of doing the leavings sweeping tomorrow morning, but I had reached my heat/humidity/exertion limit for the time being.

Imagine my pleased surprise when, 30 minutes after I came inside, the city motorized street sweeper came along our curb. Yay! Just think how frustrated I would have been had I exerted myself in sweeping up what it took the motorized street sweeper but seconds to remove. This would be my day for gambling! (The above photo shows the motorized street sweeper on its return trip down our street - sweeping the gutter that is across the street from us.

Health Update for Family - 7/3/2020

HH: Hunky Husband had his “annual” physical (first one in who-knows-how-many years; but, he did have his post-hernial-surgery evaluation three years ago), yesterday. I had asked if I might accompany him. He said, “No”, that I tend to take over a conversation if we are together (that is true – I think that I am just making sure other people get correct information, of course); so, he went alone. When he came back, all he knew was that they had drawn some blood, that they had given him some sort of shot, and that he had forgotten to tell Dr N about the fungus under his toenail. I asked if HH had checked with Dr N on any Alzheimer’s studies that might be taking place in our area, as he had mentioned wanting to do. (HH's mother participated in a study at Washington U in St Louis and they did her autopsy, pronouncing that she had died of Alzheimer's - or complications of, maybe, I don't recall.) “No.” Nor had he asked Dr N to look at a spot at the crown of his head that has been worrying him. HH called Dr N’s office to tell them about his toenail and they made him an appointment for the next morning.

Before he left the house for the second appointment, I reminded HH about the spot on his head and he wrote it down on his little card of notes. An hour later, when he returned, he said that Dr N would take off the spot on his crown and a spot between his eyebrows, but didn’t do it, today. HH was prescribed and brought home with him a 90-day supply of anti-fungal horse pills to take (continuing for one year). They gave him a simple test of his ability to do mental addition (did well, he says) and are going to schedule him for an MRI. Well, better everything should be addressed in two visits than to not have anything more to show for his annual physical than he would have had from his first visit! BTW: The shot was pneumonia immunization.

In his records, it was noted that he had a “slight hearing loss”. I don’t know how his hearing loss was evaluated (HH said they did not test his hearing). I do know that I often wear earplugs if in the same room with HH's TV because he sets the volume level at 30-35 whereas I would set it for 11-14. 

CORRECTION OF 7/11/2020 9:48 am

I'm leaving a photo of the physician in the red dress, above; but, I happened to notice, just now, that I posted the wrong photo. That photo is of my primary care physician. A photo of my eye doctor is below. Apologies to both doctors. The only way I can tell them apart is by the fact that my primary care physician is nearly a foot taller than my eye doctor. (I'm serious about the height difference!)

CC: By chance, I had my “annual” eye exam yesterday afternoon. I knew that my sight had degraded within the past 6-8 months which I attributed to more crap floating about in my eyes.  Dr A found a small hemorrhage in the retina of my left eye – near where the large floater (artifact from laser surgery a few years ago) is attached. (I hadn’t known that it was still attached to anything as it floats “all over” my field of vision until she told me.) I’m awaiting a call from a specialist to get his evaluation. Probably nothing to be done, but Dr A wanted to be sure “we” know what’s going on.

EB: He's doing well - no untoward effects from his birding trip of last month.

Binoculars

Bogie is in need of binoculars: Hers broke! Instead of putting the following into an email, I decided to post it. Those with little or no interest in binoculars are surely intelligent enough not to waste their time in reading this posting!

For a year or so, in the mid-1950s, I borrowed a pair of binoculars from Esther O'Connor who belonged to the Burrough's Nature Club in Kansas City MO, to which club Elder Brother and I belonged. She was a real sweetheart and you can imagine how badly I felt when the hinge of her binoculars gave out and I learned that the binoculars were so old that replacement parts were unavailable. Bummer! Esther took it in good graces assuring me that she had accepted the "risk" when she offered the loan to me. She always took care of us youngsters that way, not having had any children (thus, no grandchildren) of her own.

In 1955, as a high school graduation present, my parents bought me my first pair of binoculars - photo, above. I had learned from Esther (and her roommate, Rilla Hammet) that, while most men bought 7x50 binoculars for bird watching, most women went with smaller, lighter 7x35s. I paid attention to them. My greatest challenge in finding acceptable binoculars, then and now, is that my eyes are so close together that most binoculars won’t adjust so that I can see out of both sets of lenses properly. Fortunately, my folks and I were able to find the 7x35 Bushnell binoculars that did, indeed, adjust for me - closeup, below.

I used those binoculars for many, many years - my next pair having been purchased in 1989 or 1990 when I was working in Silicon Valley. Browsing through a Macy's clearance store, I happened upon a pair of 7x35 Leitz that was on sale for $xxx. (Prices will be given in this form to allow comparisons.) Knowing that Elder Brother had a few years previously purchased a pair of 7x50 Leitz binoculars for what he claimed was a steal of a price, I offered that amount (= $xxx/2) for the pair that Macy's had. They had to check with management, but I got those binoculars. Eventually, I gave that pair (photo, below) to Hunky Husband. Most "modern" binoculars have an easy, built-in way to adjust the eye cups to give the proper eye relief. As can be seen the in photo, the (rubber) eye cups have been folded back because both HH and I wear our glasses when using that pair of binoculars. The pair sits on the ledge next to our breakfast table to give us quick access for seeing birds in our back yard/woods.

On a trip to visit Hunky Husband in the late 1980s, I stopped into our favorite camera store and saw that they had a darling little pair of 8x26 Leitz binoculars (with the lens barrels wrapped in snake skin) that, lacking a case and having been slightly damaged (cosmetic) in a recent theft in the store, was on sale. I don't recall the asking price but I did, again, offer $xxx/2 - which price was accepted.  Unfortunately, a few years later, they were stolen from my car in Wichita KS after I had moved back in 1990. (That is another story in itself; but, the cops thought it was a bunch of teenagers wanting to joy ride in my huge, 1972 Buick Electra. They were able to break into the car, but weren't smart enough to jump the ignition and they bummed up the ignition key slot so badly that even my key would not work.)

Needing to replace the little binoculars, and having received money from my car insurance claim, I went to a store that carried good binoculars in Wichita. They didn't have the "opera glass" sized binoculars, but the owner did offer me a pair of 8x32 Leitz Trinovids that he had tried out, himself, for a few months or so. We settled on a price of 2.66($xxx/2), and I still have those binoculars. In fact, that pair of binoculars has for the past 20-25 years been my primary pair (photo, below). For the photo, I turned the eye cap up on one side - to illustrate the difference between the eye cap position for using the binoculars without eyeglasses (on the left in the photo) and with eyeglasses. This pair of binoculars sits on a table in the living room - next to "my" chair to facilitate watching birds in our back yard and woods when HH and I are having our quiet time before dinner each evening.

 

The saga continued when, in December 1997, Hunky Husband gifted me with a pair of image stabilized binoculars - 10x30 IS Canon (photo below). The binoculars require that two AA cells be inserted if the image stabilization is to be used. Most times, I can't really tell that much difference between the shake with and without stabilization; but, it does come in handy, at times. This pair of binoculars rests on the ledge of my "window on the world" - the small bay window in our kitchen. Again, this is handy in watching birds in our back yard or in the woods.

I believe that I posted about buying an inexpensive pair of binoculars in about 2016. They were to stay in my car so that when I took Elegant Friend bird watching with me she would have a pair of binoculars: we wouldn't have to share my Leitz binoculars. They are 8x26 Alpen binoculars (photo below) that were about 1.25($xxx/6). On the spur-of-the-moment one day, I gave those binoculars to Next Generation 1, thinking that he could try them out to see if he would like a similar pair. Well...a year or two later, Wonderful GrandDaughter brought them back with the request that I teach NG1 how to use them. Then...COVID-19 hit; so, the binoculars reside in the glove compartment of HH's car. (HH keeps a small pair of binoculars in the console of his car, himself.)

In the absence of the Alpen binoculars, I purchased another pair of inexpensive binoculars to carry in my car - 8x26 Vortex (photo below).

I have been very pleased with the performance of the inexpensive optics. Of course, no 8x26 is going to give the brighter image that those of us with lots of floaters (and/or other eye issues) want. It certainly beats the heck out of having no binoculars available when away from the house.

What this household needs is another pair of binoculars! For anyone who does need to purchase a pair of binoculars, advice for bird watchers may be found at the following URLs:

https://www.birdwatching-bliss.com/binoculars-for-bird-watching.html#top-binoculars

https://www.birdwatching-bliss.com/image-stabilized-binoculars.html

 

Oh, yuck!

"Oh, yuck!" was what popped into my head when first I read the header of the item, below, from Slashdot.org. Of course, I would be in line to try out the product. I postulate that should I try it out on Hunky Husband, he would (not knowing its origin) pronounce that his portion was gristly.

 

3D-Printed Plant-Based Steaks Could Arrive In 2021 (engadget.com) 27

Posted by BeauHD on Thursday July 02, 2020 @06:00AM from the what-to-expect dept.

In 2021, Israeli startup Redefine Meat plans to launch a 3D printer that will allow customers to produce plant-based flank steak at home. Engadget reports: Redefine Meat says that through 3D printing, it's able to create plant-based meat with the same "appearance, texture and flavor of animal meat," according to its website. Texture specifically seems to be the 3D printer's hallmark achievement. "You need a 3D printer to mimic the structure of the muscle of the animal," Redefine Meat CEO Eshchar Ben-Shitrit told Reuters.

3D printing differs from other methods companies have used for reproducing meat taste and texture. Both Impossible Foods and Beyond Meat use combinations of plant-based proteins, oils and binders, like methylcellulose and potato starch, to achieve a realistic texture for their ground beef and patties -- though the texture of ground beef is arguably easier to achieve than that of steak. Atlast Food uses mushroom fibers to emulate animal tissue in its meatless bacon.

 

The news - June 28, 2020

There is good news and there is bad (but not unexpected) news.

Bad News - The dishwasher drain pump is not working.

It took me 15-20 minutes to empty the water (well, as much as possible) from the washer, last night. No, the drain line is not clogged - the drain pump is not turning on. Odds are that the pump needs replacement, rather than that the controls are screwed up. Twenty years ago, I would have replaced the pump, myself. This time, since the dishwasher has outlived the average life expectancy by several years, anyway, I shall just do the research to see what brand of dishwasher to use to replace it - and - let someone else do the replacement. That should take care of dishwashers for the rest of Hunky Husband's and my lives.

 

Good News - The "large red cherry tomato" (that's how the label from the nursery reads) plant had a couple of ripe fruit on it, this morning.

This being Sunday, it was "water the new trees with the hose" day. While the long hose is soaking one of the trees, the short hose (hooked up in parallel with the long hose) is soaking one of the rose bushes or one of the three largest tomato plants. As I was watering the last tree, I moved the short hose to water the center tomato plant. When I bent down to place the end of the hose, I espied red! I reached around the vine and plucked the cluster of five tomatoes to bring inside. I shall have a home-grown, ripe tomato for dinner, today.

Usually, success with tomatoes is measured in these parts by having fresh tomatoes for dinner on the 4th of July. After a questionable start in late March/mid April (this plant is from the mid-April planting), I count the tomato crop as a success - even if it has been too hot for tomatoes to have set on during the past month. Speaking of the heat: I had gone out to water the trees, yesterday; but, the humidity was murder - the heat index made it feel like 97 degrees Fahrenheit - too much for me! Fortunately, the humidity decreased late yesterday and this morning is bearable.

And then there is Weird - Eastern Phoebe

I've seen birds spread their wings and tails to soak in sunlight; I've seen birds take dust baths; but, the phoebe pulled something, just now (Noonish), that looked like it wanted to soak up sunlight, but I cannot imagine it when the temperature is this hot (90ish). I shot a photo of it through the window. It was only there for 1 or 2 minutes.

Where did they go?

While putting together a couple of salads for Hunky Husband and me to have for dinner, I espied a red-shouldered hawk sitting on the neighbor's new fence. The hawks (at least three of them - parents & chick?) had been raising a ruckus right around the noon hour, but had quieted down. I didn't like seeing one of them settle upon the fence as a roosting place, but there it was.

Okay, I got a few shots of the hawk and went about my business of cleaning up the kitchen. A flash of blue, outside, caught my attention. The mama and papa bluebirds had come to the nesting box. Running into the den, grabbing the camera, opening the back door, and taking a shot, I hurried so much that I failed to stabilize the camera. However, you can see the action from the blurs, I think - papa bluebird flying off toward the hawk and mama bluebird getting ready to launch from the top of the nesting box in the opposite direction.

The maneuver was successful. The hawk was left sitting there with a "Where did they go?" look on his face.

Cornell's website informs one, "Red-shouldered Hawks eat mostly small mammals, lizards, snakes, and amphibians. They hunt from perches below the forest canopy or at the edge of a pond, sitting silently until they sight their prey below. Then they descend swiftly, gliding and snatching a vole or chipmunk off the forest floor. They also eat toads, snakes, and crayfish. They occasionally eat birds, sometimes from bird feeders; recorded prey include sparrows, starlings, and doves."

Hawk Mountain says that, "The current world population of Red-shouldered Hawks is estimated to be 100,000 birds."

I recall my first sighting of a red-shouldered hawk: in a neighborhood abutting Newport Bay (south of Los Angeles CA). It took me a while to figure out what I was seeing then, in about 1985, and it took me nearly as long to figure out what was out in our back yard hunting worms in February, 2007. Before the red-shouldered hawks moved in, red-tailed hawks had nested in our vicinity. I still see red-tailed hawks thermalling on occasion, across the creek.

The Genius of N95s

One of my favorite blogs is Physics and Physicists: ZapperZ's physics blog on the world of Physics and Physicists. Zapper is a research physicist in Chicago whose blog I've read, regularly, for at least 10-12 years, and his blog is listed in my right-hand sidebar under 4 Fun & Enlightenment. Yesterday, Zapper embedded the following delightful video in a posting. It explains, among other things, why I had written some time ago about my intention to include a layer of silk in any further face coverings that I might make. (I hasten to add that I've not yet done it, though, not having gotten a "Round Tuit"!)

Catching up - 6/19/2020

Fresh Paint

             

The house is looking fresher these days - not from the front, but definitely from the back. Cecil, the handyman, painted the three sides of the house that comprise rough cedar siding (although, one of those sides is nearly as much brick veneer as siding). The back side of the house faces southeast and the garage side faces southwest, so those two sides really take a beating from the sun and from the prevailing southwesterly winds. The whole house had been painted when it was built in late 1999, of course, and again in 2008. The front of the house, facing northwest, is nearly all brick-faced and gets little sun and wind, so I decided not to bother the environment by having it painted this time.

With the heat as bad as it has been, Cecil was smart enough to have himself and his helper here at 6:30am to work until a bit past noon each day - plus - the first day, Cecil worked for a couple of hours in the afternoon on the side of the house that faces northeast - in the shade. They were so quiet that we never knew when they were here or when they were not.

100' of hose - Front Yard

200' of hose - Back Yard

It seems that all I've done for the past few weeks is water, water, water. Except for one day, the temperatures during the past two weeks have been in the mid-to-high 90s (Fahrenheit) and I don't want to lose our new little trees. On Sundays, I water all of the trees that have been planted within the past 18 months - plus - rose bushes and the three largest tomato plants. That is accomplished by stretching out the back yard hose and setting it to water the base of each of 13 trees for four to twelve minutes, depending upon when the tree was planted, how large the tree is, and the species of the tree. The roses are watered using a separate 75' hose, for four to six minutes each, depending upon how distracted I get in watering the trees. Wednesdays, the three trees that were planted in May get two 9-quart buckets full of water each, and each rose or tomato plant gets one bucket full each. The front hose is used to water the tropical plants that are summering on our front porch, the plantings along the front of the house, and the plantings on the far side of the driveway. [I note that, since 2:00am, today, we have received over one inch of rain - and the heat is supposed to abate somewhat for today and tomorrow. Yay! I shan't need to water plants this weekend. The rain stopped for a bit a couple of hours ago, but it is again coming down. The sump pump has been activating every minute or two since I woke at 2:00am.]

Note that in the left, bottom area of the above photo there are small (tropical) airplane/spider plants coming up beside the sedum. Last fall, I gambled that those plants would come up from roots that had over-wintered for several years now and did not re-pot any of the plants to over-winter inside. Not only did the "established" roots over-winter; a root from a plant that had established itself from a potted plant that I had put into my basement escape window well (see the photo, below) did as well. The window well root took so long to come up that I had given up on it; but, there it comes.

The photo, below, shows the tropical plants that I am summering in the window well this year. Too small to show up in this photo, the airplane plant is in the far corner.

First visitor since February

For the first time since February, we had someone inside our home: Elder Brother (above photo from a visit in 2018). As paranoid as he is (and who wouldn't be who had experienced two heart attacks and about five cardiac arrests?) we felt that he would be as safe as anyone to invade our spaces - and that we would be a much greater risk to him than he to us. EB had phoned a few weeks ago to let me know he would be birding in Kansas. (He had promised me to always let me know, rather than visiting Kansas without letting me know.) I had consulted Hunky Husband, and we had invited EB to stay with us for a night or two - with the proviso that, should he die of CORVID-19 after catching it from us, he wouldn't haunt us.

EB drove in just after 4:00pm, on a Friday, and left at 8:00am, on that Sunday. We enjoyed his stay, but none of us left the house in the time that he was here. Normally, we would have eaten one or two meals out; but, we had pizza for dinner, Friday; leftover pizza for lunch, Saturday; and I put together a chicken salad for dinner, Saturday evening, with EB opting to have a shredded turkey breast sandwich, instead. We had soft-serve ice cream (vanilla with fresh, sweetened strawberries for EB and me and chocolate with chocolate syrup for HH) for the two meals. EB always has the same breakfast, to which he helps himself: bowl of shredded wheat cereal and four ounces of orange juice. He also helped himself to the treats (photo, below) scattered around the house - dark chocolate coated almonds, brownies, etc. EB eats very little and has always been so thin that it is painful to look at him when he doffs his shirt; but, he's a big boy (84 years old) and can take care of himself, I think.

  Left-to-Right: plain M&Ms, lemon cookies dipped in dark chocolate & almond pieces, and pecan candy made from left-over dipping chocolate

At our ages (and with the state of EB's health), HH, EB, and I find that our risk factor is not as worrisome to us as the thought of our not getting to see one another. It should be understood without my saying so that HH and I went into isolation for 14 days after EB's visit. OTOH, EB went on to spend a few nights in motels in Kansas and Texas, his intended locales for birding. EB also isolated himself when he arrived home from his journey.

Birds Fledged

The wren nest among the foliage of a house plant that is summering on the front porch has one egg left in it - abandoned AFAIK. It was probably not viable. The second brood of five house finches in the miniature swing on the front porch all left (the two laggards are shown in the above photo), and a second brood of bluebirds was fledged. I don't expect any more action in the nests during the heat of the summer. I was properly amazed at that second brood of bluebirds since we have been in the mid-to-high 90s during all of June (but for one day when it was 89 degrees Fahrenheit).

Strawberry Moon

We had few strawberries, this spring, my having ripped out our strawberry patch in order to plant HH's roses; but, I did get to watch the Strawberry Moon rise. As you can see (photo, below) the moon had to rise to about 20 degrees above the horizon to clear the tall trees along our creek.

More from Slashdot.org - more on masks

Early on, I must admit to having been a face covering effectiveness skeptic when I considered the size of a CORVID-19 virus and the size of the spaces in even densely woven cotton fabrics; but, I had not considered all of the factors - primary being that the virus leaves one's mouth or nose encapsulated within a droplet of moisture. It is the size of the droplets that is important. At any rate, I've changed my mind and, for the past three months, have always worn a home made face covering when out among people, such as when grocery shopping. (From experience, I learned to incorporate a wire in the "nose bridge" portion of the mask to assure a better fit and, perhaps, more effectiveness.)

The following abstract concerns a paper on effectiveness of facemasks when combined with other protocols for managing the pandemic.

A modelling framework to assess the likely effectiveness of facemasks in combination with ‘lock-down’ in managing the COVID-19 pandemic

Richard O. J. H. Stutt, Renata Retkute, Michael Bradley, Christopher A. Gilligan, and John Colvin

Published:10 June 2020  https://doi.org/10.1098/rspa.2020.0376

Abstract

COVID-19 is characterized by an infectious pre-symptomatic period, when newly infected individuals can unwittingly infect others. We are interested in what benefits facemasks could offer as a non-pharmaceutical intervention, especially in the settings where high-technology interventions, such as contact tracing using mobile apps or rapid case detection via molecular tests, are not sustainable. Here, we report the results of two mathematical models and show that facemask use by the public could make a major contribution to reducing the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic. Our intention is to provide a simple modelling framework to examine the dynamics of COVID-19 epidemics when facemasks are worn by the public, with or without imposed ‘lock-down’ periods. Our results are illustrated for a number of plausible values for parameter ranges describing epidemiological processes and mechanistic properties of facemasks, in the absence of current measurements for these values. We show that, when facemasks are used by the public all the time (not just from when symptoms first appear), the effective reproduction number, R_e, can be decreased below 1, leading to the mitigation of epidemic spread. Under certain conditions, when lock-down periods are implemented in combination with 100% facemask use, there is vastly less disease spread, secondary and tertiary waves are flattened and the epidemic is brought under control. The effect occurs even when it is assumed that facemasks are only 50% effective at capturing exhaled virus inoculum with an equal or lower efficiency on inhalation. Facemask use by the public has been suggested to be ineffective because wearers may touch their faces more often, thus increasing the probability of contracting COVID-19. For completeness, our models show that facemask adoption provides population-level benefits, even in circumstances where wearers are placed at increased risk. At the time of writing, facemask use by the public has not been recommended in many countries, but a recommendation for wearing face-coverings has just been announced for Scotland. Even if facemask use began after the start of the first lock-down period, our results show that benefits could still accrue by reducing the risk of the occurrence of further COVID-19 waves. We examine the effects of different rates of facemask adoption without lock-down periods and show that, even at lower levels of adoption, benefits accrue to the facemask wearers. These analyses may explain why some countries, where adoption of facemask use by the public is around 100%, have experienced significantly lower rates of COVID-19 spread and associated deaths. We conclude that facemask use by the public, when used in combination with physical distancing or periods of lock-down, may provide an acceptable way of managing the COVID-19 pandemic and re-opening economic activity. These results are relevant to the developed as well as the developing world, where large numbers of people are resource poor, but fabrication of home-made, effective facemasks is possible. A key message from our analyses to aid the widespread adoption of facemasks would be: ‘my mask protects you, your mask protects me’.

Cherry Crop 2020

I posted a photo of our North Star Cherry tree abloom this spring, here, and posted about the cherry crop of 2019, here. Today, I'll post photos supplied by our neighbor down the street showing the cherries that she picked yesterday, and this morning, from our little tree. She, Wonderful Hostess, had invited us to attend an outdoor pot-luck-style barbecue that she is holding in her spacious back yard this evening. In telephoning our regrets (my not having felt well for a few days, the horrible heat spell we are having - about which she didn't know when she planned the shindig, and our old-people-reluctance to tempt fate in even an outdoor setting), I mentioned to WH that our cherries had suddenly all ripened a couple of days ago and that she should pick any that she cared to have. WH took me up on the offer and you can see her bounty, below. Of course, we were totally oblivious to her presence at our tree; but, she emailed that she had disturbed the birds at their breakfast, this morning.

Yesterday's take:

 

This morning's take:

Hunky Husband just came in from his morning jog. He wouldn't be much wetter had he jumped into a swimming pool. I was smart enough to get an earlier start - carrying buckets of water to the dogwood trees. (I wasn't early enough to catch WH at her cherry picking, though!)

ADDITION OF 6/7/2020 2:01PM  - Payback

Wonderful Hostess left me a voicemail several minutes ago, letting me know that she had left us goodies on the front porch. Have you ever seen a finer looking cherry cobbler? (I'll note that WH was sharp enough to use a double, disposable, pan for the cobbler.) I can hardly wait to taste it; but, must wait, of course.

Wonderful Hostess included a thank you note in which she lamented that she misses being a farm wife as she had been for 30 years - before moving to town. She is a wonderful neighbor who has provided a sparkplug to our community since moving in last year. We are so happy to have her here.