Flycatcher

 The Eastern Phoebe pair are back. This pair of flycatchers come in the early spring. I enjoy their adeptness at catching flies. I feed cats and quite a few opossums on my back porch. 

The Eastern Phoebe always move their young chicks before a big storm. The cats are obviously in a sheltered spot to avoid the storm. The nest has been there for about five years. I pressure wash the siding but work around the nest. We can coexist. I'm one to always feel a bit privileged to have a wild animal guest. I do think the birds recognize me. 

The first year, I was so impressed with the bird swooping across the canned catfood to grab a fly and the cat could only watch in that it happened so quickly. I have a fence post that the bird likes to perch on and catch flies. I've seen the pair but it is my understanding that the female will chase the male off. Even though they mate for life, they are independent birds who live solitary lives with only their mate.

The Eastern Phoebe is a small bird that does live close to humans in that they like to build their nest in sheltered areas like under the eave of my house.. That portion around my house is really overgrown. But I will wait until the family moves along. I had planned to do that this winter but waiting later is a win-win for the birds. 

Rhododendrites, CC BY-SA 4.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0>, via Wikimedia Commons

EDIMGIAFAD

 EDIMGIAFAD stands for "Everyday in Middle Georgia is Armed Forces Appreciation Day. The military and federal government have acronyms galore. This acronym was coined by Dr. Dan Callahan

My home town is Warner Robins, GA. My home was probably about 2 miles from Robins Air Force Base. In the evening when we heard some one firing up the jet engines, my mother said it was my dad. My dad was an airplane mechanic as well as a car mechanic. Racing an engine is part and parcel of that profession. Dad told a story one time about a Captain being unsure of a plane. My dad got him to tell him about it and it had to do with the tires. Dad had the tires changed on the plane. It fixed the problem.

They had some fire out on the base late one evening. My dad called everyone he needed to contact to get the situation taken care of. After the emergency was over, one man came to see this man who  was in charge. He did a fine job. It was my dad. One of the rank and file airplane mechanics.

Yes, I have felt a lot of pride over my dad. As a kid, I thought he just did not understand the world. lol, How many of you had those dads you thought you were helping? I remember giving my dad a lecture about not sneezing so loud as a teenager. Right, I grew up to sneeze loud enough to wake the dead. My dad had blue eyes that twinkled when he smiled. I can see his eyes twinkling when I gave him that stern lecture. 

My dad always worked the evening shift. It paid a little more and there weren't so many bosses around. Dad had one boss who wanted cargo planes loaded from the right to the left. This boss left during the night and the next boss that came on close to daybreak wanted everything loaded from the left to the right. Dad said they paid attention to who was there and loaded the plane like they wanted it.  . 

Robins Air Force Base brought the middle class to Central Georgia. The jobs were well paid by local standards and the benefit package was excellent. It wasn't until I left home that I learned many did not grow up in houses with running water and bathrooms. I had thought that was a pre World War II, depression era thing. 

Even today, there are islands of good economy amongst the poverty of Georgia. Reconstruction did not begin in earnest until after World War II and the advent of air conditioning. One problem in Georgia is you would have families that owned much of the land and businesse. Everyone else was a hard scrabble farmer, mill worker or laborer who lived on low wages. If you live in the metro Atlanta, Columbus area or near a military installation, there are better paying jobs. Move one county over from these areas, the wages are low. 

When there is a recession, you have to go to Atlanta to get a job or at least that is what my older brother and I did. I worked in the Atlanta area for 19 years. My older brother worked for a little over 20 and it made a \huge difference for him. He worked at Custom Building Products until it was sold out. Except for the concrete dust, he had a good job which required a lot of mandatory overtime. Too much overtime in my opinion. 

Being a boomer with depression era parents, I was raised with the opinion of get a job, don't quit, just stick with it come hell or high water. It's funny as you get older how those opinions guide your life for good or bad. The good for me was I could retire at 51 with 30 years and move on to do the most important part of my life which was being a caregiver. The bad part was I had a job that stifled a lot of my creative life out of me. 

It was a shock to me when I first started writing that what some of my opinions were. One reason I think in the States we have gone so bananas with politics is that all of us boomers have slowed down and started having opinions. I was as obnoxious as everyone else. Except, I decided to not talk or write about politics. It was hard at first. I still get cracked up by people trying to slip a little politics into a conversation. We have become hopeless.

But never fear, I've gone for beer. That was one of my teetotaling dad's oft used phrases. 

And when someone gets real obnoxious talking politics. Just think EDIMGIAFAD. Then try to remember what the words are and thank Dr. Dan Callahan. 

Daniel Boone and David Crockett

 Daniel Boone was a man, a real man. 

My brother plays certain programs on television and Daniel Boone is one. When I found the theme song on Youtube, I recognized Fess Parker and Ed Ames. So I must of watched the show many many years ago. The show aired between 1964 and 1970. At that time, we had one channel, CBS Channel 13 in Macon. GA. There was no need to get up to change the channel in my home until September of 1968 when NBC channel 41 began.

 By that time, I had begun to read books and not watch television. I had students who hated videos. I understood. Television just pokes along to me. I watch some but the characters get too cloying cute at times. This is said from a woman who loved Big Bang Theory and Third Rock from the Sun. Obviously I am into seriousk programming. lol

If you want a serious earworm, this is a link to the Daniel Boone  theme song.  I walk around with this tune in my head. I would complain, but I always have a ear worm. I should make a list and share to people who make me mad. Yep, the soup is cold I say to the laikadasical server who shrugs Who cares. I reply,."Let me share this tune with you."

Daniel Boone was an explorer known for his skills as a frontiersman  Daniel Boone fought in the Revolutionary War. He opened up Kentucky for settlement. He was a prisoner of the Shawnee where he learned that the American Indians wanted to keep the area as their traditional hunting grounds without the new settlers claiming the land. I don't know why that was not obvious to anyone. . 

Historically, Daniel Boone found the Cumberland Gap and enabled colonist to pour across Appalachia to settle Kentucky and other regions west. My great grandmother related this story to my mother. When she was a kid, her family came through the Cumberland Gap to settle in Northwest Alabama. During their journey, they made a pallet on the ground where they all slept. The next morning when they woke up, all of them were so toasty and warm. When they puulled the covers back, they discovered it had snowed. The layer of snow on their covers had insulated them. 

1820 Painting of Daniel Boone by Chester Harding.
Boone was born in 1734 and passed in  1820.
This is the only known likeness of Boone.

Daniel Boone is sometimes confused or thought to be a contemporary of Davy Crockett. Daniel Boone was 52 when David Crockett was born. Both men were adventurous frontiermen. David Crockett was born in Tennessee and died at the Alamo. It is unknown how David Crockett died. What is known are the tales of his adventures and the tales he created. David Crockett was a folk Hero in his lifetime. 

I use the name David Crockett in that the man preferred the name David versus the name Davy. Disney created 5 episodes about his life. The show had a theme song like Daniel Boone which was also sung by Fess Parker. The song differs in that it does not quite create an earworm like the Daniel Boone theme song does. 

Davy Crockett theme song

David Crockett
1834 by Chester Harding
1786=1836

Chillin' in a Chair

 The road to hell is paved with good intentions. I'm sorry about a post idea being posted very early this morning in my time zone. I'm sure it was posted late in the day in Australia. I had posted a writing prompt from Australia for today's post. I woke up at 4:30 am this morning to write it. Then I discovered I had left the post to be published during the night. OOPS.

Anyway, I can share the blog which is https://myjustsostory.blogspot.com  I will try again next week.

I went with my original idea. This chair is broken. I was going to toss it. But my dogs like it so much. It gets wet with our heavy rainfall this year. Then it dries out and it is still comfortable to sit in for me and doesn't seem to be for the worse for the good soaking. 

These are my three doxies waiting on their breakfast.

Bertha, Betty, Bella and Bathsheba Butt - The Butt Sisters.

 This is a true blast from the past. I enjoyed this song but remembered different names for the Butt sisters. My three little red doxies are the Butt sisters. I contemplated naming them Bertha, Beulah and Beelzebub. Beelzebub is the devil and although little Winnie the Smooch is a little rough customer. I don't think Satan is an appropriate name. 

In this song the three sisters of Bertha is Betty, Bella and Bathsheba. Much more respectable names for my hounds. My memory was wrong about the third sister. Bathesheba would have been a cool name for Winne the Smooch. 

Jimmy Castor Bunch - Bertha Butt Boogie

The song hit billboard top 100 for 13 weeks and peaked at #16 on April 20, 1975. The premise were some lovely large cavewomen pursued by a troglodite caveman. 

Bertha Butt Boogie followed the bigger Hit

Troglodyte (Cave Man

which debuted in as a hip funk song in 1972. A song which peaked at #6 on the top 100 billboard and #4 on rythm and blues. A song that was #80 for 1972 in the United States. In 1972 I was 16 and turned 17 that year. 

I don't know how well the songs aged.As you can tell the idea of the "Butt Sisters" stayed with me.

Jimmy Caster Bunch originally went by the name Jimmy Caster. James Walter Bunch was born in 1940 at the start of WW2. 

Jimmy Caster's 1966 song Hey Leroy, Your mamas calling you. was used in the soundtrack for the movie The Wolf of Wall Street. Jimmy Caster co-wrote I Promise to Remember with Jimmy Smith. Jimmy Caster recorded the song in 1956 when he was 16 years old. It was not promoted by Mercury  Frankie Lymon and the Teenagers recorde : I Promise to Remember. in 1956 where it hit number ten on the R&B Popchart and #57 on the US top 100. Jimmy Carter used his recording of the song as side B of Troglydite. 

Right On James Walter Caster. You were one talented man.

Armadillos

 Armadillos are known as opossum on the halfshell. 

http://www.birdphotos.com, via Wikimedia Commons

Texas claims the armadillo as the state's small mammal. You are free to hunt them during small animal hunting season in Texas. The nine banded armadillo spread from South America until it reached Texas about 100 years ago. The nine-banded is the resident armadillo of North America. It is considered exotic and invasive. Armadillos prefer soil that is easy to dig. You know if you have a resident armadillo in that they can plow your yard in the most inconvenient way. They love grubs. 

We have plenty of Armadillos in Georgia. I've seen one plastered to the ground. I picked up pecans and tossed them at one of my cats. At the time I thought the thing could raise up and attack my cat. The hard plates are quite the protection. Of the 20 species of armadillos, only two species which are of the three banded species can roll up into a ball. 

I took pictures of three small ones on the side of a country road. There is a joke that armadillos are the only animal born dead on the side of the road. Armadillos are eaten and are prized in Oaxacon cuisine. I heard of them being eaten in Georgia. They are called the poor man's pork. Like many animals that were widely eaten like the opossum and raccoon; no one really eats them anymore. 

But iffen you really want to eat an armadillos, cook it "well done" to kill the Mycobacterium leprae bacteria which causes leprosy. Leprosy is called Hansen's disease today. Armadillos are the only animals that host the bacteria in North America because they maintain a constant body temperature which the fragile leprosy bacteria needs to survive. The leprosy bacteria was introduced to the Americas from Europe. 

Because of leprosy which most people are immune to; no one is allowed to keep an armadillos as a pet in Georgia or Texas. I did not check the other states but I would assume that would be considered a practical rule for all to follow, much like you should not sleep with a pet snake.

Which reminds me of a joke:

A lawyer, Oliver Beaudrow, saw an armadillo on the road to his home. He wanted to move it so that it would not come on his lawn., He wrapped the animal in a towel and placed it in the back seat. 

Beaudrow turned his car around and turned off on a highway to go to a much less traveled dirt road. In his haste, he was speeding 2 mph above the speed limit and a police officer turns on his blue lights and follows him.. The dirt road was right there so Beaudrow made a right turn on the road. The police cruiser with its blue lights flashing pulled behind him. Beaudrow hoped it was sufficiently dark and the officer would not see the animal in the backseat. There was a standard $50 fine for having a wild animal in captivity.

Beaudrew got a fist full of papers and his license ready to hand to the officer. You had to go over 5 mph over the speed limit for a speeding ticket.

First question the officer asked was, "Sir, why have you got an armadillo in your back seat" The Armadillos was lying on the towel in the glow of the officer's flashlight. "Sir, I'll have to fine you for having a wild animal in captivity."

"Officer, that is a highly trained pet that I have owned since it was a baby." Beaudrow exits the car, and removes the Armadillo and places it on the ground. The armadillo scampers away as Beaudrow tells the officer it will return to the sound of a whistle. 

The officer asks, "Are you going to whistle?"

Beaudrow says, "Why?"

"To get your armadillos back?" says the officer..

Beaudrow looks puzzled. "What armadillo?." 

Armadillos have spread as far as North Dakota. They are hardy creatures. Drive carefully.

Come join the fun of Blogging from A to Z. This is the link find other blogs participating.

Look out A to Z, I'll be back.

 A to Z theme reveal. Well this theme is pretty weak. It is Dogs I have loved, fairy tales, myths, cats birds and what grows in my yard... 

I have not blogged in awhile. Some of it is due to I have had to make choices in how I use my time. I contemplated to give up my desire to write. I look at the prolific work of Emily Bronte. She has a prodigious amount of writing and was gone from this world at 29. 

I am soon to be 68. I've had a career and retired. At 29, my writing was piss poor. I've always been a big reader and was quite a snobby reader at that age. I read a lot of classics. I'm one who has always felt comfortable in 19th century England. At that time in my life I read all of Charles Dickens and Robert Heinlein. I felt so bad when Heinlein passed. There would be no more of his stories. I read all of Galsworthy and most of Kurt Vonnegut. And you know, except for Dickens and Galworthy, I remember very little of what I read.

One thing about the internet is that I do a lot of "trash reading". You can't help but read one short article after another. The most exciting parts are the end of the unfinished title that gets you to click the link. I don't consider my blog reading as trash reading. This year I have focused on reading novels and not so much on the computer. 

I look forward to reading new blogs. I read one today of a Scottish woman. Apparently this woman has a large grey van. I've never been to Scotland. I have wanted to go and take a good walkabout in the country. 

When my mother was alive, I did a lot of genealogy. It was something I could tease apart as I spent a great deal of time sitting with my mother. I enjoy the puzzle. I had an old boss who had a first family that was not mentioned in his obituary. It took me a bit. But I found the first wife and her daughter in Oklahoma. Apparently, he was not mentioned in their family histories either. 

The point of the geneology is my DNA indicates I am half Scottish, a fourth English and the other fourth is a mixture of Welsh, Irish, German, Swedish and Norwegian. We did the DNA to find our Native American. No Native American is in the DNA but I found the links to Native Americans. 

In North America we don't always appreciate how close some of the colonial settlers lived and interacted with the Native Americans. 

I'm sure my Scottish ancestors were encouraged to leave in the first highland clearances. But I still would like to walk the hills of my ancestors. I see myself sitting on a bus resisting the urge to tell the locals of my Scottish roots. I'll just be there thinking it real, real loud. It is my understanding they are offended by American's discussing their ancestral roots. That is OK with me. I don't plan to eat any of their foods except for fish and chips and will drink plenty of hot tea with cream.. I'm sure haggis is good. But I am not about to eat the disgusting stuff. 

As you can tell, my A to Z will ramble this year. It will be what it will be. I'll try to comment more. I have stopped commenting as much. I enjoy visiting blogs but I have been a bit withdrawn and not commenting like I did at one time.