Daily Archives: January 18, 2011
Bingo and Turkey Vultures . . .
Well, today was supposed to be nice, perfect for working outside on rig stuff. But, once again…
They lied!
It was really overcast when I got up, but after a while I decided to give it a try.
And, of course, as soon as I got set up and started working on installing the new wheel well flanges, it started raining.
Of course it did.
About 1:30 I headed up to Clear Lake to check in on a client that was having some problems. Then after about a hour getting him fixed up, I drove over to my doctor’s office to see about coming in early to my blood work done, before my appointment next Tuesday. So now I have an appointment to go by this Thursday to get that taken care of.
Getting back to the rig a little after 4, Jan and I headed right back out to pick up our granddaughter Piper for Bingo.
As regular readers know, Miss Piper had two wisdom teeth out last Friday and she’s still a bit under the weather, but well enough to play Bingo.
We met our friends Bob and Maria at Garcia’s Grill in Dickinson for supper, and then Jan, Piper, and Maria headed out to play Bingo.
In the meantime, I dropped Bob off at his house and then I headed up to Clear Lake to a client’s office to install the new 2011 UPS Worldship Shipping software.
And, lo and behold, the install went smoothly with no glitches. Very unusual, believe me.
I picked Jan and Piper up about 10:15, and was greeted with the news that the only person that won anything was Maria, and she was one of 13 winners of a $100 pot.
So after taxes, she got a little over $5. Bummer.
After dropping Miss Piper off, we got back to the rig about 11:00.
Hopefully tomorrow’s weather will be better. At least they say it will. But then they said that today, too.
On a different note, Jan and I have been noticing all the “buzzards” flying around FM517 about half a mile east of I-45.
Late in the afternoon you can see hundreds of them circling overhead, and then they roosting the surrounding pine trees. Soon it looks like the trees are decorated with large black ornaments.
A little research told me that there’s really no such animal as a buzzard. It’s kind of a generic name for vultures, and even some hawks and other raptors.
A little more Googling told me that these are Turkey Vultures.
The main difference between Turkey Vultures and Black Vultures is the Turkey Vulture has a red head, and the Black Vulture has a grey head.
It’s hard to tell from the last picture of two vultures sitting in the tree, but their heads are red.
I haven’t been able to find anything about why they roost in that area. It’s right along a 4 lane street and next to a city park. I can’t imagine there are a lot of dead bodies in the area.
At least I hope not.
More tomorrow…
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Thought for the Day:”Adventure” is somebody else having a miserable time someplace far away.
sdfads
