"THAR SHE BLOGS!"

 I have been procrastinating a return to blogging. A buggy whip to my own backside may be needed (though self-flagellation is highly overrated).  My first obstacle is to lasso a loss of vision acuity which impedes most every damned thing I enjoy.  Fair warning, if  you see a corral full of misspelled words, it may or may not be due to a lack of intelligence.  Wet macular degeneration is the official diagnosis.  And it is basically an unlucky spin of the DNA Wheel of Misfortune.  Even Vanna White in a Bob Mackie gown cannot fix this game.

BUT.  I also have so many advantages to help me navigate a wonderful world.  To be sure, my  frustrations can make me feel ungrateful at times.  I have friends with the same disease and we commiserate often; I am far from alone sadly. 

My daughters are aware the condition is inherited.  I am hoping they never get it. There  are so many great medical advances just around the corner to preserve vision for people with wet or age-related macular degeneration. 

KMan and I moved to the little fast-growing burg of Weatherford, Texas in 2016. My vision loss meant a retirement earlier than I anticipated.  I no longer drive, though I have a valid drivers license; I do believe I could easily navigate driving in daylight and in Weatherford, but I haven't done so. Fear and loathing and all that Dr. Gonzo's disillusionment crap may be in play. Maybe I need a red convertible. *shrug*

Aging is a weird life thing; only the fortunate get to have the experience.  So, bear with me while I get my old sea legs on my Bloggy sailboat and I promise to chart a fun course.  Libations are BYOB and welcome.  And before our next session, please learn the lyrics to "What Do You Do With a Drunken Sailor". Did I mention homework was listed in the syllabus?

CALLING ALL BLOGGERS

Many of us first became acquainted to each other when Blogging was the cool kid on the social media scene. And many of us enjoyed Ronni Bennett's "Time Goes By" site. A gathering that I and so many more have missed.

It is time to leave FB and I currently have no suggestion where the next social platform exists that checks all the boxes. 

Please please leave a comment if you are interested in firing up our little corner of the Blogsphere. 

Let's get this party rolling!

PENDRAGONS IN THE GLOOM

I hinted yesterday to my old Bloggy friend,WhiskyPrajer, that I would attempt a blogpost.

I am in a strange-to-me place in life at the current time of 16:12 on October 11th: recently retired and living on cornbread, beans, and fried potatoes while coming to grips with a 68 year-old body that was chained to a desk gangplank most of her life. I suddenly understand the colloquialism "hair shirt" more personally. I once felt at ease at this blogging game, but now...it's like trying to type on a rusty old manual Underwood that's lived for decades in an abandoned beach shack, said "hair shirt" a constant irritation.

Finally sitting at my bedroom desk last evening, trying to remember the html tricks I once memorized and executed effortlessly, the damned keyboard remained silent. It was uncomfortable and I gave up in both sadness and frustration; sighing heavily I headed downstairs to our lovely deck with my Alexa speaker and a bottle of cheap Rioja. (My oft-summoned muse in the form of Hemingway approved the motion.)

A few weeks ago while searching for the early bloggers I once communicated with almost daily, I gave thought to some wonderful voices now silent except for their ghostly postings still online (for which I am grateful):

Mary Scrivener as Prairie Mary
Steve Krodman as Lost in the Cheese Aisle
Bruce Brownlee as BleakMouse
Chris Locke as Kat Herding
Ronni Bennett as Time Goes By

Maybe I will reconnect and find my old voice; more likely it will be a NEW old voice -vintage with some Bitters of Experience, heavy on the bite.

Yours Till the Cows Come Home - CP

Canary In the Coal Mines

                                                  

The world's bird population is dying. One out of eight bird species worldwide is threatened with extinction, a 40% upward tick since 1988.  Biodiversity disaster is very real. The way humans run economies and their daily lives are the prime threat, but the most recent study by the National Audubon Society predicts:

 "If Earth continues to warm according to current trends—rising 3 degrees Celsius (5.4 degrees Fahrenheit) by 2100—more than two-thirds of North America’s bird species will be vulnerable to extinction due to range loss. (A March 2019 study, suggests that drastic and immediate action will be necessary to slow warming to just 2 degrees by 2100.)"

An equally frightening study published by Science Magazine last month, determined that North America’s bird population has plummeted by 2.9 billion breeding adults since 1970.

Just as canaries were sacrificed to detect deadly underground gases during coal mining operations, birds are "sentinel species".    Can you imagine a world without the wonderful Minnesota common loon? The mountain bluebird in Idaho?  I could list a dozen more.  What if one day in the very near future, your children and your grandchildren will only be able to hear these birds' beautiful songs through a digital file played on an electronic device?  Our entire natural soundscape could go silent.

Our climate is changing 20 times faster today than it has during any period during the past two million years. However, if humans could slow the rise of global temperatures to 1.5 degrees Celsius (2.7 degrees Fahrenheit), it would reduce vulnerability for 76 percent of North American bird species.

Our noisy world also is a form of pollution that affects our bird population. This article in National Geographic, authored by Carrie Arnold is a fascinating yet worrisome read:

"The research, published today in Science, is among the first to scientifically evaluate the effects of the pandemic on urban wildlife. It also adds to a burgeoning field of research into how the barrage of human-made noise has disrupted nature, from ships drowning out whale songs to automobile traffic jamming bat sonar."

"During the pandemic, the urban birds’ calls became higher quality, each call packed with more information than before. The lack of human noise also allowed the urban birds’ tunes to travel around twice as far. As expected, the rural bird calls were the same before and during the pandemic." - Behavioral Ecologist, Liz Derryberry

The biggest things you can do as an individual?  Stop letting domestic cats outside unattended. Fluffy needs a caged area in the grass that restricts his ability to hunt and kill. 

"Predation by domestic cats is the number-one direct, human-caused threat to birds in the United States and Canada. In the United States alone, outdoor cats kill approximately 2.4 billion birds every year. Although this number may seem unbelievable, it represents the combined impact of tens of millions of outdoor cats." - American Bird Conservancy

 Plant more native shrubs, flowers and trees. Buy older homes instead of the next shiny new one built on small plots in the suburbs.   And MOST of all, vote for candidates who support a green agenda with actions that count.