Snapshot In Time

 Nearly 20 years ago, when I started this blog, I didn't have any real idea what I wanted to do with it. I still don't, although I occasionally find myself scrolling through old entries and finding moments that otherwise would have been entirely lost. We never remember as much as we think we do. 

So, I'm breaking my silence to provide a current snapshot in time. 

It's raining for the first time in what seems like forever, although the drought will not be broken by this paltry drizzle.

A pair of Mourning Doves have built a nest on a convenient outdoor shelving unit which is inconveniently located at eye-level a couple of feet from our door. The male, his job done, has essentially buggered off, and the female has proven to be a lackadaisical caregiver. She hasn't been on the nest since sometime yesterday. We do have a local Cooper's Hawk, so it might not be entirely her fault. I hope she has survived and that she comes back to finish her job.

I'm currently listening to the first of 45 (or so) cassettes I received in the mail yesterday from Bulgaria. Most of them are by pioneering Bulgarian electronic musician Simo Lazarov. This is going to take awhile.

I just watched the late seventies Australian occult horror film, Alison's Birthday, which is part of Severin Films' massive folk horror Blu-ray boxset, All the Haunts Be Ours. I think I'm more than halfway through the set now. Lots of interesting films that I missed the first time around, plus at least one absolute favorite (Clearcut) made this a must-purchase for me. 

I'm currently reading Inhibitor Phase, by Alastair Reynolds, which is set in his Revelation Space universe. Within its pages, things look mighty bleak for humanity. Reynolds provides a more realistic take on space travel than that seen in a lot of other contemporary science fiction (Star Trek, Star Wars, etc.), probably due to his PhD in astrophysics. 

My phone died a little over a week ago, and I mostly don't miss it, although I'll get another one sometime soon. It is a handy tool to have, after all. 

I've seen 183 species of bird so far this year, but who's counting? Hyperfixation is a thing.

Currently watching on TV: Star Trek: Voyager (season 3), Picard (season 2), and The Walking Dead (season 11, part 2) 

We're actually short-staffed at work, although multiple people are in the process of being hired/trained. Face masks still need to be worn, but in most other respects, things are slowly getting back to pre-pandemic normal. There seem to be new changes every week or so. The latest is having field classes be a mix of genders again (up until last week, cabin groups were also field groups, which made contact tracing easier in cases of Covid transmission). 

That's all for the moment. I predict I'll post again three or four months from now.