When a root canal is good news

I’m afraid this may be a TMI post. Fear not; I’ll post science again Sometime Real Soon. I think I mentioned I’ve had mild but persistent headaches since before Christmas. They have actually gotten a bit worse, to the point where I had to go home early from work last...Read more

Cats like heights

That’s Spartacus, my daughter’s cat. He wears an emotional support animal tag (Kira has fibromyalgia that is quite disabling much of the time) and was her pet throughout college. He is the Jeeves of cats, and treats me with a studied superciliousness.Read more
Let me know when you’re tired of all the fun

Let me know when you’re tired of all the fun

I’m going to get a little more serious now, and try to really identify the critters in the scope and say something more about them. Today’s sample was a well decayed leaf from the aquarium. It had quite a few critters like this one. It’s a colony of ciliates joined...Read more

More too much fun

Rotifer videos! http://kgbudge.com/videos/rotifer.mov http://kgbudge.com/videos/rotifer2.mov http://kgbudge.com/videos/rotifer3.mov I don’t know why WordPress won’t play them correctly. It makes me want to say naughty words. Still images as well. Rotifers: Euglenoid. Ciliate, with cilia twitching away on one side. Alga, probably black brush alga. Another amoeba. Diatoms.Read more
Having way too much fun

Having way too much fun

With the new microscope. Amoeba: I saw three on this one slide. They seem to prefer living in the gunk near the outflow of my aquarium filter. Green brush alga: Rotifer: Euglena, perhaps. I’m not entirely confident of the identity. The green specks could be chloroplasts, making it a euglena,...Read more

The new babies are here

I got a little Christmas money, and prepared to have some fun while waiting for hiking weather to return. Twenty-gallon fish tank. I actually plan to use this as a quarantine tank, which I badly need, but which is not as much fun as a display tank. I consoled myself...Read more
Christmas 2019

Christmas 2019

It has been an unusually good Christmas. We got just the right amount of snow on Christmas Eve to greet us on Christmas morning. The only drawback is that it put out some of the faralitos. These are a New Mexico Christmas tradition. They are small sacks with some sand...Read more
Holiday Hike

Holiday Hike

This has been an unusually pleasant Christmas season for me, in no small part because of the company of family and close friends. My friend, Alden Stradling, has only just signed on at LANL, and so has not accumulated any vacation. This left him oligated to work Monday, in spite...Read more
Eyes glowing with wonder

Eyes glowing with wonder

This weekend is the annual Earth Treasures Show sponsored by the Los Alamos Geological Society, of which I am a member. I took a couple of hours Friday to help set up tables and tablecloths. The rest of the day was in Albuquerque, where I attended a service at the...Read more

Winter is upon us

We had snow and rain this week, leaving the trails too muddy for hiking yesterday in spite of sunny weather. Another large storm is predicted for Wednesday, and confirmed by my daughter Kira, who gets fibromyalgia flareups just before really big storms. She’s feeling miserable today. Posting will likely be...Read more
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