Mousetrap
Winter came in of a sudden two weeks ago. Temperatures plummetted to the tens and twenties at night and we got a significant dusting of snow, some of which is still lingering in shady spots. This meant no hiking last weekend, since I feared the trails would be muddy.
This week has been very sunny but not much warmer. I was inclined to do some hiking today, but did not get a good opportunity for outdoor time. I spent the morning receiving delivery of a new kitchen range (the control unit on our old one, which we bought 17 years ago, was literally falling apart. I don’t mean Joe Biden literally, but literally literally; bits of plastic were coming off the face of the control panel.
Hope I got it installed right. On my first attempt, I mistakenly put joint compound on the connectors for the flexible gas line, then realized I didn’t want to do that. It does nothing to improve the seal (it’s a flange joint) and will make it a nightmare to remove the line after the compound has hardened for a few years. I removed the line, cleaned the joint compound off as thoroughly as I could with paintbrush cleaner, then reinstalled. This time the stove end was tight but bubbles showed on the source end when I painted it with diluted dishwasher soap. Sigh. I unscrewed the source end, cleaned it again very thoroughly, installed it with extra care to be sure everything was aligned right, and this time no bubbles. I’m finding myself worrying whether it’s really tight anyway. (I’m a bit of a worry wort.)
The afternoon was spent working on a fun but low-priority project at the office. More C++ language theory.
When I got home, I had enough daylight left to get my exercise by walking across town to the house of my friend, Jeremy Conlin, to see his new kitten, Mousetrap. I had not got far when a large flock of geese passed overhead, heading south for the winter.
As with most images at this site, you can click to embiggen. These are likely snow geese, which, together with the less common sandhill crane, migrate along the valley of the Rio Grande River each autumn and spring.
Mousetrap:
A very pretty girl. I was glad to be able to hold her and stroke her for several minutes. Cindy and I have five cats of our own, none of whom are young cats any more.
Geology: With the main hiking season over, I’m working hard to put some of my recent pictures into the book. It’s close to finished and, at some point, I need to get serious about finding a publisher for it — probably an e-publisher, since there are so many images. Would appreciate any reviews y’all have to offer. These can go to kgb@kgbudge.com and I’ll thank you for them.