birdfeeder, update

18Dec2010
Let me first exclaim that today I saw my first verified male goldfinch in the backyard, feeding on the thistle sock! That just blesses me to my core (to know me is to love me).

So in last episode there was proposal to switch feeders around to test hypothesis that proximity to home was issue. Feeders switched.

No difference.

It's the week before Christmas, 55 deg.F, little wind and sunny.

The most utilized feeder in my back yard is:

The square, multi-port feeder with spring squirrel-guard.

Most every bird will use it, but the house-sparrows mob it like boys at an available X-box controller at a video store demo.

The second-most used feeder is the large cylindrical feeder

w/squirrel-deterrent portals.

The Carolina chickadees and red-bellied woodpecker love this one,

plus an unidentified/ grey mystery warbler w/ double wing bands that looks similar to young yellow-rumped

warbler..?

The orange limb-spike is a near-third.

I am impressed with the diversity of

birds that enjoy eating oranges, cut in half and impaled on a nail.

The most common visitor is the red-bellied woodpecker, followed by the mystery-warbler.

The least used feeder is the small tube feeder near the tree. Initially I put thistles in it t

hinking a goldfinch may show up, but was sitting unused for weeks so I rotated the ports to open feeding and started refilling with birdseed mix. Initially the whitewings were using it, but perhaps it's proximity to the tree puts them off, or the thistle sock which hangs 8 inches away (my idea was that perhaps a bird feeding at the tube may realize there are thistles in the sock and maybe learn to feed there-- that was before the goldfinch showed up today: obviously needs no lessons on how to feed on the sock!)

It's a very good day.

Christmas activities are stirring, including dusting off seasonal props.

God Bless and Merry Christmas to all.

Jim

A Tale of Two...birdfeeders?

It's Thanksgiving week in Houston, 75 degrees and rainy, though the sun somehow casts a shadow through it all. Confusing. In my backyard is a buffet of different bird feeders, 6 in all, yet not any two are the same. Two are for goldfinches, two are for fruit eaters, but two are loaded with seeds. This story is about seed-eaters. I am about to run an experiment of the utmost concern for the local Realtor: does location matter, or is it the structure that has the most bearing in appeal.
Consider the birds of the field, specifically the house sparrows in my back yard.
They are mobbing my feeder farthest away from my dwelling; they seem to not even know the other feeder exists.
Is that because they can quickly duck into the shrubbery (spoken like the Knights of Ni)? Or is it that the local squirrel-teenagers use the nearby feeder wire as a zip line, dropping suddenly into the dinner scene of any feeding bird like invaders in an old ninja movie? The nearby feeder has more seeds in it, but perhaps that is less important. Perhaps it's like the scripture that elevates eating up on the roof in peace, over all the trappings yet in the midst of tension.
Perhaps that is the call of Christ, to forsake the pressures and distractions of this world for the simple fulfillment of living at His feet? A call to simplicity, not for self-abasement but for personal fulfillment, choosing the better while seeming to participating in cultural irresponsibility?
I think I'll swap feeders around, just to see...

The Closing of a Chapter; Well Done Good and Faithful Servant

Today at Houston Christian's faculty meeting, my boss, Suzette Estes announced the exciting news that she plans to retire at the end of May, 2011. She is very excited to join her wonderful husband, Tom, and spend time with her children and grandbabies.
As our community moves forward, we will finish the year strongly and truly enjoy how God is going to bring in a new Principal to lead us into the next chapter of our HCHS community.
God is good, all the time.
Thank you, Lord Jesus, for sending us Suzette for this last decade.
Amen.

Vectors

"Mr. Kelley, I need to leave your class at 11--here's my slip."
"OK, thanks; are you OK?"
"Not really; mom thinks it's some contagious virus but it may be Strep."
O good; thanks for telling me...from 2 feet away... right toward my face.

As a teacher this exercise is weekly, sometimes daily, so is it any wonder we may be 'a little congested' [teacher-denial-speak for "I'm sick but don't want to admit it"].
So goes the cycle of denial-borne, air-borne contagion.

I got my flu-shot last week.

Too bad there's no cure for the common cold (cough, hack, cough, sniff...ache).

Happy Labor Day Weekend

It's Sunday morning.
Having missed morning worship, I turned on the local Christian station, sat in my favorite chair, and have been listening to praise and worship music while peacefully reading and truly enjoying the flurry of bird life flocking around my now-filled feeder. I even gave the hummingbird feeder it's first autumnal transfusion of sweetness and have already already witnessed a micro-migrator leaving this new ornament on the arboreal landscape! As I type, a swarm of hummers have just mobbed this feeder-- life suddenly is even happier from this chair.
The One-Year Bible's offerings find us in Ecclesiastes and 2 Corinthians, books strangely congruent aside from overarching theological bases: both seem to be specifically addressing the profound limitations of living solely for oneself, written in a voice that leaves me wishing I was farther along my Jesus Journey.
Paul lovingly writes to his Children in Corinth another letter, and says, "do not be yoked together with unbelievers. For what do righteousness and wickedness have in common?...'Therefore come out from them and be separate,' says the Lord. 'Touch no unclean thing, and I will receive you. I will be a Father to you, and you will be My sons and daughters'..." Paul then pleads: "Since we have these promises, dear friends, let us purify ourselves from everything that contaminates body and spirit, perfecting holiness out of reverence for God." (2 Cor.6:14,17-8; 7:1)
I know that nobody can be perfectly holy, but that is not what is going on here-- it's about orientation: what am I focused on? What is the most important thing in my life? Since I immediately am aware of my imperfections, what are those idols I proudly hold onto, idols God is gently asking me to give up so I might receive something profoundly better?
God is good.
People have a profound ability to rationalize our pig slop.
Jesus, help us to surrender that we might truly experience life. Jesus, for those who have never taken this step, give them the courage to give over their lives to your Love/Life.
In becoming my LORD, you become my Savior.
Thank you for the cross; bear with me as I stumble in following you-- I really don't like being hurt, but I'm learning that may not be relevant.
I thank you for the amazing gifts you give me, including that amazing peach-colored bird sipping from the hummingbird feeder: I love you, Jesus.

DeQuarvain's Update: post-surgery

Shortly after my last entry, finding some relief from an ultrasonic wand, my thumb/wrist returned to its previous painful status. Due to the timing of a week-long backpacking trip in the Colorado wilderness, I scheduled my surgery with Dr. Carl Palumbo to release the sheath that was grabbing my tendon (similar to carpal tunnel).
My surgery was August 4, 2010.
I had immediate relief from the chronic pain of this condition, and have begun to experience soreness now only a couple weeks after surgery, though mobility of the joint has been restored.
(see image of injured right hand, compare to previous image; both are mirror images).
I expect through gentle stretching and exercise the soreness, too, will abate.
Then again, I'm getting old...
But I'm not dead yet,...
... and have a life to live, thank you Jesus.

De Quervain's tenosynovitis-

It's the middle of July.
I've battled De Quervain's tenosynovitis (click title for more info) since early November of last year.
I get a little relief through massage, or hot treatment, or cold treatment, or stretching... but it always comes back to this baseline of painful thumb/wrist action. The worst is when my thumb tendon gets "caught" in my wrist, and then "pops" free.
Last week my mom got an ultrasound wand for consumer use; she couldn't use it so I borrowed it.
It started improving my mobility in 2 minutes.
This does not mean that I kept my mobility, but I am typing this with the use of my thumb 3o minutes after the treatment.
So here is my attempt at documentation of my first use of this at my own home tonight (trying to replicate the results from earlier this week): [The images are mirrored from PhotoBooth]
First, my healthy left thumb, flexed as far as possible:








Next my problem right thumb, flexed as far as possible:









Treatment #1. Now after the first 5 minutes of treatment: flexed as far as possible--improved flex with less pain (ultrasound wand shown):





Treatment #2. Now after an additional 5 minute treatment (10 min. total): flexed as far as possible--more improved flex with less pain:





So what does this mean? Not sure. Will need to do further tests, including controls (unplugged wand w/out gel; unplugged wand w/ gel).

Life and July 2010

The nice thing about returning to a place of memories is that it fosters a sense of continuity. Refugio, Texas, is like that for me.
Though I see something new every time I return here, I also am grounded in the familiarity of the smells and sounds of Creation that abound in this part of the world. Last year was bone-dry drought; this week is lush, soggy greeness.
Oak trees here... giant sentinals of time... are part of that continuity, that innate sense of primal endurance that welcome me back like an old great-uncle, when I once again encounter them in the pasture or prominent station near the roadway. And it is with similar sadness when I see some of these centurions brown with death, a contrast to the life around them, especially the giant post oaks of Kelley Road. Some say the drought took its toll; others- an oomycete that selects against Q.stellata. The live oaks do not share the same vulnerability and continue to push out green shade amongst these scattered deceased giants. It's almost like there was a generation of post oaks planted a hundred years ago, and all have become nesting sites and termite fodder today.
Nevertheless, life goes on.
It says so in the performance-art of relatives visiting a local cemetary, or citizens taking photos of some relic left over from the age of windmills and cattle drives; what was is not as it was, yet is for those who look a reminder of what was and might possibly be.
Life goes on; God, I thank you for that reminder.
I love you, Lord.
Thanks for putting up with me.

John 21

In reading my OYB today I am struck by the words Jesus used to reinstate "Simon son of John" (no longer Peter) back into fellowship-- it is a charge for Christian leadership over a community of faith:
1) "...feed my lambs...": initially focus on the younger generation and those who are new to faith, teaching them the Holy Scriptures and guiding them in discipleship for righteous living. Once you have that started...
2) "...pastor my sheep...": now learn the entire flock, tending their needs and concerns, creating opportunities for fellowship and pastoral care; then...
3) "...feed my sheep...": now broaden the discipleship process, building on the strength of the "lambs" and expand the importance of biblical obedience and training toward righteousness to all generations in that community.

It's a thought.

The insanity of it all

As I sit here in my vacant lab watching the courtyard grow gray with anticrepusculance, I am reminded of the insanity of my life. People are digging out swollen corpses from the wreckage of an island both shaken and stirred; a dear colleague has recently buried her child, brutally cut down in an act of cowardice; a civil dispute about money that will probably deplete the prize fought over; a score of friends and acquaintances who going through various forms of saying 'goodbye'...
...and I'm thinking about maybe fishsticks for supper.

Click here for a powerful message!

Howdy yall,
I awoke to this message this morning.
It was a very challenging talk, but I think my friends will benefit from it.
For those who have ears to hear...
click on the title above to access the link.