Back to Normal (whatever that is)

OK – Christmas is over, the madness of Boxing Day is over and today it is time to go back to work.  We still have New Year’s Eve and New Year’s Day ahead of us, but those days don’t normally cause to much of a difference in my life (other than I get a day off work).

I only work 3 days this week and that is followed by 3 days off work – so I guess its not really normal yet anyway.

We got the rain and snow yesterday as predicted and right now the temperature is -19C with a windchill that feels like -28C – brrrr – that is the coldest we have had this winter.  The roads and sidewalks are going to be very slippery this morning and I expect that my car is covered in ice.

I have the spikes on my walking shoes to wear when walking Chester this morning and I’m sure glad I have those.  I am happy to report that Chester had another good day and night. 

So far on Africam today, we have seen Waterbuck, Striped Skink, Kudu, Nyala, Elephant, Terrapin, Vulture, Grey Heron, Wildebeest and Impala.  Click here to see all of today’s pictures.

I have nothing else to report today and no pictures to post.

Have a great day everyone and if you live in Winnipeg, please be careful when walking or driving.

Chester

It was cool and windy this morning on our walk along the Red River.  It felt nice.  The only problem was that with the wind, there were no critters around at all.  I guess wild critters all around the world are the same with the wind – they stay in hiding.  The critters seldom appear in front of the cams on Africam on a windy day or night and they are not in sight on my river walk either.  The sun is shining though and it should be a nice day.

I decided to take a couple of pictures of Chester, so I have something to post here today 

Chester

Chester

Chester is doing good still – no further signs of seizures since the one he had on July 21st and I am hoping he will never have another one.  The morning he had that one, we started our walk off at the garage where I left my car for service and I wonder if there was any possibility that he picked something up on his feet that he may have absorbed and that might have caused it.  I don’t know enough about it to say for sure.  The garage floor where we went seemed clean enough, but it could either be something that they used to clean it or something on the concrete outside.  I’m still keeping an eye on him of course.

I found out yesterday that I was off to a great start on my application for the 1 year term position at another branch, when I received a phone call from the branch manger telling me that he was unable to open the resume.  So, I have now printed it out and will fax it to him today when I go to work.

On Africam today, we have seen Waterbuck, Zebra, Elephant (including an adorable baby),  Nyala, Woolly-necked Stork, Wildebeest and more.  Click here to see today’s pictures.

This and That

It was 21C already this morning at 7 am when Chester and I walked along the Red River.  The chance of rain is now at 80% (although last night they were saying 100% probability for today).  The question is – will the daycamp go out to Woodlands for the day to Camp Y or will they stay in Winnipeg at the branch for the day.  I guess I’ll find out when I get to work later this morning.

I have been working at the Y for 11 years as of next month and always in the same position – although the days and hours have changed several times, and just over 5 years ago I moved to full time from part time.  With my summer of long weekends coming to an end soon, I really began to realize that I don’t want to go back to working there 5 days a week.  It is time for a change.  One of the positions posted a couple of weeks ago was a 1 year term for membership director at another branch.  This is my boss’s position, but in another location.

My boss asked me if I was going to apply and told me that she thought I should.  Now, over the years, I’ve had other boss’s  tell me the same thing when positions came up and my answer has always been “no, I’m not interested and I’m very comfortable where I am.  I don’t like middle management”.  I then did not apply, but this time, I actually started to think about it – after giving my usual answer, of course.  I’m going to have to do something different because I can’t afford to retire yet.

I started working on my resume and over the next few days, I was sure I would send it in one day – and the next day, there was no way I was going to apply.  Then I talked to a few co-workers and they all urged me to apply, as well as saying they would come downtown with me if I got it. I believe there is already staff there, so I obviously can’t take everyone, but it would be nice to pick and choose the ones that have already shown they know the job.

So – I sent my resume in a few days ago by email.  When I got an email back a few minutes later, I was sure that it would be to tell me that they had decided to close applications and just hire me on the spot – but instead it was an auto message saying that he was away and would not be back until Monday (yesterday).  I guess I’m going to have to go through the usual interview (and I really dislike interviews).

Anyway, I’ll keep you posted!

On our walk today, I saw several ducks, but they stayed right along the shore behind bushes and tall grasses and I couldn’t get a good picture of them.  I did get a good picture of the tall grasses, with some out of focus ducks behind them though.  The one thing about an auto-focus camera is that it doesn’t always focus on what I might want it to focus on.  Chester spied and stalked a bunny again, so today I decided to get a picture of the little guy.  He let us get very close to him because I’m sure he felt that we didn’t see him if he didn’t move.

Nice Tall Grass - too bad the ducks got in the way.

bunny Aug 16

Early this morning on Africam, we got to see a lone lion.  It looks like a young male, so many of us are hoping it is the young Styx male who has been out on his own for some time now.  With a couple of large coalitions of males in the area, he is doing well to stay looking so good on his own.  Click here to see today’s pictures.

A Ducky Day

It was 10C when Chester and I headed out for our walk along the Red River this morning.   It was cloudy and humid and there is rain and thunderstorms in the forecast for this afternoon and evening.  It wouldn’t surprise me if the rain got started this morning.

I was still across the street from the river when I could see some ducks across on the other side this morning.  They were a long way away for pictures, but I decided to try anyway.  I didn’t get a good picture and I can’t identify them from the Ducks Unlimited site right now though.  I will have to look further after work if I get a chance.

Mystery Ducks for May 10th

Here they are, in case you happen to know what they are.

Before posting, I decided to look at various grebes – thinking that they may be grebes.  I found a Red-necked Grebe that I think may be what these are.  I couldn’t find one with a black neck that looked like this and I don’t know if it was just the slightly different angle that gives the different look along with the cloudy day or if it is something different.  Here is where I found the Red-necked Grebe.

I have to thank Barry, who has been great at identifying many of my mystery birds from other days. 

We also got to see more bumps on the log with a bump today. 

Pair of Wood Duck and a Mallard

Wood Duck

I think I got a pretty good picture of the male when he came out of the water and onto the log.

Night time viewing at Africam improved greatly starting with last night.  The much needed lighting was fixed up and visibility was wonderful at both Nkorho and Elephant Plains.  Unfortunately, the critters didn’t co-operate and come out to see us (other than a pair of  Hyaenas), but there are many more nights when many more critters will be dropping by.  You can look at today’s pictures here.  Daytime viewing at all 3 cams is always great!

Happy Mother’s Day

Happy Mother’s Day to day to all the mothers out there – whether your child is human, furred or feathered and not matter what the age.

If your children are human, I have found something true every year, if the mom has a husband – whether he is father to the children or not.  Mother’s Day means that dad has the kids – usually taking them out somewhere (like the Y) so mom can have some time to herself.  On Father’s Day – again, dad takes the kids to spend time with them.   In some families, the dad is the stay-at-home parent and I don’t know if these roles are reversed in those circumstances or not.  I’ll have to ask one of the stay-at-home dads that I know.

I spent the whole morning and early afternoon at work today – so I got lots of happy mother’s day wishes from many of the people who came in today.

After work, Chester and I had our walk along the Red River.  The water looked very similar to every other day for the last couple of weeks, so I didn’t take my usual big tree across the river picture today.  Then, I only saw one duck – a Mallard, who swam along beside us for a good distance.  Most of the time he was behind some trees and bushes and was difficult to see as well as impossible to focus on, but eventually the bushes cleared and I was able to snap a good picture of him.

Mallard May 8

Isn’t he a handsome fellow?

Africam’s Tembe Elephant Park had lions there again this morning.  It is so exciting hearing them roar just before dawn and before we can see them.  I had to leave before dawn due to the early start to work for me for today – but there were pictures for me to see when I got up this morning.     You can see the pictures here.

After the Blood Test

I hope I didn’t give anyone the impression that I was worried about the actual blood test today.  It was more going without eating or drinking for 12 hours that had me worried – LOL

Chester and I had our walk this morning – but the sun rose without doing anything except rising.  There were no clouds around it to give it that beautiful look.  When I got home it was time to leave for my tests.  Then it was time to eat before work.

I got to watch Africam for a few minutes before the walk, after the walk and then before work while I ate and drank to my heart’s content.  Of course, I got home to find that I had just missed a lioness at Tembe but since i did get to see the 4 cheetahs at Nkorho last night, I really can’t complain (too much).  I will anyway – but  you can see the pictures, if you are interested – here.

While watching the cams, I remembered I had to make another appointment to see the doctor.  I hadn’t been able to make one on a Friday (my day off work) so I just didn’t make one when I left after the last appointment.  So today I phoned and was able to make one for a Friday.  I sure hope this isn’t one of those appointments that isn’t really there because if she wasn’t taking appointments on Fridays a couple of weeks ago, can I really be sure she will be taking them now.   I sure hope this works out, but I’m really thinking that next year I’ll be looking for another doctor and hoping to find one that is more convenient to get too and that has more dependable staff.  This will be a total (and I hope no more) of 4 appointments to have my annual exam done.

I survived the day at work (but felt hungry all day) and returned home to watch the cams 

Magpie

Picture of the day is a Magpie picture that I took last summer while on vacation.

Age

Age is kind of a funny thing.  Now that I am getting close to being an official senior citizen, people seem to think that I am smarter than when I wasn’t close to being a senior citizen.  I get asked questions and I know the answer – the thing is that I knew the answer 20 years ago too – but often they would ask someone else – just to make sure.  Now they say ok – it must be so because Mavis said so.

I obviously didn’t know the answers to the questions at the Y 20 years ago because I didn’t work there then.  I hadn’t even been to the Y since I took swimming lessons at the downtown branch of the YWCA when I was a child.  The YWCA doesn’t even exist any longer in Winnipeg (both the building and the fact that it is now both YMCA-YWCA at the location where the old YMCA used to be).  I know how to fix mistakes made on the computer at the Y because I have made pretty much every mistake possible – I have also learned to avoid making these mistakes, which is something that some of the younger ones haven’t figured out yet.  Everyone there is younger than me, but I am just referring to some of the younger ones of course.  There are a lot of great younger ones who will make wonderful senior citizens one day. 

The temperature was 0C when I woke up this morning and although it isn’t getting any warmer today, it also means that it didn’t freeze last night and the snow will have continued melting    Tomorrow is supposed to be similar and then it will get cooler again, but the minus teens are not bad and that’s what they are saying.

Chester and I walked along the Red River in the dark again this morning.  One day I will start taking pictures again, but even in the sun, it is not to exciting these day.  The snow is melting and it is looking pretty dirty everywhere.

Picture of the day is (surprise, surprise) from Africam. I’m not sure who this zebra was talking to – but she seemed to have a lot to say.

Zebras and Impalas at EP

Baby Elephants and More

I woke up to a temperature of -9C and that is the high for the day.  By tonight it will be -25C.  Oh well – it was fun while it lasted.

Today’s walk comes after work, since I start work at 6:30 am.  I am glad I have a big yard for Chester so he can run in between walks.

I obviously didn’t get very far with this message before work this morning.   It is just too early in the morning when I start work on Sundays and the mind isn’t always in gear – LOL

Anyway, I survived work and came home to walk the Chester dog.  It is -14C with a windchill of -25C and they are still saying it will continue to drop to a temperature of -25C – but don’t know what the windchill be be at that time.  They are predicting a high of -17C tomorrow.

On Africam early this morning there was a breeding herd of Elephants with a darling little baby.  Here is a picture of the mom and baby heading for the rest of the herd.

Elephants at NK

There were also a couple of young Impala bucks practicing their sparring at Elephant Plains.

Impalas at EP

Impalas at EP

They were quite fun to watch. 

For more of today’s pictures, you can click here.

Texas in Manitoba

What a drive.   Here in Texas (in my dreams), it is a pleasant 23C under a sunny sky.    Back in Winnipeg it is -23C with a windchill of -34C.  The weather people can tell me all they like, that there is heavy snowfall between Winnipeg and Texas and that Texas has snow and ice – but they are not in my dreams and can’t tell me what to dream about. 

I probably drove a few of my co-workers a little crazy at work yesterday as I announced every once in a while where I would be if I had left – crossing the border now, passing by Fargo, into South Dakota, here we are in Nebraska – and so on.  Speaking of work – the Y had its annual general meeting on Monday.  Among other things, this is when they had out  presents to employees and volunteers who have reached 5 or a multiple of 5 years service.  I received my 10 year service present.  It is a very nice pen and pencil set.  I did not go to the meeting since I had worked all day and don’t like to leave Chester and Jewel alone any longer than my work shift unless I have to.  The news brought back by some who attended is that we will be building a new Y in Winnipeg – not sure exactly where yet – but with the way membership has been booming, we really need this.  I hope to hear more details soon.  I am assuming that I will be asked to be the branch manager and I have already started lining up my staff  

I worked for the provincial government here for many years.  No acknowledgment was made for any annual milestone until you reached 25 years.  At that time they gave me a plaque (well, actually – they gave me two plaques, because they put the wrong years on the first one).  They also gave me $30. to put on a luncheon for myself.

As I have been sitting here typing this, I am (of course) watching Africam.  I haven’t seen much on Nkorho or Elephant Plains this morning, but Tembe has been busy.  I have watched an elephant, some wildebeests, a waterbuck,  a zebra, and a warthog.

Elephant and Wildebeest

Wildebeests with a Waterbuck behind them

Zebra

Warthog

Whether I’m in Manitoba or Texas – Chester needs his walk – so off we go 

Nothing to Say

Well – it warmed up today.  I woke up to a temperature of -25C and NO WIND 

Chester and I hadn’t had a walk the last couple of days when it was in the mid -30′s  and he wouldn’t even stay outside longer than he absolutely had to.

So – what do you write about when you have nothing to say?  I talk about the weather and Africam every day and I’ve already talked about the weather – LOL  Guess that leaves Africam.  Its hard to top the big 5 day from yesterday though.

Elephants at TE

There was this nice elephant meeting under a tree at Tembe in the early afternoon in Africa today.  Not sure what they were discussing – but possibly the weather 

I guess I could talk about my little video with Zebra Finches at You Tube that is going to make me a million dollars (minus Gordie’s share, of course).  It is now up to $12.62.

Maybe we’ll just have to see if I have anything to talk about tomorrow.  See you then.