A long weekend doing nothing

I spend the entire President's weekend inside, at the computer working on class assignments. This isn't how I imagined a four-day weekend to be!

These on-line classes are very time consuming and if these weren't required courses I'd never take them on-line again. While Kevin enjoyed family time in Phoenix, I was under self-imposed exile. The cold winds didn't help much. We didn't get any rain, either, and the dogs were outside my office door bored. I didn't even walk them out in this wind.

Arab protests in Libya continue to spiral and gas prices are shooting up even more. I dread to see the latest prices in town. Some people are talking about $5 gasoline. That will spark riots right here in this country. Americans want everything as cheap as possible.

I have a road bike I could fix up and start riding into town...

Protests continue in Madison, WI concerning eliminating collective bargaining rights for unions, cuts in teacher benefits and state-wide cuts in many services. Now I'm reading that cutbacks are proposed in Indiana for teachers as well. Too many states are baffling with their deficits. Teacher pay here in Arizona can't get any lower than it already is, so I don't expect even more cuts for them here should these demands become nationwide. The governor already slashed cuts to education last month. Apparently a lot of Wisconsinites are upset that teachers had such high pay and benefits. According to some of my Facebook contacts, for some teachers the cuts in pay would amount to $10,000 a year as they will now have to pay more into their pension and health plans. That's one-third of the starting salary here for teachers.

And all this has me wondering...why should I become a teacher? Yes, I love the profession and I love mentoring younger people. The pay has never been my #1 reason and the workload can get intense. Having summers off is a big deal for me for travel and recreation but I'm seriously reconsidering a new profession as I enter the Masters Program within this year. I still have required math and science classes to take to fulfill the UA requirement (which never seem to end!)

Suddenly these classes I'm taken seem to mean nothing to me anymore. I know I have to get out of this slump. The classes I am taking right now are by no means useless, though, but there will come a point where I will tire of always having something to study for or research. I don't have much of a life when I'm sequestered behind a computer.

Another thing over this weekend is experiencing my first credit card fraud.
Three days ago I was notified by my credit card issuer that my account had been compromised. I went to check the latest charges on-line and sure enough, there were two charges dated 17 Feb totaling around $500. One was done from Australia and the other from Massachusetts. I spent my Sunday morning on the phone talking to a company rep: I had to close the current account to avoid any further charges. A new card should arrive today.Once the bank analysts confirms that I didn't make either of those charges, I should receive a refund on my account. Both fraudulent charges were still "pending" which will make the refund easier.

It's a sickening feeling to have one's account compromised. What if this had happened with me on the road somewhere? I went to my favorite shopping websites to cancel all accounts temporarily. Luckily I have a full tank of gas in my truck and won't need to gas up this week, but a few other items that I regularly have mailed to me from an on-line site all were canceled indefinitely.

Perhaps there is good news in this, though. I buy a lot of stuff that I DON'T need. I have more coffee stocked up to last me a year. I have coffee syrups to last me six months. Everything else is not "required" stuff and I can learn to live without. Maybe I'll end up like Kevin and become super-frugal...but that also has its downside.

Kevin had an enjoyable weekend i Phoenix. When he arrived yesterday around noon he went straight to bed to read his eBook, only getting up to use the bathroom or smoke. It rained the entire time there.

My little dove continues to recover. She got out of her cage Sunday morning and she's been free in the office now for two days, mostly sitting on my ceiling fan looking down at me. I don't mind her staring at me, but her butt is precariously positioned right above me.

Region's first wildfire and other mullings

The first fire of the season broke out near Patagonia, AZ on Monday and authorities are saying--surprise, surprise!--that the fire was human started (and most likely started by illegals wandering north through the Santa Cruz valley). Monday afternoon the sky was a sooty brown, but recent winds have dicipated the smoke from the growing fire. The fire has grown to 1800 acres. Hopefully today's winds won't spread it even more. Although the smoke is not as thick as before, the sunrises and sunsets are looking rather brown lately.

Meanwhile, gasoline prices are shooting up fast thanks to the protests in the Middle East. I tanked up for $3.11 two days ago, the highest I've seen gas here since 2008. Bahrain, Tunisia, Yemen, Libya all have protests now. The media is showing a lot of Arab men screaming at the camera and shooting demands. If Saudia Arabia is next (and I'm sure the fat sheiks of that kingdom are worried sick that they will be toppled next) we are going to see gasoline prices as never before. This is going to be one interesting summer. Prices on the army post went from $2.93 to $3.09 overnight. In town it's as high as $3.26.

It's moments like these that I get so angry that business-minded leaders like Reagan disbanded the Department of Energy as soon as he took office. That agency was created under Carter to help research alternative fuels at a time when alternative fuels were still a dream. Carter wanted the country to be foreign fuel independent within 20 years. Instead, our economy continues to be held hostage by Arabs and other nitwits.

Kevin, who's obsessed with long-term survival, bought a food hydrator this week. He seldom buys anything that isn't gun or ammo related, so this is news. Now that he's also canning meats and vegetables he plans on having a six month supply of everything handy. Last weekend he spent Sunday canning and cooking all day; I expect to see more of that now. He's already trying out frozen yellow corn in the hydrator.

Growing hardy vegetables is next and this summer he promises to help out in the garden. I agreed to help him with the garden and bought some seed germinators. A mini coldstorage will be next. The trouble with eary spring garden here in the desert are those hot, dry winds that blow down starting in April.

We have a nice warm spell again. Most of my citrus trees are back outside and they will remain outside until it dips into the 20s again. A potential rain storm and cooler temperatures may be due in from California this weekend. I say bring it on, as we need the rain. Oaks in the foothills are showing early signs of drought. Instead of being a dark green most trees are showing the brown tips of leaves that have suffered due to lack of water.

And my little ringneck dove is doing well. She seems to have acclimated to her confinement lately and is no longer plucking out her feathers. She still hasn't said a peep, but she gladly takes water and seed that I lay out for her. She's low maintenance except for the paper changes and quick fresh water refills.

http://www.azcentral.com/news/articles/2011/02/16/20110216arizona-wildfire-grows-to-1800-acres.html

Nursing an injured ringneck dove

We have a lot of birds in our neighborhood. Our front yard, thanks to the previous homeowners, is a bird-and-butterfly favorite yard. The owners planted juniper shrubs around the front to provide cover for the Gamble's Quail that come here early in the morning. The quail scavenge for seeds from the feeder. We also have wrens, long-billed thrashers, sparrows and ringneck doves that come down to feed.

I've always worried about the birds' safety having cats in the neighborhood. Our neighbors seem to leave their two cats outside all the time. My cat goes outside only for a few hours at a time--if he even goes outside--because I fear for his safety and the damage he could do to the feeding birds. I've already encountered what looks like battle scenes of feathers strewn in the front yard.

It was therefore not a total surprise to catch my cat Pache trying to kill one of the doves two mornings ago. I was lucky I caught him just in time, holding down a docile dove that seemed resolute with its fate. It had stopped fighting and lay there, waiting for that coup de grace. That coup never came as I was able to extract the injured bird from Pache's determind paws. Other than a severely plucked chest and missing tail feathers, the dove looked intact with no signs of lacerations or broken limbs. I quickly brought it inside and lay it down in a small kitty carrier for him to calm down.

She just lay there, motionless. I had volunteered years ago at a wildlife rehab center in NJ and know that birds can appear healthy one minute and literally drop dead the next. Internal injuries, parasites, viri all play a factor in a bird's recovery. Most injured birds do not survive the stress of the attack and die from heart attacks. I was tired of seeing the majority of the animals that were brought in to the rehab center die. I stopped volunteering at the rehab center because seeing all the birds die kept depressing me. There was a lot of work to be done for so little pay-off.

I kept the cage in a quiet spot in my office, away from the cat, and waited.

Two hours later the bird perked up and wanted to spread its wings. It kept hitting them against the walls of the kitty carrier, so I opted to get it a larger cage, the large-size VariKennel by Petmate that I bought for the cross-country transport of three cats from NJ to AZ back in late 2004. That kennel literally had been collecting spiderwebs in the garage and its volume was used to store other junk. I held on to that kennel for emergencies such as this, albeit with a larger mammal in mind. I had to dig out the kennel and wash it outside to make it habitable.

I found several old sheets to use for the cage floor. An unused kitchen wrack also came in handy. Today I added a small Fancy Feast box and filled it with shredded paper so the dove could use it as a nest. Doves like room to walk and need a perch so she needed a place to exercise.

Kevin may have rolled his eyes at me for wanting to save a life that was easier to kill than nurse back to life, but he was supportive of my endeavors. We looked up the bird's species in the "Audobon Southwest Bird" guide but there were no ringneck doves. Turns out the bird is an import that has been migrating westward over the years. It's originally a hybrid between a European and an African species. They can live up to 20 years in captivity. Twenty years!

Later on the same night the dove, which I now named Vogel-Weh (German for "Bird-Ache/Pain/Grief") or "Vogel" for short, flew around the office. It can still fly as its wings luckily are not broken or plucked bald, but without tail feathers the poor bird can't gather much lift or balance itself well. It flies like a fat bumble bee.

The next day I let it out again for more exercise, but she got caught behind my desk and showed signs of stress from trying to fly out of her trap. Perhaps from trying to free herself from the tight spot she re-injured her butt area as it looked bloody. Until her feathers regrow I won't let her fly out much.

I am feeding her wild bird seed. She has a large baby jar full of water in the corner of the kennel which she uses quite a bit. She's a big drinker. An old twig from a dead mulberry tree acts as additional perch.

I don't know the exact sex of this bird, but since she is showing no inclination to bow-coo I'm assuming she is a female. In fact, she hasn't made a sound at all in the last 48 hours.

She is a delight to watch. During the day--this is only the second day--she watches me intently from behind her cage. I've played a few Youtube videos of doves cooing but the sound of her species mates doesn't seem to excite her too much. She is also losing even more plume feathers than during the initial attack, so that her chest and the area under her wings are completely feather-free. Her frontal area indeed looks bad only because her skin is so thin and the reddish-blue of her veins and arteries show through.

What now? I've read up on all the ringneck dove websites to learn more about this fascinating species. I've always enjoyed watching birds, and now I have one up close to learn from even more. Even though I've always wanted a few pet birds, with a bird-hungry cat in the house a Peaceable Kingdom is not possible. I find the calls and sounds of birds very soothing.

I intend on releasing this bird back to the wild as she probably lives in the palm tree in our backyard, but this may be months down the road when all her feathers have regrown and she can fly like before. Doves mate for life and perhaps she already has a grieving mate outside?

Vogel-Weh is a prime example of why cats should not be roaming outside. She is suffering right now because of ~MY~ cat. It is now my responsibility to make sure she gets all the best care in the next few months. I won't be able to keep my cat indoors 24/7; with dogs in the house he often runs outside with them and then hangs out in the shrubbery, but I will do my best to keep all species satisfied.

Gas prices are rising

The civil strife that has been brewing in Egypt (and which seems to be getting very, very serious fast) is showing an impact here in southeastern Arizona: gas prices have practically gone up 20 cents in the past month. Today, driving home from work, I saw prices from $2.93 to $3.09 to $3.19 within a ten-mile stretch.

Nothing has worried me more than what is happening there in Egypt. Even Kevin and I talked about it. "That's why I'm stocking up on food" he commented. For the first time I don't mind the closets full of dried goods he has been accumulating in the past two years. He bought a generator last fall and today a gas-burning heater arrived via Amazon.

Kevin started stocking up on dried goods after Obama was elected president. The theory was among his conspiracy-loving friends that Obama would ban all weapons and ammunition and therefore mass riots would ensue. These rumors were most likely started by gunshop owners who wanted a plausible excuse to increase business.

I'm not saying the world will end tomorrow, but the events in Egypt will have repercussions around the world. A peaceful Middle East may not be much longer. Even that nutcase in Iran has quieted his nuclear threats.

The rising costs of crude oil will affect everything, from cheaply-made Chinese goods to the cost of a chemically-enhanced hamburger at McDonald's or fake-meat burrito at Taco Bell. I'm expecting prices higher than they were in 2008. If summer travel prices rise to $4/gallon, even I may reconsider any major roadtrips (except the one to California this July).

Higher prices for basic consumer goods will also mean that those Americans who barely survived the last economic downturn may not survive the next. A true economic disaster was averted these last two years because of the relatively low prices for crude oil. Those days seem to be gone now forever. Now even those who have been cutting back and living within their budget will be severely affected.

The talk today during break was the potential cut of even more teaachers. How many more can the district cut? Even some of my experienced peers are worried. If the district cuts more it may end up shooting itself in the foot because concerned parents would pull their kids out of the high school and send them to a charter school. Pay has been frozen this hear and hours for me have already been cut. If they cut any more it may no longer be feasible for me to work there, despite my overall job satisfaction as I enter my third year.

The cold snap from last week is behind us, yet people in Kansas, Oklahoma and Arkansas got whopped again two days ago with as much as 14 more inches. This is certainly one of the snowiest winters across the Midwest and NorthEast. I'm just glad I live here in AZ were winters are rather mild and hot summers are easily remedied with a shady home.

Compound the harsh winter in parts of the country, growing energy prices and the threat of a collapsed Middle East, I predict we are going to be in for one very horrific decade.

Kevin and I may live to see a nuclear war. Pakistan is extremely unstable, I don't trust Russia and now China may have the beginnings of a nuclear bomb. If a nuclear war happens in a few years, our lives may be shortened; if it happens 20 years from now we'll be dead from natural causes anyway.

One "good" thing is that violence seems to have tapered off a little bit in Mexico (excluding Juarez) these last few weeks. Maybe that's because the narcoshitheads are also worried. But if Mexico falls into revolt, holy burrito,the security of this country would be at stake.

But like all global disasters, it's the combination of many factors that could turn what looks like a centralized revolt in Egypt into a global crisis of epic proportions. This could affect all strata of society. The potential for this to get out of hand will make this "Tragedy in Tucson" (which the local media is still exploiting!) seem silly.

Record-breaking temperatures

What a week it's been! We just survived two days of SINGLE DIGIT mornings. It was so cold the high school closed today. Half the population in town has no gas heat because the gas pipeline is lacking pressure. Apparently the origin of the gas is Texas and people there are also suffering from a cold snap that is draining the gas available.

This lack of heat for a population of residents who live in upscale, spacious homes is quite a surprise. I had always envied gas heat, but now I wonder. This man-made disaster does not look favorably at the town's infrastructure. We are only lucky that these cold snaps never last long in southern Arizona. There are people in the Chicago and Boston area who are suffering much more with cold and snow and ice than we ever will. My friends in Boston are saying that towns there have so much snow, they don't know where to put the plowed stuff now. (I guess dumping mounds of snow into the ocean wouldn't work?)

Kevin and I were lucky this time around. Our only discomfort was lacking water pressure during the early hours. Our electric house kept us warm.

But sadly I read that several people had died from this cold in Tucson. How many more are truly suffering may not be known for sure, as many of the people lacking gas heat may not get their gas turned back on until later tomorrow. Temperatures tomorrow will return to normal and hit the 60s again, great weather for a nice hike down to the border which I plan on leading with the hiking club.

This has proven to be one very harsh winter for most of the country. The Southeast is expecting another whomp this weekend, just in time for the SuperBore.