Still Here

We decided against the move to Geezer City.  It would get us out of the swamp for the winter, but living there would involve more work than living here.  Both of us are trying to make our lives easier, not harder.  Our helper lady has two more clients besides us, and one of them is planning to move away, so we might be able to engage her for more hours per week.  We still plan to move to an assisted living facility if we manage to outlive the people ahead of us on the waiting list.  Assisted living is something between those geezer apartments and a nursing home.  They feed you, do your laundry, and clean your apartment for you.  They also have nursing care available if the time ever comes when you need it and are still alive.  We aren't that far down the road yet, but let's face it, we're not getting any younger. 

All our stuff will remain on the Freehold until such time our daughter decides to sell the property.  Then it will all be hers to dispose of as she sees fit.  She has requested that we put the land in her name before we get too senile to make that decision.  We might do that somewhere down the road, but we're not there yet.  We have owned Beaglesonia since 1986, but we have only lived here since 2000.

We have both tried to minimize our medication.  I take two pills for blood pressure, one for fiber, and one for dizzy spells.  I also use two kinds of prescription eye drops for glaucoma, and another OTC one for dry eyes.  My wife only takes one blood pressure pill and Tylenol.  Different doctors have tried to get us to take more stuff, but we have managed to evade them so far.  We have read that Americans are generally over medicated, and we tend to believe it.  

cormorants.

 

Posted this in fb about a week ago, inspired by this spring's invasion of the Chicago River by cormorants.  Beagles responded:

Cormorants arrived here decades ago. They had not been seen here in living memory, and everybody thought it was a good thing, but it wasn't. They ate up all the fish and pooped them all over the place. Since they were federally protected, it was illegal for even the state DNR to use lethal controls. Fortunately, a loophole was found. They started coating their eggs with vegetable oil. This insured that the eggs would never hatch, but the cormorants didn't know that, so they wasted the whole breeding season trying to hatch them instead of laying more.

The treadmills in the exercise room face south over the river which is good because the treadmill is very boring.  I liked to watch the birds, in this case gulls. To me they kind of knit the city together diving and rising on columns of hot air, beautiful and graceful birds.  

But then a two or three years ago I began to notice other birds flying along the river east to west.  They were darker and  flew like they were in a hurry, no gentle gliding like gulls, they had long necks and looked like Stuka jets.  I googled around and turkey buzzards seemed a likely candidate, this is their turf, about the same size, but the resemblance was a little off.

This year they came in force.  They are native birds and they are in the burbs, but the Chicago River is new territory for them.  Well it was so filthy, and now it is pretty damn clean.  The second annual swim meet in the river is later this year.  

As you know I face the lake and in the mornings I could see them entering the river from the lake and flying in like a fleet of Stukas or those helicopters in Apocalypse Now.  (You could almost hear The Ride of the valkyries.)

Unlike gulls, who are not averse to a handout from a human, the cormorants ignore us completely.  They fly close to river and then dive beneath the surface and chase a fish a considerable distance before they emerge with a glint of silver.

Well I am smitten, but you will notice our county cousin is not.  Well we slickers are inclined to view all pigs as Porky and ducks as Donald.  So adorable.  

Google agrees that they have terrible and acidic poop which can kill trees and weaken steel bridges.  But as for eating fish, not so bad a thing because you are getting rid of old sick fish (just like us) and make way for younger fresher fish (those jerks wearing shorts when the temp is in the teens), culling the herd so to speak.  Nature is cruel.  The rabbit is happy when Mother Nature gives it more hoppity feet to outrun the fox, but not so happy to see her give the fox sharper teeth.  But I know Beagles used to fish the Cheboygan River and bring back dinner and I guess to a fisherman every fish a cormorant catches is one that the fisherman doesn't get to

I guess they are passing through on their migration, and only a few stay all year, though in time like Canada geese have learned, this is a nice town to toddle around in.  In the meantime I will be awaiting their return in the fall.