Category: hobbies

Cribbage Tournament at Iowa State Fair Again This Year!

The Iowa State Fair will again have the Cribbage Tournament this year! It’s on August 18 (the last day of the fair) from 11:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m at the Oman Family Youth Inn. Registration begins at 10:00 a.m.

What Does a Dickcissel Sound Like?

We walked the Terry Trueblood Trail the other day and ran into a couple of other bird watchers. They said they’ve seen many birds called dickcissels on the trail.

I couldn’t remember ever seeing or hearing a dickcissel. We have enough trouble catching a clear sight of goldfinches. Both birders said the name comes from the bird’s song. They said it sounds like the bird is saying “Dick, Dick, Dick.”

I’m not so sure. As it happened, I think we saw a few dickcissels that day. We think the bird doesn’t sound like it’s saying “Dick, Dick, Dick.” I think it’s more like “chirp, chirp, chirp.”

Anyway, I think I got a video of three dickcissels, along with a few other birds. Do you agree or disagree? And what do you think of the name “dickcissel” for a bird? I read one article written by someone who had a low opinion of how the bird got its name.

What are those things in the water? I think they’re fish.

Making Life in the Hotel Livable

We’ve been in the hotel a couple of weeks now. We’ll probably be here 2 months until our house is built. Making it livable is about keeping it simple.

While we were busy packing and moving out of our old house, we got away from regular habits that helped keep us happier and at least somewhat saner.

We’re working to get back to that.

Great Cribbage Tutorial for Beginners!

I’ve seen a couple of Cribbage videos on Huddle Around Games, which is a YouTube site dedicated to Cribbage as well as other games.

This one is a tutorial on how to play Cribbage for beginners. He calls himself Zulwarn, which is his name when he plays the online form of a computer Cribbage game called Cribbage Pro. I play (well, mainly lose) on Cribbage Pro, but not on line. I just play the computer, on Brutal level. I guess I like punishment because Brutal doesn’t make mistakes.

Zulwarn is funny and smart. He likes coffee.

Guys and Gals Birds

The other day we went birding on the Terry Trueblood Trail. You couldn’t ask for better weather. We saw a lot of birds paired off and checking into the nest boxes or building from scratch.

I don’t know how we got so lucky. We saw male and female red-wing blackbirds, tree swallows, sparrows, and goldfinches.

The difference between the guys and gals is that the female birds tend to be drab. It’s mainly for protection. The females don’t want to attract attention from predators. The males tend to be flamboyant, as if you didn’t know that from your own experience with humans.

The red-wing blackbird male has stunning red and yellow epaulets on its wings. The female is mostly brown.

The tree swallow male is startling bright greenish-blue. The female is a bit duller.

The goldfinch male is a loud yellow while the female is kind of drab olive.

And so on.

House Finch Nesting in Our Artificial Christmas Tree!

A couple days ago, Sena found a bird’s nest in our front porch artificial Christmas tree. The small nest is made from the clippings of Sena’s ornamental grasses. It has 4 small eggs, which are white with dark specks.

We could hear a bird singing while we were sitting in the house and it always sounded close by. We could see it flitting around but we couldn’t identify it. We thought it might be nesting in our magnolia tree at first but Sena couldn’t find one.

I’ve scared a bird a couple of times lately and it always seemed to be flying off our front porch from somewhere. I never thought to peek in the little fake Christmas tree sitting in a big pot.

So, I got the critter cam out. It hasn’t been getting any use since we solved the problem of our yard drain grate lids popping off by having them screwed down last year. We never did find out what flipped the lids.

Anyway, Sena suggested moving the pot with the tree around to face the front of the porch and set up the critter cam facing the tree. Both the tree and the camera on a tripod are somewhat sheltered from the wind behind one of the columns.

Moving the tree confused the bird a little because it had a little trouble finding it at first. We got a good enough video to identify it as a female house finch. We don’t know when she laid the eggs, but they take a couple of weeks to incubate.

We had been trying to keep birds off our porch by setting out a couple of fake snakes. The birds ignored them. And I guess they don’t mind nesting in fake trees, either.

The nest is probably in a fairly safe spot on the porch. Crows and other predatory birds fly around, but might be less likely to see it from the air. Maybe we should get a fake dog.

We’ll try to keep our intrusions to a minimum, because it tends to tip off big, hungry birds. On the other hand, we would like to get enough footage to make short videos of the progress of the nestlings.

Still Working on That Shower Juggle!

I’ve been working on that shower juggle pattern for a year now. Progress is slow but a couple of days ago, I noticed it got better when I held my arms pretty rigidly within the pane of glass. You can still tell I tend to morph between a half shower and a full shower.

It’s also called a circle juggle because that’s sort of what it looks like.

I can do on average about 5-7 throws before I start dropping balls on my head. I notice also that as long as I stay in the pane and focus on the arc throw at the top of the arc, I can juggle the shower with pretty much any set of juggling balls.

I think the Svengoolie T-shirt gives me good luck.

The Demonic Shrilling Chicken Rematch

Remember that Shrilling Chicken I tried to juggle a few days ago? Well, I got my revenge for the sore finger it gave me. This is the message to chickens who peck me.

Chicken, meet your juggler!

This time, I put on gloves along with my usual safety goggles to prevent further injuries from the satanic cluck-meister.

I guess I taught that bird a lesson.

Jim Updates His Workout and Adds a Step Counter!

Since we added the step platform, I’ve been wondering how to count steps when I use it because for some reason my smartphone step counter won’t count steps when I try to use it on the platform.

Sena got a handy step counter and it works! It works if you have it in your pocket or wear it on neck with a lanyard.

I usually practice juggling patterns as a warm up to exercising. I’m still working on the shower pattern. Progress is slow.

My exercise routine takes a half hour. Following that I sit for mindfulness meditation for 30 minutes. We are still using our anti-Peloton exercise bike. I do one leg stands for a minute on each leg. I still do floor yoga, body weight squats, planks, and dumbbells. I still count my own steps on the platform: 50 steps alternating right and left leg four times (200 steps). The counter number varies between 170-200 or so.

As a review, a recently published study found that climbing 5 flights of stairs (approximately 50 steps) was associated with a lower risk of ASCVD types independent of disease susceptibility (Song et al, see reference below). There was a threshold effect of stair climbing in the study, meaning the benefit was lost if you went over a certain number of “floors.” Going over 15 or 20 didn’t gain much for subjects. A flight was 10 stair steps.

Step up!

Reference:

Song Z, Wan L, Wang W, Li Y, Zhao Y, Zhuang Z, Dong X, Xiao W, Huang N, Xu M, Clarke R, Qi L, Huang T, Daily stair climbing, disease susceptibility, and risk of atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease: A prospective cohort study, Atherosclerosis (2023)