Monday 21 May 2007

[Edited Sat 1p] Today Bud, Joyce, Miranda, Mom, and I went to Chuck's ranch. Natalie or Kris may have gone too, but Nat is in fact sick, has been for days! Kris thinks she's got swollen tonsils or glands or something. She is going to take Nat to the walk-in clinic and stay home with her.

Chuck's Bluefield Ranch Mitigation Bank (i mentioned how it works in a 2006 post here) is coming along pretty well. It is about 2,000 acres of what seems mostly prairie and wood lands that Chuck is trying to restore to it's primordial glory. He and his workers have planted more than 100,000 plants that used to be there but aren't any more, and another 20,000 plants arrive today. He is also trying to restore the wildlife that used to be there, which means destroying all the wild hogs, and reintroducing quail and big turtles. The area, once a part of a 40,000 acres tract owned by 2 brothers, used to have a major trail go through it, and once had a 80' square fort on it, a sawmill with narrow-guage railroad back to the woods, etc. most traces of those things are now gone, and he allows archaeologists in to dig through it all. i think he said they found a huge number of bottles buried near the fort that will be excavated. we spent several hours driving around looking at it. we saw dozens of quail, including 2 little baby quail, several scoford tortices, and 2 eagle's nests and a mexican eagle. the neatest bird was a northern shrike, which Chuck was saying has adapted to living with humans to the point of catching bugs and impaling them on barbs of barb wire, then coming back later to eat them. just then we saw a shrike sitting on a fence post, drove up to where he was, and sure enough, there was a grasshopper impaled on a barb!

For dinner we all were supposed to go to Sonny's Ribs for dinner but Kris' family cancelled because Natalie was sick, so it was just M&D and Bud's family and me. For 50¢ more i could have changed my rib order to "all you can eat" like my father and brother did, but i'm actually not such a fan of big hunks of meat so i settled for 1 helping which i knew would be sufficient. it was good but not spectacular; i guess i ordered to wrong kind of ribs because would prefer "fall off the bone" type rather than solid meat you have to gnaw off. this dinner was supposed to be a send-off for Laura, who leaves early tomorrow morning.

When we got home, it was decided by Bud's family to get some movies from this development's clubhouse, who keeps a supply donated by residents. the library would have been closed but Mom had a key as she is on the board. i did not pick a movie but each of the 3 of them did...but then i reminded Bud and Miranda that the season finale of Heroes was on tonight, so unbeknownst to the others, it was resolved that we would watch that and movies would not start until at least 10p. i haven't mentioned Mom's jigsaw puzzle yet. Bud, Miranda, and I walked to the clubhouse and we looked at her current jigsaw puzzle while we waited for Mom and Joyce to drive there in the golf cart. The clubhouse has all sorts of rules, some of which are nutty; for example, no one under 35 is allowed to play pool, and non-members are never ever allowed to swim in the deluxe pool or play a round on the golf course. one rule is that for any guest to use the facilities, he or she is supposed to have a guest badge. since i was staying longer, we had got me one, perhaps friday evening, the first time i worked for a little while on her jigsaw puzzle, but bud's family didn't really intend to. so when Mom caught up with us, she about had a heart attack finding Miranda shooting pool, with her a board member and all! so we got our movies and tried to sneak out on the down low.

Bud and Mom took me back to Kris' after the Heroes finale (which was a bit disappointing) and went in with me to visit with Kris, Nat, and Laura, and we had a good time chatting. Mom and Bud got to hug Laura one last time before she left, but i put mine off since i was spending the night there. after Bud and Mom left and the girls finished the movie they were watching before we arrived, Laura and i had a cigarette together, but again we put off a farewell hug, as her cat Chaka, a big black cat with white whiskers and toes who now lives with Kris, was comfortable on my lap.