What's new
DiscussionHQ - General Discussions

DiscussionHQ is a general discussion forum that has opened December 2024!
We provide a laid back atmosphere and our members are down to earth. We have a ton of content and fresh stuff is constantly being added. We cover all sorts of topics, so there's bound to be something inside to pique your interest. We welcome anyone and everyone to register & become a member of our awesome community.

That's the Way It Crumbles, Cookie-Wise

4/16/26
The bluebird pair brought 2 babies to the deck today. They were several days out of the nest. Only 2 would be par for the course for them, but maybe there are more. I'll keep checking.

The male bluebird entered my bluebird house earlier this morning. Bluebird males check out several possible houses and show them to the females, but the female is the one who finally decides.
 
4/16/26
The bluebird pair brought 2 babies to the deck today. They were several days out of the nest. Only 2 would be par for the course for them, but maybe there are more. I'll keep checking.

The male bluebird entered my bluebird house earlier this morning. Bluebird males check out several possible houses and show them to the females, but the female is the one who finally decides.
As it should be! ;)
 
As it should be! ;)
Yes. The female builds the nest all by herself. Occasionally the male will bring a pine needle, but she puts it where it belongs. In fairness, the males do more than their share when it comes to feeding the little ones.
 
Last edited:
Sphaerobolus stellatus ("sphere thrower") The Artillery Fungus (aka, Shotgun Fungus)


Washing this Ranger has evolved into a 3-day learning experience. One day I might rival Cliffy Claven as an encyclopedia of useless information.

When you do a good job washing a vehicle you are forced to inspect every square inch. There are hundreds of little black spots on this truck. Some so small they are only noticed by feeling with your fingertips. I meant to get them all off. They might be what's left of old spores from the Artillery Fungus (see above video). I always assumed the specks were left by bugs.

As soon as the truck dried off, hundreds of little white flies congregated all over it. Turns out they are a species of water bugs, attracted to highly reflective light sources, in particular red and black (Go Dawgs?).

"Research shows that red reflective surfaces create a specific, highly attractive horizontal polarization pattern that strongly mimics that of water. Water insects (including bugs that may appear white or light-colored) are "red-blind" in this context but react heavily to the light reflected from shiny red surfaces." :confused:

Next. There appeared to be no molding around the windshield. Just an empty channel. Did they forget to install the molding? No, they now glue windshields to the body and leave a crack around the side. There is tiny molding attached to the glass. But urethane glue is what makes a watertight seal.

This crack fills with numerous seeds, oak blossoms, pine needles, dead bugs, and various other decayed matter. It can be forced out with water from a hose. This actually may be a good thing because that old rubber molding was one of the first things to deteriorate, and it just traps moisture and causes rust. Trash in the channel traps moisture also, but that puts the onus on the owner to wash it.

Finally, this truck does not like to be washed. Various lights start flashing. It appears to be especially ticklish around the door handles. You need the key fob to open the doors and the tailgate, but apparently you have to hide the fob to wash it. If I hide the fob, will it then think I'm trying to break in and start tooting its horn? Some cars now have a "washing mode" setting. You only have to memorize the breadcrumb steps to set it up on the infotainment system.

There is much, much more, but this is getting 'way too long. As soon as I get the tires washed and shined, I may post a picture. Meanwhile, it's lawnmowing time again.
 
Last edited:
(4/21/26) Tuesday

A third baby bluebird showed up. I think that's all. The female was there too, but left just before I got the camera going. Yesterday one of the little ones took a bath in the red jar lid. So cute. 😍


Sorry for the poor quality. Camera phone has a "fake" zoom. :(
 
Back in March another power outage caused both my new and old desktops to shut down. When I finally turned the old one back on it was running very slowly, for example---one hour just to restart. The Settings Menu in Win 10 didn't work at all.

This kept bothering me, because the old pc never caused a problem in 11 years. It waited faithfully until I got everything transferred to the new one before it started to die. :cry: The least I could do for it in return, is try to find out what specifically was causing the problem.

In the last 3 days I have learned more Windows 10 workarounds than Carter had Liver Pills. Then immediately forgot most of them, but at least I know they exist now. I finally found a 3rd-party app, CrystalDiskInfo, that monitors the health of HD and SS drives. It indicated a failing hard drive, with one uncorrectable error. I think that means information on one sector could not be recovered. My guess is some of the Windows 10 files were in corrupted sectors?

Learning how to replace the hardware on a pc has been on my bucket list for years. I'm tempted to use this old one for practice, if I can find the identical parts. Modifying equivalent parts to fit is above my paygrade. I've also been wanting to try Linux OS. I'll think about it tomorrow.
 
Last edited:

Users who are viewing this thread

Back
Top