We voted!!

So we voted today. Took advantage of the early voting opps here in TN. We drove by the place at 10:15 and they opened at 10. The line was about 40 people. We ran errands and went about about 10:55 and the line was the same. It took us 50 min to get out of there. This was EARLY voting. Good thing I took a manuscript I need to review. Got in a good read. The weather was nice too.

The postcard I sent Bec in mid-Sept from Mexico arrived today. Talk about snail mail!!

This evening I walked the dogs. Bec has to be here to get the harness on Goldie since I can't ever get within diving distance of her. The walk was a disaster. Well it was ok until the end when both of them started zigzagging and I stepped on Goldie twice in trying not to fall down. It works better when Bec doesn't go.

Gotta love working at home!!

Antsy, antsy

Since Bets was antsy, and I've been lazy, here's a quickie:

So we've been married 2 whole years already. Holy Moly. And to make it better, Brian and Kelly got baby Ha today as well. Extra special day. And to make it even better, Bob and Jane Austin are celebrating 63 years today!

I finally got up pictures from Mexico here:

http://www.pbase.com/shoeman/yucatan_sept_2008

I'm also going to ask the Mayor of Nashville if he'd be interested in starting a "Lights Out" program. Basically during spring and fall migration you get all the big buildings to voluntarily turn off most of their lights at night, saving a lot of electricity and probably 20,000 birds or more a year. The mayor is dying to make Nashville "green" and we've got some good things going for us for him to like say, "heck yeah," so I feel pretty confident we can pull this off. It's a win-win for everyone. The building managers save a lot of $$, birds have a better chance of not killing themselves at night, and all the partners in between look good (plus I look good and would probably get on TV for something positive). Good thing this has happened in several big cities and that the Building Managers Association is fine with contacting local building managers and getting them to turn off thier lights on certain ranges of dates that we give them. Keep your fingers cross.

Just another day on the job:)

Bye bye Holly's!!!

2 posts in 2 days, it must be going to rain! No rain, but you get 2 posts.

So in my first free weekend day (Saturday), I decided it was time to destory the holly bushes that framed our house. I got 2 arborvitae from Andy in GA the week before I went to Mexico (I was in ATL for a meeting that week) and we'd planned this destruction. Doesn't take long with a good chainsaw!!


The process. Good times!!


First one almost gone.


All gone. The house looks completely different. I love it! We love it! Plus we cut out 2 spirea bushes that were next to the holly's. We didn't plant the new stuff yet, but will soon. Amazing! What a difference. Like a whole new house.

So after I cut the holly's, but cut the "big" dogwood in the backyard that was as dead as Reagan. We had a fire in the pit that night and burned much of the dogwood. We toasted to the tree. Sad it died.

After I cut that I decided to split a lot of the wood that I had gathered (trees around the block were cut and I loaded up my truck back in the spring) for firewood for our fire pit and for someone at work who has a fire place. Anyway, the wood is super dry since it hasn't rained here since 2003. All went very well. Didn't need much effort to split the logs. I was 80% done when the large chunk of one log came flying at me like a 100mph fastball. It hit my hand (which was fine) and my shin (not fine). I instantly had a knot that stuck out about a half inch. It hurt bad. We iced it a couple times and some McDonalds ice cream later and all is well. I will likely have a nasty bruise for weeks to come though. I can't remember the last time I was in such pain. Good thing I will never have to give birth, because I'm a wimp. Bec gave me credit for not passing out. I think I'm insulted. It wasn't that bad. Well for 5 min it was awful.


Bec and I went for a hike on Thursday morning at Cedars of Lebanon State Park. Saw holes in the ground to an underground stream, which is dry since it hasn't rained here since 2003.

Mexico pictures

So I hear rumors of people wanting to see picts, however I haven't gotten any comments or complaints. In the end, mi esposa made me put up pictures before I get out the chainsaw and cut down some trees this morning. The picts are in no order, but I'll put a slide show together to show cool picts from many places we went and orient you guys on where I was.


Yup, wild flamingos in NW Yucatan near Progreso.


Uxmal (pronounced Ush-mal) ruins. I got sent there one afternoon with a tour group. It rained, but I did spend the afternoon birding, hearing stories about the ruin, and had dinner and saw the evening light show (in pouring rain) with 4 Japanese women from Buenas Aires, and an old couple from Argentina. Only one of them spoke a tiny bit of English (all spoke espanol). Made for an interesting afternoon and evening.


Brown Pelican. Just an awesome shot. What do you think Brian?


Ball fields at the Coba ruins. There was another one of these opposite this one. The teams here fought for the Sun god and the Moon god. Whoever put the ball through the hole first (which could take a couple days as you couldn't use your hands and the slope is ~50%) was sacrificed. It was an honor to be killed for your god.


The view at Pez Maya, where we stayed for 5 nights. Really cool place. Plus we had fresh fish (and beer) for lunch that day!


The only decent picture of us releasing baby Green Sea Turtles (and one Loggerhead).


Yucatan Vireo.


Here is el palacio. It had 4 walls, a thatch roof, and occassional electricity, but we did have to put up with a lot of stupid foreigners, I mean tourists.


The view from el palacio wasn't bad when the beach wasn't covered with tourists and local fisherman's boats.


Caught this Royal Tern tossing a fish he'd just caught. Sweet!


Pict from the "canal" the Mayans dug that connected freshwater lagoons. This is what we floated down for an hour before we drank some beer.


Everyone knows this bird. Great Blue Heron on the beach.

I have about 4000 more pictures, but will post some on my pbase site eventually. Lots to go through.

What did I do in Mexico?

I got home just fine yesterday with extra space in my bags (somehow)!  I did trash a lot of t-shirts and left extra stuff the crews can use like sunscreen, bug spray, and hand wipes.  

I took some 3000 pictures or more.  Gonna take a while to go through and pull some out and post them, but here's a few of the things I did in my 3 weeks in Mexico:

-swam in underground cenotes (underground lakes that had collapsed roofs), some we got to by a 9 km narrow gauge rail car being pulled by a burro and we then climbed down a stairwell straight down into a hole into the ground to swim in near darkness.

-swam in open water cenotes after walking through jungle for a couple hours while birding

-swam in a lagoon where we heard spider and howler monkeys in the woods, but we never saw any.  next time.

-saw an anteater (fresh roadkill sadly).  very cool critter though.

-took a boat ride through freshwater lagoons to a small Mayan ruin and a dock where we jumped in this manmade canal (made by the Mayans) that connected lagoons. The canal had a fairly strong flow of crystal clear water and we floated through mangroves and marshes, we did see a baby crocodile (from the boat on the way back).  Once we floated to the boat for the ride back, we of course drank cerveza and had botanas (snacks).  By far one on of the coolest things I've ever done.

-visited 4 different Mayan ruins, including the horribly touristy Chichen Itza, but we didn't see the ruins in Tulum, which is the town where we got groceries for basically the whole trip!  Next time.

-slept in hammocks most of the time (which are wonderful to sleep in, especially when you have the ocean breeze and can fall asleep to the waves crashing every night)

-took a lot of siestas, bucket baths to candle light, and flushed toilets with ocean water (woods are much more pleasant for potty breaks).

-second place we stayed (days 12-17) was an old resort that was destroyed by hurricane dean, not rebuilt, and sold to the refuge.  we had screens on the windows of the bombed out shell of a cabana, but it was the nicest beach ever.  interestingly the whole place was designed such that all rainwater landing on the roof is collected into a cistern underground, which is the water we pulled up in small buckets and used to flush and bathe with.  It was pretty clean, not drinkable, but really cool.  I wanted to climb into the cistern to see how big it was, but didn't. 

-banded about 500 birds of 47 species.  Incl some really cool stuff.

-released baby sea turtles on the beach and helped them get to the ocean one night.  It was thrilling to do and see, but really sad knowing all of them would probably die soon.  Gotta give them a chance.

-swam at one of the prettiest beaches I've ever seen (that second place we stayed) and watched barracuda swim by me only 15 ft away.  I got out of the water shortly thereafter.

-made fun of stupid foreign turistas (I wasn't a tourist) with my mexican crew.

-learned a lot of spanish, but I can only mostly understand what people say rather than speak it.  I try.

- I tried all the local Yucatan foods incl papadzules, cerviche (with shrimp, snail, and octopus), tortas, salbutes, panuches, pork tacos (just how they are made), and other things I can't think of at the moment.  I basically ate what everyone else got since I knew it'd be ok.  The cerviche was best and I had it 3 times.  Only one of them was really stinking awesome though.

-Only needed imodium the last couple days due to something I ate that made me feel bloated and full for 2 days, but mostly the food didn't bother me and it was all incredible.  I was actually more regular then ever while on this trip.  Too much info??

-I craved milk a bit.  We had cheese, but no milk.  I tried this NutriLeche packed stuff, which tasted awesome, but it almost immediately upset my stomach.

-I lost 8 lbs, mostly from the fact we ate a small breakfast, had botanas much of the day and only one meal at about 2pm.  Sometimes I had a sandwich for dinner, sometimes a banana, and sometimes nothing.  Just wasn't hungry so my caloric intake was down probably 40%.  I couldn't finish a sandwich and small fry for dinner last night.  Stomach shrunk a lot.

-grew a mean beard, with way more white than I had last winter.  Humph.

-drank a lot of coke.  nothing better than an ice cold coke when it is hot out, which is was every day.

-found out my deodorant doesn't work anymore.  I had a permanent funk for 3 weeks.

-I did get a little burned out on not understanding what everyone was saying sometimes.I got better at understanding the people I was with all the time, but anyone else might have been speaking greek.  I can say "can you please speak more slowly" en espanol.  Used that a lot. Sometimes the whole crew spoke spanish and I was a bit out of touch.  who knows what they were saying about the gringo!  they were all really nice and I know have a contact for staying in veracruz and merida.

-got a much better understanding of life in poor rural Mexican towns (which is most places I saw).  pretty simple lives, not generally wasteful of resources or anything.  pretty easy life, if you have some $ for food and water.  really makes you appreciate all the things we take for granted, like running water that isn't stored in a tank on your roof and that you pay someone to fill because there is no water running through towns, electricity 24 hrs a day (in the one place we had it from 6pm-midnight only), etc. 

-got a much better understanding of how completely wasteful American society really is. I knew we were wasteful, but when you live basically off the grid for 3 weeks and use so few resources and it is all just fine and dandy, you realize how pathetic our society is.  not that I don't like hot showers and toilets that haven't been flooded out by the ocean and have very stinky plumbing, or like toilets where you can flush TP and not put it in a trash can, but lots of things we use and do everyday are just ridiculous.  I didn't miss the news (I heard a hurricane hit galveston or something and nashville didn't have gas for a while), didn't miss TV, didn't miss traffic, gossip, radio, or anything.  We got ice every few days to keep stuff cold, cooked simple meals that were awesome, and did a lot of nothing in the afternoons and evenings.  It is nice to charge my iPod once in a while, but otherwise it is pretty easy and cheap living where we were.   It'd be pretty easy for me to move mostly off the grid (running water is preferred) and live a much more simple life.  Yes it mellowed me out a lot.  Certainly a life changing experience.

-nice to be home to the zoo we call a home.

-better suit up and drive to work so I can get back to the usual, which stinks.  Bec doesn't have clinicals Tues, Wed, and Thurs, so I'm going to take a couple more days off and we'll go hiking and whatever else.  Was away for a long time, but it was overall an incredible experience.

Adios for now.  

We had a good week around here.  I spent a few days in the well baby nursery, which I enjoyed.  This week I'll be in the postpartum unit.  Goldie has recovered from her surgery and will get her stitches out on Thursday.

Yesterday we loaded up and headed downtown for the Mutt Strut and Dog Days which is a fundraiser for Nashville's Humane society.  We met up with some friends and had a great time.  The walk was about a mile around Centennial Park.  Afterward, we wandered around Dog Days which had lots of booths set up with everything that you could ever want for a dog.  We also got lots of free treats.  

Here are a few pictures of our day.

N and G on the walk with friend Beatrice:

Scott and Elizabeth with all the dogs:

Bea meeting Ryman:

My babies after the morning of excitement.  They were pooped.

 

I talked to Scott again this week. He's still having a great time.  He'll be home on Sunday and I think will be off work for a few days.  Maybe the next post will be something exciting...from Mexico!

He's off...and what you get for your money

After much packing and repacking, Scott left for Mexico yesterday and arrived there midafternoon.  In case you're wondering, he did the packing and I repacked to make it all fit.  I must say, I'm a pretty darn good packer.  Makes me want to pack up and head somewhere fun.  Instead of sunning my self in Mexico, though, I'm studying for my first exams of the semester.  Life is just not fair (See Mom, I did listen to you when you mentioned that throughout my childhood.)  

Scott gave me a call to let me know he arrived, but that's the last time I expect to hear from him for a week or so as he doesn't have access to a phone in the woods.  He was off to get some groceries and some rope for his hammock.  I suppose at this point in time he's fending off mosquitoes and trying out his Spanish skills on the locals.  Hopefully he hasn't slipped up yet and had any water to drink.  That might be really unpleasant.

So, on to the next little story to which I alluded in my eye-catching title- what you get for the money.  I advised Scott to just get money from an ATM in Mexico rather than use a exchange agent as you lose less to fees and you get the exact exchange rate.  I've done it before and it works out nicely provided you are in a touristy area.  I did mention that it helps to know the approximate exchange rate as you have to get the money out in whatever the local currency is (and you'll need to do the conversion math yourself).  I even illustrated with a story of the intrepid backpackers Betsy and Rebecca making their way across Europe and stopped in Salzburg, Austria (where they had the fabulous "Sound of Music" tour) and got what seemed to be around $100 US from an ATM.  Soon, however, they realized that the large amount of Austrian shillings was only worth about $8 US.  Not quite enough to cover a night at the hostel or a meal or anything in Austria, really.  All that to say that when Scott called, he told me he had gotten several thousand pesos out of the ATM and used the cash to buy a bottle of water an a snack which cost him 2/3 of his pesos.  Turns out, he withdrew about $5.  He did better his second time around.