Tuesday's Teaser

I listen to almost as many audiobooks as I read books, so some of these will not have page numbers!

Grab your current read
Open to a random page
Share two (2) “teaser” sentences from somewhere on that page

BE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS! (make sure that what you share doesn’t give too much away! You don’t want to ruin the book for others!)Share the title & author, too, so that other TT participants can add the book to their TBR Lists if they like your teasers!

White Night by Jim Butcher - the 9th of the Dresden Files.

Page 169

I lifted my face and the blasting rod to the sky, opened my throat and in a stentorian bellow shouted, "Fuego!" Fire exploded from the tip of the blasting rod, a column of white-hot flame as thick as my hips.

Where in the World Wednesday

In the spirit of St. Patrick's Day, here is a picture of Ireland. I very much want to visit Ireland and already have my vacation planned out!

This is Clonmacnoise, in county Offaly.

Raccoon Rescue

Well, I was a little busy last week rescuing one of the raccoons that comes to my backyard to eat. On Friday night, I'd noticed that she was limping very badly; she could hardly walk and at one point she curled up next to the food bowl and for a bit I thought she had died or was dying. But about an hour later I checked again and she was eating and then limped off. I borrowed a trap from NBCR and on Sunday night I stayed up all night hoping to catch her, but the only ones that showed up were a larger raccoon and the opossum. So I went to bed at 6AM and got up at 11 to try and find a vet that would treat her and a rehabilitator to care for her. I made calls most of the day but none of the rehabilitators returned my call. The vet I found was leaving at noon on Tuesday taking his kids somewhere for Spring Break. So I had a very narrow window in which I could get her treated. So Monday night I stayed up again and finally caught her about 4:30AM. I worried that the other raccoon or opossum would try and hurt her - she was almost too big for the trap and couldn't move - so I fretted about what to do. I finally decided to sleep on the couch with the window open so I could hear if anything went amiss. So after 2 and a half hours of sleep, I was up taking her to the vet. Besides a dislocated front paw, she had numerous wounds; she'd been attacked by something. The Doc cleaned her up, but couldn't put a splint on because in his experience, the wild animals do not tolerate splints like cats and dogs. The next problem in my raccoon rescue saga was that the vet had put her in a larger cage (the trap was too small to keep her in) and it would not fit in my car. So I had to wait until 4:30PM to call my friend Ruth - she works nights and is up by 4:30 - to see if she could help me out with her SUV. We made it to the vet with about a minute to spare before they closed, but finally got her home. She stayed in the garage until Wednesday when I could take her to the rehabilitator, luckily she fit in the other car. So she is recovering with a licensed rehabilitator and in a couple of weeks he will call me and we will release her back into our greenbelt. So here is a picture I took of her Sunday night, eating on the back porch, with Newman watching through the glass in the door.

Friday's Feature

Formula 1 season has started!!!!

Formula 1 is back! Today was the first practice session for the first Grand Prix of the season in Bahrain. New rules, the biggest change is the refueling ban, new drivers - Bruno Senna, Lucas di Grassi, Nico Hulkenberg, Vitaly Petrov and Karun Chandhok, comeback drivers - Michael Schumacher and Pedro de la Rosa and new teams - Lotus F1 Racing (not related to *the* Lotus team in any way but sharing the name), Campos Meta, Virgin Racing, BMW Sauber and HRT. Montreal and Spa are back on the calendar and the Korean GP at Yeongam is on the calendar, pending approval. It will be an interesting year!

Thursday's Thoughts - follow up

I know, I know, it's Friday, but I had to add another picture to yesterday's blog...last night I checked the wildlife cams again and saw...wildebeest and ELEPHANTS!!!!!!

Thursday's Thoughts

I've been checking the African wildlife webcams hoping to see wild animals with no luck until last night and this morning. I wonder what changed, if anything.

The Orpen cam is in NE South Africa, close to the Mozambique border in Kuger National Park.

The Nossob cam is in the Kgaiagadi Transfrontier National Park in the Northern tip of South Africa inches from the border with Botswana.

The Satara cam is not far from the Orpen cam in NE South Africa, close to the Mozambique border in Kuger National Park.

Where in the World Wednesday

Where in the World Wednesday has come again. This week it is Aachen, Germany. One of my favorite pictures from our trip to Europe in 2006. The stained glass in this cathedral takes my breath away every time. For a size perspective, check out the person standing at the very bottom of the picture in the back, middle of the picture, near the second of the gold reliquaries. He puts this into a whole new perspective, doesn't he?