Saturday, May 21, 2005

I'm sitting out on the front patio early this bright Saturday morning. Chesley was off earlier to take part in some sort of Coastal Clean up project. She was accepted into the National Junior Honor Society and now has to accumulate a certain number of volunteer hours. The early morning light is so beautiful, and it is such a quiet and peaceful time before the rest of the worlds awakes and starts stirring. All I can hear is the hissing of the lawn sprinklers from the neighbor's house. The small planes haven't started taking off from the executive airpark down the road so it feel like I'm alone with the world. As I sit reading I start to notice a few mourning doves mourning around. I'm not sure what it is but they make me sad. Maybe it's just the name, or the sound they make, or perhaps that they seem so stupid. As I continue my morning reading I notice one of the young squirrels we started seeing after the hurricanes last year. I think that they were toddlers when the Hurricanes hit and their nest was knocked out of a tree. They were so small back then that we could barely see them hopping in the tall grass out in front. Now they have grown and it is getting harder to tell them apart from the other adult squirrels accept by the way they come down from the tops of the trees to sit on the lowest branch and chatter at us as we sit on the patio. As I watch him I ask what he's so excited about. It is then that I notice the other young one, and up above him in the oak tree is another squirrel, and look over on the roof next door there are two more. Wow, and as I look higher up in the other tree there are two more chasing each other in the topmost branches of that tree. That seems like a bunch of squirrels. Oh look, here comes a little chick a dee to feed at the bird feeder. And as I'm watching her I seem a Blue Jay fly up and perch on a branch. Here comes another jay, and now I can hear a couple more in the tree out towards the street. The noisy Blue Jays seem to have attracted a couple of mocking birds to add to the growing cacophony of sounds. I don't see them but I can hear the Crows just off in the distance. Probably over in the trees in the neighbor's back yard behind me. I'm somewhat startled by the number of animals that seem to be arriving. I'm still keeping an eye on that first squirrel as he is just above my head and there is this disquieting feeling that he may jump down at me. What was that noise? It sounded like something big flying over head. It was a blue heron or white egret grunting as it flew over head. I'm a little surprised I haven't seen the cardinal yet. He has been at Chelsey's window recently trying to peck his way in, or attacking his reflection in the window. Hm, I'm beginning to become a little concerned about all the wildlife collecting in the yard here. Is this some sort of rebellion, or are they all just happy to see me? Holy crap! This REALLY BIG Black crow just stopped in to visit the bird bath. Not really much of a bath to this bird, more like a small puddle to this guy.  I wish I had the camera ready, but he's gone before I can reach for it. It is suddenly very noisy and the collection of wildlife seems to keep getting larger and larger. I've seen or heard just about every kind of critter I'm used to seeing no. Just when I think everyone is here I begin to hear the Peacocks screaming in the distance. Oh, and there goes a red billed ibis of some sort. I'm sitting very still, not real sure what is going on right now. I'm beginning to think that the squirrels are playing some sort of game. The other day I noticed that the squirrels were sitting on the bird feeder helping themselves to the bird feed. That may not sound surprising, but a long time ago my brother gave Cindy this Wild Bill's electronic bird feeder that keeps the squirrels from getting to the bird feed. It runs off a little 9 volt transistor radio battery and the principle is when the squirrels try to climb down onto the feeder they touch the metal hanger that the feeder hangs from the tree on. The top of the feeder is also metal and when they touch that part of the feeder it completes an electrical circuit and the squirrel is very unhappy. It is a mild but startling shock. It only takes one or two shocks and the squirrels give up ever trying that again. After all the squirrels in the neighborhood became aware they just stopped trying and I guess I got pretty lax in keeping a fresh battery in it. So I our young squirrels hadn't ever experienced that shock and found that the bird feeder was a great place for food. Well I ran out and got a new battery and I haven't seen the squirrels out there since. So I'm thinking that maybe these young squirrels are mad at me for doing that and have decided to get me back  Somehow they put the word out and all the wildlife in the area are here to set me straight.  I wait to see when this coordinated attack will begin but nothing happens.  Slowly my managerie of animals starts to move on to somewhere else and slowly the rest of the world starts waking up around me.  I can hear someone with a leaf blower off in the distance.  A small plane flies overhead.  Someone out walking their dog passes by on the sidewalk.  Cars start driving by, a pickup trailing a boat rumbles up the street.  Time to go inside and get ready for the day.  Plenty of yardwork needing to be done.  8:27:49 AM

The Internet Streaming Receiver is real and it's here. Add to that the new Yahoo! Music service that let's you stream all the music you want from a selection one million songs for $4.99 a month.  The only piece that is left is the ubiquitous Wi-Fi. Once you have high speed broadband "everywhere", I think devices like the Torian InFusion and other portable devices that didn't make sense without high speed Internet access, will really take off.  The same thing will happen for applications and services too.  Imagine if the music services were more like the old Napster where you could find all kinds of old music that is part of the catalog of the big music companies that they can't or won't provide for copyright or business reasons.  This is the long tail again.  My dream is a time when you can take your portable Internet Streaming Receiver and listen to anything that has ever been recorded, anywhere, whenever you want.  The first step is devices like the Torian InFusion.  The next step is wireless broadband everywhere, or at least everywhere where I live. The last part may be the most difficult.  Under the current copyright law there are many works in the back catalog of the record companies that they "can't" release because they are unable to find the copyright holders.  At least that is one of the arguments I've heard brought out by the record companies. 7:43:19 AM

© Copyright 2006 Rod Kratochwill.