A Common Criminal

The primary reason that we have been telling everyone that we moved across the country is to be closer to our families. This is a lie. The real reason that we moved, nay, had to move, from Washington State is that Mary is a common criminal.

In 2010 when Mary was back in Philly with the kids and I was in Sequim, a couple of older women wearing drab calve-length skirts, white blouses buttoned to the top, black orthopedic shoes, and thick horn rimmed glasses, came knocking at the door. I opened the door. In low monotone voices they held up a photo and asked, "Excuse me sir, do you know this person?"

I looked down a saw a photo of Mary crouched down behind a bookshelf. I hesitated, then asked, "Well, maybe, it's hard to make out a face behind the big stack of fiction. Why do you want to know?"

"We have our reasons and we'll ask the questions." said the tall one. The short one smirked. The tall one said "Does this person that you may or may not know live here?"

"My wife lives here, as do our three kids, but they are not here now"

"That's convenient. Do you know when they will be back?

"Ummm...they are on an open ended visit to the east coast. They'll be back later this summer, I don't know exactly when."

"Fine. We'll come back later." they said. They turned, walked through our front gate, and rode off on their vintage 1965 Schwinn Breeze 3-Speed Women's bikes with big baskets on the front.

I went inside and called Mary right away. I got her on the phone and told her about the strange interlude that I just had with a couple of very strange women.

"Damn. They found me."

"Who found you?"

"The library."

"The library?"

"Yeah, I owe them some money."

"Well that's no big deal, I'll walk down to the library and write them a check."

"That won't help. You didn't get to close to them did you? You could probably take out Margret, but Stumpy bites."

"What, you know these people? Stumpy?"

"Yeah, Margret and Stumpy are library detectives. They've been after me for a while."

"What?"

"We need to talk."

So over the next 4 hours and forty-seven minutes, Mary laid out all of her altercations with the library enforcement officers. It turns out the scene from the Woody Allen movie where the police tell Wood Allen "to come out with your hands up and kick the book in front of you" was based on a real life event that Mary had with Margret and Stumpy back in Philly. Apparently, that is where Mary learned that Stumpy bites.

After learning about all of Mary's library problems, we decided that it would be easier to pick up and move, than to try to come clean back in Washington. So, when Mary and the kids returned from vacation in the summer of 2010, we quickly loaded up a trailer and moved Mary and the kids into hiding in West Chester. We put Mary into a treatment program and put an ankle bracelet on that would shock her if she got within 200' of a public library.

All is well, or so we thought. Last week, William and I went down to the West Chester public library to checkout a few books. It seems that Mary has gotten a new account using the names of the children. When William and I walked in and handed the librarian our card, red lights started flashing and the doors to the building automatically locked. Margret and Stumpy dropped down from the ceiling repelling on long ropes with night vision goggles and red-laser beam bar code readers attached to the belts of their drab tweed skits.

"Well, Mr. Rogers, we meet again" Margret said.

"This must be William. Come with me." She pointed to me and said, "You stay here with Beatrice." This time Stumpy smiled, revealing a grill with little golden books inlaid in the front teeth. Then she grabbed my arm with a grip that would impress Pop-eye. I looked down at her wrist and saw a tattoo that said "It's a book bust - Bitches!"

"Beatrice?" I snickered. The smile went away then she leaned over and bit my elbow.

In the back room they told William that if he didn't rat out his mom he wouldn't be able to check out any more Animorphs or dinosaur books. He screamed as if he were having bamboo spikes driven under his fingernails. "I'll tell you anything, just let me have my card back!" William cried. 

A half hour later, they are hauling Mary out of the house, bite marks on her elbows. The total from her West Chester rap sheet is $55.10. They haven't calculated what she owes in Washington State, but it is sure to balance out the state budget. If you see Mary out and about, and it looks like she is heading to a public library, please help her out by taking her to Starbucks or something. Do anything you can to keep her away from the library, as it never works out well when she goes there.

See her mug shots here. 

Russell

Website Update

Website update

I am starting to get the hang of the software for my website and have been thinking more about how to organize it. With the Apple service, I created two different websites, one for the family and for the bike club. This of course resulted in two different blogs. With this new site I can't really think of a good reason to maintain two different blogs. When you get right down to it, I could have a separate bike blog, family blog, plant blog, soccer blog so on and so fourth. However, I think that would be cumbersome. Instead, I have decided to merge the family blog and the FABC blog into a new blog called, Le Blog. When I post a family related blog, I'll let family and friends now, and when I do a cycling blog, I let my cycling friends know. Also new is an index for blog entries (on the side bar to the right), which is nothing but a simple list of post from newest to oldest.

Flying Abalone Bike Club website.

The Flying Abalone Bike Club has always be an ill defined conceptual model consisting of a loose confederation of my friends who like to ride bikes, with most of our members working in shellfish, and further still most of those working with abalone. Now that I'm on the east coast, in isolation of all the Flying Abs, I think the conceptual model has become even more ill defined. One thing that I really miss in the northwest is a resource like Gene Bisbee's BikingBis.com. His site is an excellent central location for all things relating to Northwest cycling. I especially miss his ride calendar. There are few similar things here in the Delaware Valley that comes close to what Gene has done. So, I think I might transform the FABC mission to something similar for our region. I'll have to think about how to organize such a thing.

Photos

To the right you will see a heading called "Galeries." Listed below it are photo collections for family, art and plants. Just click on the gallery that you want to see and start browsing. The plants photos have two directories, one with thumbnails photos for each family of plants that I have identified and the other is a simple list of all the families of plants found in Pennsylvania with a link to the gallery of photos for that family.

Most of March and April I have spent birding and botanizing. I've been visiting a local place called the Stroud Reserve, which is only about 3 miles away. I'll post more about that later. As time allows, I'll create other pages as I had on the last website. But for now, the way it is now will have to do.

In the mean time, here is a painting by our friend Nancy Stroud from the small collection of art that Mary and I have. Check out the others in the" Art on N Franklin Street" gallery to the right, then go to the Moore-Rogers Collection. I think you will agree that I have some talented friends. 

Let me know what you think, or if there are ways to improve it, or if there is something you would like to see.

Russell

Ride lots, stop often 

Soccer Season?

Major League Soccer has been underway now for almost a month. Today Steve and I went to the third home game of the year for the Philadelphia Union. 

Up until today, we have not had much to be happy about, other than our intrinsic need to be present at the games. Not only have the Union been winless, but the last game had weather more appropriate for a outdoor hockey game. Here is our friend Nancy trying to keep her sprits up at our mini tailgate. 

The last home game was particularly hard because the opposing team was the Vancouver Whitecaps, whose star player is Sebastian le Toux who was formerly the Union's star player. On the up side of that game it was a draw at 0-0, so it wasn't a loss. 

Today however things turned around with the Unions first win of the season! A 1-0 win over Columbus. Steve predicted that the Union would win 1-0 with a controversial call in the last five minutes of the game. That was close as they won with a controversial call in the last five minutes of the first half. The call was a hand ball at the net against Columbus which resulted in a penalty kick for the boys in blue. The best part of today's game was the weather which was great, a little overcast but temperatures in the low 70's. 

One thing about today that was a downer was that Rico couldn't make it down for the game as he was busy moving to his new studio in Brooklyn. The next home game is against the San Jose Earthquakes on April 28th. 

 Check out photos from our soccer foray's here.

Russell

Pennsylvania: the bicycle friendly state?

Year after year the League of American Cyclist ranks Washington State first place as the most bike friendly state in the County. Now that I no longer live there, I can tell you that I whole-heartedly agree with their assessment.

However, I think Pennsylvania might be giving them a run for their money. Why? I'll tell you why. On April 1^st a new law went into place that makes up for the lack of no shoulders to ride on here. In Pennsylvania giving cyclist three feet wasn’t good enough. Nope, we had to have four! The widest margin for cars passing cyclist in the country.

Not only will this law make it safer for cyclist, it also puts more of the law on their side if there is an accident. Here is an overview of what is now in place;

• Bicyclist shall keep to the right. While this has always been the case, the new law allows for cyclist to take any position in the lane to be safe. It allows for the cyclist to “control the lane” and move at a speed that is appropriate for the cyclist. An example would be on a narrow street with parked cars. The cyclist is allowed to ride well to the left to avoid being doored. Any vehicle that comes up behind the cyclist must conform to the speed of the cyclist.
• Cyclist’ do not have to move of the roadway if going slower than prevailing motorist if they are traveling at a reasonable speed for cyclist. This reiterates cyclist have a right to the road.
• Any vehicle overtaking a cyclist properly on the left shall allow at least 4 feet distance from the cyclist. To achieve this motorist are allowed to legally cross a centerline, even in a no passing zone. However, it is the motorist responsibility to pass only when it is safe to do so.
• Motorist’ are prohibited from making right turns into or across the path of a cyclist proceeding straight. Motorist should stay well behind cyclist and wait until they have passed the point where the motorist will turn. This formalizes what should be common sense.

When I moved to Pennsylvania I checked the PENDOT website to see what rules were in place for cyclist. Much to my surprise, the state used pretty strong language to encourage cyclist to stand up for their rights to the road. Check out the website here (note: the navigation bar for this website is at the bottom of the page).

Of course, it is up to local law enforcement as to whether or not the laws will be enforced. This is usually a weak link with many bicycle/car issues. There is hope that things are moving in a good direction here. Only hours after the law went into effect, it was used to charge a driver who struck a cyclist and tried to flee the scene. Checkout a news link about the incident here. Bob Mionske also had a good column recently about progress in this direction.  

So far, I have not had any cars buzz me since the law went into effect. Let’s hope it stays that way!

Russell

Ride lots, stop often!

The Birds of Grapevine

Just for the record, here is a list of all the birds I saw in the Mountains of North Carolina, 1-6 April 2012.

1. Great Blue Heron
2. Canada Goose
3. Mallard
4. Wood Duck
5. Turkey Vulture
6. Black Vulture
7. Broad-winged Hawk
8. Red-tailed Hawk
9. American Kestrel
10. Ruffed Grouse
11. Wild Turkey
12. Mourning Dove
13. Belted Kingfisher
14. Red-bellied Woodpecker
15. Yellow-bellied Sapsucker
16. Downy Woodpecker
17. Hairy Woodpecker
18. Northern Flicker
19. Pileated Woodpecker
20. Eastern Phoebe
21. Blue-headed Vireo
22. Blue Jay
23. American Crow
24. Tree Swallow
25. Barn Swallow
26. Tufted Titmouse
27. Carolina Chickadee
28. White-breasted Nuthatch
29. Carolina Wren
30. Golden-crowned Kinglet
31. Ruby-crowned Kinglet
32. Blue-gray Gnatcatcher
33. Eastern Bluebird
34. American Robin
35. Hermit Thrush
36. Northern Mockingbird
37. European Startling
38. Northern Parula
39. Black-throated Green Warbler
40. Black-and-white Warbler
41. Yellow-throated Warbler
42. Ovenbird
43. Northern Cardinal
44. Eastern Towhee
45. Field Sparrow
46. Chipping Sparrow
47. White-throated Sparrow
48. Song Sparrow
49. Swamp Sparrow
50. Dark-eyed Junco
51. Western Meadowlark
52. Brown-headed Cowbird
53. Red-winged Cowbird
54. Common Grackle
55. House Finch
56. American Goldfinch
57. House Sparrow

Not a bad start for spring!

Ride lots, stop often

Russell

The Rest of the Trip

I ended my last post on the Family Blog with " The day was put to rest with a yummy dinner of home made pulled pork BBQ, coleslaw, and hush puppies. The boys made it an authentic southern meal by washing it all down with a coke-cola." Well later that night Paddy got to experience it all again as he started throwing up around 2:00 AM. Actually Grandma did as well as he was sleeping in her bed! Ugh. His illness was short lived and by the middle of the following day he was all better, as you can see by this photograph. 

 

Most of the rest of the visit was nice and relaxing. The kids stayed up late watching TV and playing computer games. I got up early and went bird-watching. By the time I got back they were up and feed. Afterwards it was play in the creek or computer, watch TV or just lay around time. By mid day, I would take off for a bicycle ride. Then, when I got back it was dinner time. Afterwards the kids would stay up late, and we would begin the process over again.

One rainy day Grandma took the kids to see a movie, "Mirror-Mirror." Grandma, William and Paddy gave it three thumbs up. Emily gave it two thumbs down. But she is a teenager and simply hasn't figured out how to operate her thumbs in that manor just yet.

William and Paddy did get to ride the horses one day. That was pretty exciting. They also got to help brush their hair and give the a wash down as well. Not something we get to do here in West Chester very often despite the fact that this is horse country. 

On Saturday we got an early start and headed back to West Chester. Again, we had absolutely no issues along the way. It was a nice drive back in fact. By 5:00 PM we were back home and happy to see Mary.

It was a fun trip and we are happy that we now live close enough to make move visits! We are certain to head back again soon.

Check out photos of the rest of the trip here. Also, a side not about the photos. Up till now, I've been loading photos much to large for the website and have been trying to readjust them. Some of the last photos are a little different. Let me know if you have any trouble viewing the photos or have any other issues with the site. I'll try to correct it.

Russell

Sap Sucking Parasite!

For those of you who may not know it I have a special place in my heart for parasites. especially Dipterian (flies) parasites of birds and mammals. I find the ecology of parasites endlessly fascinating.

On one of my bike rides this week I spotted another pretty cool parasite. This one a plant, Conopholis americana, commonly called squaw-root or cancer-root.

Conopholis americana, 4 April 2012, Fisher Branch, near Mars Hill, North Carolina.

Unlike most other plants C. americana has no chlorophyll and does not require any light whatsoever. It gets everything it needs from the roots of other plants. More specifically, actually, quite specifically, oak trees.

Much to my surprise, it appears that not much is known about the life history of this species. The bulk of the plant is in the form of a gall that is attached to the roots of oak trees. What you see in the photograph is the flower stalks that push up through the ground about 3-8 inches. One of the few studies that I found stated that it appears to be largely autogamous (self-pollination), however, some pollination by insects, such as bumblebees, has been documented. How it's seeds are distributed and how those seed find the roots of oak trees seems to be largely a mystery, although some long distance seed dispersal has been documented through mammals, mostly white-tailed deer.

It is found in eastern North America from Nova Scotia, west to Iowa and Wisconsin and south to Mississippi and northern Florida. In the states of New Hampshire, New York, and Rhode Island it is considered threatened. There is a very similar species C. alpina found in the mountains of New Mexico, Arizona and Texas, which is an obligate parasite to ponderosa pines.

In addition to its interesting life history, I think it just looks pretty darn cool, and so does William.

Ride lots, stop often,

Russell