• Tag Archives KNON
  • “All we hear is, Radio-Ga-Ga” ~ Freddie Mercury

    Great weekend, there was a Rockabilly Revue benefit show last weekend at Sons of Hermann Hall in Dallas.

    rr_sons

    Matt the Cat Trio, From Parts Unknown, and Crash on the Barrelhead.  Truly a great time, I wish we had more pictures.

    As a slight aside, my house now has four baby (baby) kittens, five regular kittens, three regular cats, and one stray.  I found out the delineation of a feral and a stray is as such:

    Feral: Not friendly (wild)

    Stray: Friendly (former pet)
    The stray is actually pretty cool. He’s super friendly, I’m getting him fixed and checked for cat herpes on Saturday. The others…..*sigh*.

    After I rescued one baby (weeks old) kitten* I discovered why. Here’s my neighbor’s alcove on the side of her house (taken over the fence) Serious cat-lady syndrome. And no concept of breeding and overrunning the neighborhood with cats.

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    Lastly, I ran into someone recently who did their damndest to be an asshole. I approach most people with an open mind, but I’ve decided it’s okay to not like some people.

    Actively not like.

     

     

    * I’ve now rescued all four baby kittens twice – aside from the one that was randomly left outside the front of my house.


  • “We’re this pack of honeybees just working away.” Ray Garcia

    Gosh what an exhausting day.

    The bees finally showed up. Woo-hoo!

    The brakes of the UPS truck creaked as it glided to a halt. I peeked out the window as the driver walked slowly to the door, holding the box up so he could see the precious cargo. In the middle of a conference call, I answered the door with a headset and laptop in hand.
    “I’ve been delivering packages for about ten years. I’ve delivered live lobsters, but this is the first time I’ve ever delivered bees.”

    Me: “Oh really?”

    This is what he was carrying. As is. Pretty cool, huh? The scary part:  Those bees were mad. Aaaangry. Very irritated.  Hearing about a 1000 angry bees in your home is a little unnerving.

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    As soon as I brought them in, I put down some newspaper and sprayed them with some sugar water.  They immediately calmed down. Holy crap! It worked!

    It was go time.

    I suited up with my army surplus mechanic’s coveralls.  Sure they were green, and the bees could mistake me for a bear, or a bear shaped object and sting me to death. I’d take my chances. I put on my pith helmet and the bee veil and gloves.

    Game time.

    I put on my big boy pants, swallowed my nervousness and grabbed the bees.  I ignored the book, went straight from memory. Pulled the queen out, checked to make sure she was good (she was) and then pinned her to the first bar. The first rush of bees when I pulled the queen and feeding can…..uh…..*gulp*. Since there’s a giant mound of bees, the sugar spray really only gets on the outside of the screen. The bees on the inside were pretty excited.

    Gathered my wits, installed the bees….uh….and I left the feeder inside. D’OH!

    Ran inside with no bees trailing and got the feeder. None of the bees were really in attack mode. I didn’t get stung, I think they were more curious than anything. Pretty interesting.
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    So I’m also supposed to start a bee log.

    So here goes:

    Day 1.
    Installation.

    No comb (obviously)
    Refilled feeder once, they had emptied completely after installation while I was at work
    Weather: 80 degrees, up to 90 during the day on the day of install.
    Blooming: Only noticed dewberry bush in the backyard blooming. All front yard quit blooming about a week and a half ago (during one of the cold snaps) Fruit trees in neighbors yard aren’t doing anything yet.
    Combs: None
    What is in the Combs?: N/A
    Swarming?: N/A
    Queen Issues: None, queen healthy, removed cork, they should be eating away.
    Celebratory Beer after massive adrenaline rush from installation of bees: Revolver Blood and Honey

     


  • “It’s not true I had nothing on, I had the radio on.” Marilyn Monroe

    I’m going to take a totally selfish moment here (as if my blog wasn’t a selfish bloated monument to myself as it was).

    One of the cool things that I think I alluded to a while back, I got to be on-air at KNON, our local community radio station. Then not only did I get to get on-air, but I got to co-DJ! That means that I got to inflict the masses with a dose of the rockabilly madness I’m inflicted with. My playlist was very, very guitar heavy. Is that surprising?

    onair

    Thanks to my rockin’ kid, I discovered KNON as she spun the dial one fine afternoon. Then I happened to catch Rockabilly Revue and was momentarily stunned as I realized that they played the kind of music that I dug. Rock-a-rock-a-rock-a…..*exhale*…….billy!

    I’m going to leave my evidence here, but you heard it (it’s official), I’m welcome any time so you can be assured that I’ll be back (possibly more talkative too….)

    I tried like hell to edit this file, but my supercomputer is still giving me buffer under-runs through Pro-Tools. Sorry.