Here on this mountain top, oh-oh-oh
I got some wild, wild life — “Wild Wild Life,” Talking Heads
“Wild wild life.” You ain’t alone, David old scout.
Herself recently took off for a few days of thrifting with a gal pal, leaving me and Miss Mia Sopaipilla to hold down the fort.
She didn’t get back in time to see the bear in our back yard.
Miss Mia and I were sound asleep when the bear dropped by to see if we had anything to eat. Which, of course, we did — two bird feeders and three hummingbird feeders.
The racket at the buffet woke me — but not Miss Mia, who’s as deaf as a stump — and as I tumbled out of bed I figured we were dealing with a raccoon, maybe a skunk.
Nope. Bear. Small to medium, and in the early stages of deciding that getting any breakfast out of those polycarbonate tubes would burn more calories than s/he could hope to consume.
“Did you get any pictures?” Herself asked when I texted her the news. Yeah, right, I’m stumbling outside at oh-dark-thirty to snap a selfie with a famished bear. I’ve seen how fast they can run, and how fast I can run. No, thank you, please.
Anyway, social media is full of snaps of hungry, thirsty bears staggering down from the Sandias to plop into water features, snack on unsecured garbage, and in at least one incident, get shot by a knucklehead. The bear survived, though one of her two cubs did not, and the shootist seems short of friends (see a neighbor’s protest sign up top).
Our little bear problem was on me. I’d seen bear scat on a section of trail we run once or twice a week, and we’ve been avoiding that stretch because, hey, that scat doesn’t get there without the bear, amirite?
But I didn’t think to start bringing the feeders in at night. Now I am.
Didn’t keep the skunk out, though.
I heard something cough at stupid-thirty yesterday morning. Wasn’t me. Wasn’t Herself. Miss Mia was sacked out in the half-bath sink on the other side of the house, and she wouldn’t have heard a cough if it was her doing the coughing.
So up I get, grab a light, and crack the vertical blinds. Holy hell. Big ol’ skunk, butt aimed at our bedroom window.
Nope, sorry, not going out for a pic of that, either.
Snakes abound. Definitely a snake year. A dog walker recently told us she’d seen three buzzworms just that morning. One of them was in her yard.
The deer are back too, rolling up and down the arroyos like streetcars working the hills in San Francisco. Bucks with harems, does with speckled fawns.
Quail. Herself and I quit counting after seeing 50 on one recent ride.
And the hummingbirds? Off the charts. It looks like the Battle of Britain out there. We’re burning through sugar faster than three kindergartens and a Dunkin’ next to a cop shop.
Hey … it just occurred to me. Do you think they’re visiting us the way we visit zoos?
“Just look at the poor hairless apes, kids. Nearly extinct. I’d like to say we’ll miss them when they’re gone, but I’d be lying. They’ve certainly had a wild, wild life.”
Your house is right up there on the edge of what do they call it, the “urban-wildland Interface”, right? I’m starting to think I should bring the bird feeders in at night as well. Except that I get up so late the birds will be banging on the doors and windows to be fed.
Yup. We’re a four-minute walk east from Foothills Trail 365, and about the same west to the Linear Trail. Both are part of a network that goes south to just short of I-40 and east into the wilderness, where the critters hang their sombreros. Unless there’s nothing to eat or drink, in which case they come down to visit us.
When we first got here we had coyotes ever’ whichaway. Now, not so much, though the bunnies are proliferating. Foxes and coons were more common then, too; the coons would roll up your sod hunting grubs and other tasty morsels.
Someone on NextDoor recently snapped a shot of a bear walking Paseo del Norte in broad daylight. Lots of Ring cameras and phones capturing our furry friends visiting area yards.
Owls, Cooper’s hawks, bobcats, snakes of every persuasion … you name it, we got it.
You think you have it bad – in my state of Connecticut, a bear entered a house by pushing in the window A/C, eating a jar of mayo, then heading upstairs where the owner’s teenage daughter was sleeping. The teen heard the commotion and hid in her closet. Police arrived just as the bear was leaving and told Yogi to scram. He returned the next day.
See the video here: https://youtu.be/OKplsWEkXtw?si=DC_68-QUOdI_blfW
In other animal related news:
Go see the movie Coyote vs. Acme. The court trial is held in Albuquerque! Lots of anvils, TNT, falling pianos, rocket skates, etc.
I think we will go see it this week. Roadrunner and Coyote has some history with my older brother and a motorcycle racing rivalry.
My buddy Hal once told me about some dude up to CrustyTucky who shot a bear trying to get into his proud-ofs. All he managed to do was piss off the bear — it came through his door, croaked him, and ate at least some of him.
The bears up there were legendary for obnoxiousness. I had one come up to a window once while I was cooking something (a meatloaf, I think). Shouted at him and he jogged away a bit, then stopped, looked at me, and seemed to be thinking, “Say, who’s the fuckin’ bear around here, anyway?”
So I grabbed the .357 hand cannon and fired one for effect, sending a round well over his head.
Then he looked at me all like, “You and your smelly ol’ meatloaf might be more trouble than you’re worth.” And ambled off.
Additional to above: You mentioned Talking Heads’s “Wild Wild Life”.
I just finished reading Burning Down The House, by Jonathan Gould, a history
of the band. I was interested partially because of the band itself, and because Tina Weymouth and Chris Frantz live in my state (CT) and Chris is a regular DJ on the radio station I listen to, WPKN.
https://wpkn.org/host/chris-frantz/
wpkn.org
Hey, you have celebrities! We have comic Marc Maron, a former Duke City resident who pops round from time to time to visit his dad, who’s sliding into dementia. Sigh. Been there, done that. Made jokes about it, too, but it doesn’t really help.
I posted a video earlier but it never showed up on the blog. I tried to repost it but it said it was a duplicate post. Thoughts?
Hm. It went to spam for some reason. Possibly the video link … I’ve noticed that on my end the blog wants me to use a dedicated YouTube embed when I drop a video into a post. But I’m not sure how that would work as a commenter.
In the meantime, lemme see if I can punt you from spam into approved comments. …
I’m finding that websites are tightening their security protocols and not allowing things that were allowed in the past. As an example. as of a few days ago I was able to include a tracking link inside ebay messages I send to buyers. I used to include a direct link to the shipper’s (FedEx, UPS, USPS) website so that the buyer could go to the horse’s mouth for the tracking update if they wanted to. I’m not allowed to do that anymore.
I’m also starting to encounter more broken links when navigating to various websites. I suspect it has more to do with AI being involved with checking the legitimacy of connections to a site and because I’m using an outdated OS and browser(s) that they don’t recognize.
Anyone else seeing more of those pain-in-the-ass Cloudflare “Just a moment. …” popups while browsing, ostensibly a check to see whether you’re HAL 9000, Skynet, or just another filthy meat-thing trying to eyeball a website?
Like I need more hurdles to browsing at 12 Mbps. Sheesh.
Up here in NW Albuquerque we have had coyotes going down the street at 7 AM with bunnies in the bushes by the bunches. Roadrunners in the backyard and the Golden Retrievers ( 4) deciding that they are fair game We are bird dogs after all Dad. Looking thru the neighbors back yard saw a little black bear cruising down the fairway of Paradise HIlls golf course. m Humming birds are buzzing anything with a blossom. Haven’t been down to the Petroglyphs Natl. Monument for a while so the buzzworms are unknown. However, my pups have had the Rattle snake vaccinations. The severe lack of water is dire, grim,distressing, dangerous and scary. Makes northern Nevada look like and verdant garden We may have to go the way of the Anasazi and vacate the premises.
The water thing has me pondering bolt holes too. And I’m not the only one, either. I’m seeing a lot of for-sale signs lately.
Thing is, I have no idea where I’d want to go.
I’ve lived in Maryland, Virginia, Ontario, Texas, Colorado (Colorado Springs [five different times], Alamosa, Greeley, Pueblo, Denver), Missouri, Arizona, Oregon, California and Vermont (both briefly, as a couch surfer), and New Mexico (Española, Santa Fe, Albuquerque).
Pretty sure I’m a confirmed Westerner. Not really interested in being any further east of I-25 than I am right now. Desert rat? Maybe, kinda, sorta. Don’t like winter, but can’t say I’m much fonder of this endless waterless summer here in Duck!Burg.
It’s a pickle, for sure. Maybe we should buy an RV and just motor around like the fabled bear who went over the mountain to see what he could see.
Ho ho ho. With the price of go-juice being what it is, me with zero mechanical knowhow, and Miss Mia hating motor vehicles the way DeeCee hates common sense. That’s gonna happen. …
Well, houses in Phoenix should get real cheap pretty soon.
Ouf! Triple digits daily for the first week of September. They’re gonna need a really good Realtor®.
Come one-Come all to Michigan. My only real beef is with occasional humidity but moreso with mosquitos. They only used to be bad in late May, June and maybe into July. Now with more rain they are still here in September and I’ve got the bites to prove it. Of course I need to admit also that I loathe putting on bug dope so I get what I deserve. My son….he never gets bites and is outside most of every day.
Ah but there is winter….which is slowly becoming my favorite season. Not great for biking but hiking, xc skiing, snowshoeing and strolling are tops even though daylight is short. But you sun seekers would wither I’m afraid as we do have whole weeks of overcast skies.
And YES! I am finding even the simplest web search means I’ll have to “verify” I’m an actual meat puppet. I don’t think it’s for security…I think if you click the verify button they somehow/someway suck part of your soul out of your body.
Y’know, a little winter might not be too bad, not too bad at all.
The water wizards are saying our stretch of the Rio Grande might not have any water in it until next month … if then. Barring a brief pulse from the Abiquiu Reservoir, that is.
Meanwhile, it’s 7:30 p.m. and The New Mexican has yet to correct its misspelling of “Albuquerque” in this story’s headline and its link, which I first noticed at 5 a.m., before coffee. I dunno who’s in charge of checking heds and links, meat puppets or A.I., but someone/something needs a quick squirt from the hose.
Wow. I wonder if there is anybody in the newsroom before a story (Headline) is sent off to the pressroom. That kind of a mistake would be a hard one to forget. For everyone on staff. Although maybe there is no staff. Maybe it’s entirely AI produced.
The great thing about the Innertubes is that when you intercourse the penguin on a web-story headline, or anything else — which we all do — you can sneak back in and fix it, like Uncle Joe Stalin airbrushing murdered rivals out of the team photo, and the error doesn’t hang around forever, making you look like a sap. “Dewey Defeats Truman?” Uh, not so much.
That headline typo is still up there, by the way. It’s just cycled off the homepage into the “News” silo.
Looks like The New Mexican may have rearranged staff a little bit since I last checked their contact-us page. I see a few “digital enterprise” types but nobody who seems to be clearly in charge of the online op’.
And no copy editors. Because of course no copy editors.