June 30, 2008

Early morning here and I'm listening to the wake up calls of the Cicada's probably for close to the last time. They seem to begin in fits and starts. A few minutes here, a few minutes there until finally at 4:30am and first light they sing continuously.
We had a good day yesterday. Saturday night my throat started to feel a little scratchy, but Sunday morning I'd lost my voice. It was also kids day and I was in charge. Thankfully my better half stepped up and helped out. Kids day went off without a hitch. We had plenty of volunteers and Mike did a great job. Next project was the raft, which after about 3 hours was successfully launched. Dan had a great time playing with Tiger and Bradley...gotta love summers on the Cape. The day wrapped up with Chinese food with the Leone's and a quick trip to Green Briar to feed the animals at 9pm. I forgot!

June 29, 2008

What a weekend! It turned out that Emily did not have mono and after two days of waiting and two days out of work she started antibiotics for her sinus/ear infection. Emily and Danny are really enjoying the influx of summer people this year, and it's been interesting watching all the different age groups of kids interact. Yesterday was beach cleanup and the start of summer meeting. The first one for me as President. My goal was to make the meeting short but take care of all business and I neatly accomplished both in 17 minutes. Half my years respondsibilities taken care of!
The cicada's are still singing. We had a north wind yesterday which washed ashore the cicada's that didn't quite make it on their journey to the other side of the pond. They are starting to die off in large numbers now. I had the pleasure this morning of listening to them get ready for their day. The first chorus started at 4:09 and ended at 4:11. The next at 4:22 and ended at 4:25 and the third (at first light) started at 4:31 and will probably go for most of the day depending on the weather. It's all very exciting, but I'm sad that I won't see them for another few years. Gerry called on Friday night and asked us if we'd like to join him for dinner. Since it was our men's night we invited him here, he joined us for dinner, and some beer by the bon fire before a quick hug and goodbye. He's been amazing and has taught me alot. I'm gonna miss my bug guy! Gerry and Derke did invite me to Ct to help with experiments on the annuals, but it's a little far to travel. I think I'll hunt for them here and report my findings.

June 26, 2008

Been a while since I've written. Things have been pretty busy here.

On Sunday Gerry and Derke came to start testing the Cicada's. We spent a good hour trying to decide if they could even find a spot to set up their equipment that would be quiet enough. In the end they decided the basement would be the best spot. We did some rearranging and made them a great spot to work. Megan Morse was a lifesaver and spent most of the morning and a good part of the afternoon playing with Danny, and keeping him busy so I could help bring in the equipment and make sure they guys had everything they needed. They stayed until almost 10pm that night working to make sound and laser recordings of the cicada's calling through all 3 stages. The process involved first finding a male, then clipping it's wings off to expose the tymbals, the organs inside the Cicada that actually makes the noise. Next took some trial and error, they tried spray adhesive, and water, to no avail. They just mucked up the tymbals. Someone suggested KY, and it worked like a dream. They put a small amount of KY on the tymbals then sprinkle glass beads on top to give the laser something to reflect off of. I spent some time with them in the basement helping out over the course of three days. One day my job was to make sure the laser was aimed precisely on the tymbal by watching the lights on the laser machine, the next I was in charge of turning the sound recorder off and on in sync with the Cicada's call. It was lots of fun, and I'm glad to have been a part. Mike got home about 7pm on Monday night from a great time at the Woodturners symposium and Dad's. The guys in the basement had spent the better part of 5 hours trying unsuccessfully to move the data from the laser and sound machines over to their laptops. So while Mike was having dinner after his long drive I told him of the problems going on in the basement. He went down, took a quick look, plugged in his laptop and within 5 minutes had all the data downloaded to his computer. He really is amazing sometimes! He spent a little while checking out the tests, he understood much more then I did! The guys finished their testing on Tuesday just as the kids were waking up from their nap.
Wednesday Emily had off work, she hasn't been feeling well and had a couple of swollen lymph nodes on the back of her neck so I took her into the doctors. He ordered a blood test for mono and since she was having blood taken he ordered a CBC as well. She was very nervous and actually cried just before she drew the blood. Danny was great and told Emmy to hold his hand. When it was over I asked her if it hurt, and she said "My bee sting hurt more" I hate fear of the unknown! We came home, Danny napped then we went to see Kung Fu Panda before Emily's Ortho appt at 4:15. Emily was happy to hear that her braces will be coming off on her next visit. I can't wait to see what she looks like without them!

June 20, 2008 Yeah Summer's here!

7am:First day of summer today and we're headed to Green Briar for a bee tour that I set up for the homeschoolers. It should be fun and we're really looking forward to it!
2:40pm: So the bee tour didn't work out quite as well as I'd hoped. Seems many homeschooling mother's think it's ok for their darling children to talk while other are talking and generally interupt whenever they feel like it. A complication I hadn't expected. There were lots of little kids there, and it was very difficult for Claire to tell us what she wanted to. She managed her way through an hour and promptly took her leave. Next time maybe I'll have to limit it to many less children, and maybe an older group. Dan had a great time donning a beekeepers veil and gloves and walking around shooting the smoker. Thankfully he got something out of it, because I sure didn't. Between keeping Ruby and Joey under control and just generally not being able to hear what she was saying the lesson was a bust. We'll have to do some research on our own!

The kids and I went down to Town Neck Beach last night to hunt around in the tide pools and had lots of fun. We packed a dinner of lettuce, ham, cheese and pesto roll ups, veggie chips, summer squash and zucchini with dip, and trail mix cookies, it was very good... we ate as soon as we got there. The night was warm, bathing suits and t-shirts, and the water cool, but not cold. We found lots of crabs, a bunch of muscles and periwinkles that we brought home to eat, Emmy found 6 or 7 empty sea urchin shells. We spent about an hour then headed home, to enjoy our seafood, and watch a movie. Dan and I were in bed by 9:30pm.
Mike's down in VA and after talking to him for a while last night I declare him tired but happy. Seems he spent the better part of the afternoon setting up equiptment for today's demo's. Then he met Dad, Kat and Zach at Mexico for a nice South of the border meal. We have to admit to being a little jealous we're not down there with them. Although we have Cicadas still. Gerry's bringing his team of Navy sound engineers here on Sunday, Monday, and Tuesday...can't wait to see what that entails!

June 19, 2008

Mike left yesterday morning for Virginia to attend a Woodturning Symposium. My father requested Malasadas from up here and since Father's Day has just passed I was happy to get up a couple of hours early to make a batch. Hope they weren't like hockey pucks by the time they got there. Mike spent the better part of Tuesday evening changing a flat tire, so first thing yesterday morning he needed to get a set of older tires put on for his trip South. Luckily he found a Sullivan tire in Wareham that was willing to do his first, and within an hour he was on his way to deliver Malasadas to RI and pick up Zachary for the trip to VA.
Emily drove us to work and Dan and I came back home. Hung laundry, mowed the grass in our yard then in the lower grove. Just as I was finishing up Dan spotted a small toad. We picked it up and Dan decided he wanted to build a terrarium for it. We dug out a shallow plastic tote, half filled it with dirt from the garden....only half of what I planted sprouted, if the vegetables didn't need the dirt I figured to could donate it to the toad. We planted little tufts of grass and clover. Threw in a couple of rocks, some sticks, two little dishes, one for water, the other for food and used an empty mushroom box to craft a little toad house. We were pretty excited by the finished product, and off we went to catch some worms, grubs and other insects. So now we have an albino aquatic frog, a toad (female we think) and two dogs. Our little family is complete, at least until we find another stray that Danny just has to have...I'm hoping for a garter snake!
Cicada's are humming like crazy here today. Dan and I rescued Gerry yesterday at the Francis Crane Wildlife refuge. He apparently had left his laptop plugged in and running while the engine was off, which drained his battery. A quick jump and he was on his way to find more data points. While he was waiting he did find a white eyed Cicada which is extremely rare. Seeing that alone made the rescue trip worthwhile! Dan and I did a little shopping at Roche Brothers (very expensive) and then thought we'd browse Mashpee Commons while we waited for it to be time to pick up Emily. I forgot that when we left to rescue Gerry that I hadn't brought any shoes along. So our first stop in Mashpee Commons was to CVS for a pair of flip flops for Danny to wear. We quickly located a pair that were just perfect and off we went. He had some trouble getting used to walking with the plastic between his toes and it slowed him down considerably, if only I'd know this sooner! Emily is off work today so we'll have to see what the day brings. It looks like it's going to be a beauty, I'm hoping to spend some time down at the tidal pools at Town Neck beach tonight since low tide is at 6:30. Maybe we'll even pack a picnic dinner.

June 16, 2006

Today Danny and I took Em to work then headed to Plymouth to check out a data point for Cicada's which after an hour of checking the neighborhood could not confirm. Dan was my co-pilot in the passengers seat. (My car turns off the passenger side airbag if the occupant is under 100lbs) We continued to collect data points since we were there anyway and slowly made our way up 3A to Plymouth. Bribery sometimes works best with Danny so he was rewarded for his good behavior with a strawberry frosted sprinkle donut from D&D once we arrived. He and walked though the park and down to Plymouth Rock to find that the area around it was under construction and we'd be unable to see it. A ranger who was stationed there told Danny the story of the Pilgrims, how 104 came over on the Mayflower, half died the first year and were buried on a hill to try to hide from the Indians how many had died. After some heavy rains the bones floated to the surface at which time they decided a sarcophagus would be better. So Dan and I climbed the hill and saw the box, and then admired the statue of Massasoit and their leader William Bradford. We wrote a trip report when we got home. A habit I hope to continue. He really enjoyed our morning and remembered quite a bit after telling and retelling the story.

June 15, 2008 Father's Day

Since it's Father's day we decided to start the day off with a big breakfast. We made Chocolate Banana pancakes, eggs Benedict, scrambled eggs, maple bacon, English muffins, and some fresh strawberries and blueberries. After breakfast we gave Mike his cards and his Father's Day present. A anti gravity chair for the deck. He was thrilled and had a chance to sit in it briefly before a morning shower began. After making a few Father's Day phone calls the kids and I headed off to Hyannis to give Mike some shop time. Emily drove all the way too Hyannis and back, she's such a big girl now!

Here's a video I made with the new camera showing me inspiring this male cicada to sing. I named this guy ready Freddie, because he always responds to my call. The snapping noise is a simulated female wing flick. The female flicks her wings to tell the male she's ready. There are three male mating calls and one alarm call. Here the male sings the first of these calls.