Weekend Game Cam

Lots of coming and going in the woods...


Pair of bobcats! I've noticed that at least one of the local bobcats is sort of sway-backed... I think that's her in the foreground.


Nice coyote! Almost as if he were posing.


Racoons are still the most common visitor. I didn't realize that their hands were hairless like that, but it makes sense.


I'm not sure if he's heavier than the previous one, or just fluffed up in the cold.


Click the picture for extra eeriness!


Hubby moved the camera, hoping to catch a beaver or otter on this path down to the pond. No luck, but we did get this picture of a Great Blue Heron. (Nice, but the camera is more focused on the background.)

He's moving it again today, in quest of otters.

Solo

An early-blooming Pacific coast iris.

Crime vs. Accident?

I was cycling across town with a friend today, who suggested that we take the side streets instead of my usual route along the major roads. We were cycling on one of these quiet streets, when a sedan passed us too closely and hit my friend's bicycle with the side of their car.



The impact was not strong enough to knock the bicycle over, but it did happen - and the driver kept going until forced to stop at a red light. We caught up to the driver, and my friend quickly took a cell-phone picture of the license plate - at which point the driver stopped the car and came out, expressing annoyance. My friend said, "You hit me with your car." The driver replied, "Well, you should have been more careful!" (More careful? We were cycling in a straight line in broad daylight!) At that point my friend took out their phone and called the police - telling the driver that they were going to file a report. Bewildered ("The police? But you're fine!") the driver got back in their car, pulled over to the side of the road, and we all waited.



The officer arrived and asked whether anybody was injured and whether there was any damage to the bicycle. When we replied in the negative, the officer seemed confused: "So there is nothing to do here then." We repeated that the driver hitmy friend with their car, to which the officer (politely) replied, "Well, if nobody was injured and there is no damage to your bicycle, that's not a crime. That's an accident." He then proceeded to file a report of the "accident," stressing verbally that there has been no injury or material damage. Both my friend and the driver gave testimony, and I gave testimony as a witness. We were then informed of where and whenwe could pick up a copy of the report,and everyone went their separate ways.



And this brings me to my question. Is it correct, that unless a driver actually injures a cyclist or damages a bicycle while hitting them, then hitting a cyclist in itself is not illegal? That is basically what the officer was telling us, but it does not sound right to me. What about the "passing no closer than 3 feet" rule? If a driver hits a cyclist while passing, does that not automatically mean that they were closer than 3 feet? The driver was unapologetic about what happened, and did not deny that they saw us prior to hitting my friend's bicycle. Yet the officer did not even ask the driver why they did not pass us at a safer distance. Perhaps what the officer meant to express, was that there was no way to determine what actually happened without video cameras or tangible evidence (such as injury or damage to the bicycle) - but his words did not come across that way.



Regardless of the outcome, I am glad that my friend filed a report. As I understand it, these things get entered into the DOT statistical data, and can lead to the development of safer infrastructure on that street if enough such incidents are reported. But I remain confused about what type of collision between motor vehicle and bicycle constitutes an illegal act versus what constitutes an accident. Can any of the cycling activists out there fill me in?

On Living Locally and Seeking Continuity

I was having a political discussion with a friend over email, and in response to something I wrote he replied: "You know, it's really starting to show that you haven't been out of the US in almost a year." Ouch... But the "insult" aside, I realised he was correct: I haven't been out of the country since last July, which is unusual for me. Moreover, we have been without a car since December, making our travel radius limited to cycleable distances. Without explicitly being aware of it, I have transitioned from living "globally" to living "locally," and my friend's insinuation was that this has made me narrow-minded and provincial. Has it? I think not, but I also realise that I don't really care. My quality of life has improved as a result of the changes I've made since last year, and that's difficult to argue with.



We could go on forever debating the "moral" and "social responsibility" implications of living locally vs globally. On the one hand, those who lead lifestyles that rely on air travel are doing a great deal of damage to the environment. On the other hand, one could argue that some international jobs are "important" in their contribution to society, and the scale of this contribution outweighs the degree of environmental damage. But the trouble with these arguments, is that they inevitably lead us to a slippery slope. Who determines what's important? Who has the right to pass that judgment on others, and using what criteria? Are UN workers "good," but fashion reporters "evil"? Is it "wrong to endanger the environment" by traveling to Shanghai just for fun, or is that outweighed by the positive effect of experiencing another culture, growing more tolerant and open-minded as a result? Impossible to say, without imposing our subjective sense of logic on others' sovereignty, which is not something I wish to do.



But the issue of living locally vs globally has personal, psychological implications as well, and these have been on my mind lately. I have an unusual personal history, and have basically never lived in any one place for more than several years at a time. As a result, my life has been fragmented and unstable, which I do not feel is ultimately good for me.When I remember things from my past, I sometimes get confused about the location of an event, and even about the language that was spoken.With my friends, relatives, experiences and memories scattered all over the world, it is difficult to maintain a sense of continuity and even a coherent sense of self. Forming healthy attachments to new people and places is challenging, and replacing the physical reality of personal interaction with virtual communications is isolating.



As we lose our sense of "continuous living," our notions of contact grow increasingly abstract - and not just contact with other people, but contact with our surroundings.I remember a post by Dottie at Let's Go Ride a Bike some time ago, where she describes the lifestyle of her family in the North Carolina suburbs as "traveling from pod to pod." The home is a pod. The workplace is another pod. The restaurant, also a pod. And because of the vast, highway-navigated distances between each, there is no clear sense of what happens in between; it is kind of a dead space, almost a virtual space. I found this imagery to be both frightening and relatable - a reflection of my own anxieties about what our lifestyles are doing to the way we connect with the physical world.



I thought that I might feel limited and stir-crazy once I stopped traveling abroad, and even more so once we began living without a car. Instead I am feeling as if some long-neglected human aspect of me is waking up. Living locally and all that it entails - seeing the same people, experiencing the change of seasons while staying put, and developing a feel for manageable distances - is giving me a sense of continuity that I have been lacking.

Big Al Spadijer

Here at jjobrienclimbing we've had hundreds of letters fromreaders asking when are we going to profile a real man and not just some stringy little kid.

We couldn't find one so here's Al Spadijer!

Property news:Prices around Mt Coolum have slumped in recent times.

Al has bought a new house in the neighbourhood.

Coinicidence?













Style:Al, and several billion of the Earths poorest inhabitants, make up a fashion movementcoined by jjobrienclimbing"Economical". Whilst the vast majority of"Economicalists" arevictims of place and circumstance, Al voluntarily embraces the movement with a strong sense of "Dishevelled Chic".





Spoonman 28'Hey mate well done on the send. Not bad considering your conscious state was one notch above coma.'

Bradley Babel (facebook)What Allan Spadijer doesn't know right now, amongst other things, is that the lost roll of finger tape heforlornly searches for is under Frey's rope mat and not in the long grass.

He also climbs.



If only Oli's mum knew who he was hanging around with.











Special Sunday Drive

I haven't been blogging due to an unfortunate laptop and hard drive death that has me grieving for a few days and then working hard to get my new laptop set up the way I want it for several more days. I did grab the camera yesterday and determined to blog our Sunday drive.



This one was extra special because Nathan got to pick what he wanted to do in honor of his 46th birthday that is happening in a few days.



We headed out bright and early and started out towards a new destination. New to us at least. We stopped at our local raw honey supplier first.



We encountered a neat little plane that flew right in front of us, very low to the ground. Since we were in the country and there were no cars, Nathan stopped long enough for him to do another pass in front of us.



Then we passed one of FPL's power plants.



We passed the really neat Railroad Museum that the guys took the kids on the hobo train ride while Diana and I did scrapbooking together.



If anyone who knows this area has not figured out where we were going yet, the next few clues should give it away. We went on a very cool bridge. That is even cooler when driving with the convertible top down.





And we landed here:



We spent the whole day there, visiting the Sunken Gardens, eating a special dinner and then heading over to Fort De Soto county park. We some some really special things while at the park, but I'll have to share that later because I have far too many pictures and words to fit them all in one blog post. We had a great Sunday drive and Nathan said his pre-birthday celebration day was wonderful.

Brookgreen Gardens~The Lowcountry Zoo

We decided to hit the zoo as one of the first stops at Brookgreen Gardens. The first thing we noticed is how natural the environment was. It is probably the most untouched animal areas we have ever witnessed at a zoo.



Because there were so many trees, this made the animal area very cool temperature wise. We enjoyed the shade and cooler weather and I'm hoping that means the animals did too.



All of the animals here were rescued or were born in captivity. All of the animals are not able to be released back into the wild. They have animals that are native to the swamps, woods and waters of the Lowcountry. They also have domestic animals to the Plantation. We saw a great number of animals from alligators to river otters, my favorite being the bald eagle who was a bit feisty.





I can't forget a picture of an owl for Miss Aubs.



We really enjoyed this part of Brookgreen.



Living the life in SC!