Two years ago, we had a duck nesting in one of the beds along the front side of our house. For about a month the duck sat there, leaving occasionally, and surviving a run-in with the neighbourhood cat. That duck taught me a little about patience. Then finally in late June, the eggs hatched, and some 7 new ducklings were born. I was away that morning, so I didn’t get to see them hatch. But I did see them when they were dry and fuzzy. That was so cute. Then later that day Mama Duck led her little babies out of the yard (presumably to the pond), and just like that, we never saw them again.
Until this year.
After surveying the neighbourhood for a couple weeks, a duck decided to make its nest in our yard. We believe it’s the either the same one, or one of the hatched ducklings, because the nest is under the same window, in the same square foot of mulch as the one two years ago. I’m not prone to getting attached to animals, but I grew to like this duck. I would talk to/at it while I was working outside, so it would grow accustomed to how my voice sounded and it would be calm around me. And it grew to tolerate me mowing the lawn right near its nest. I even went so far as to give her a name, Quebo (pronounced QUAY-boe). Why that name? Well it doesn’t hold any meaning, it was simply the first to syllables I subconsciously thought of when I decided to name it.
After watching Quebo for a couple weeks, and wondering how many of the 10 eggs would hatch, I came home late from a night out with the guys, and went to bed. When I woke up, it was pouring rain. Worse though, was that scattered about the yard were broken, empty eggshells from the nest. At some point during the night, the nest had been pillaged. I felt kinda sad. My mom even said that earlier that morning, Quebo was standing out in the yard staring at the remains of the nest. Now I don’t know if ducks or any other animals have feelings, but it couldn’t have been a happy moment for the duck.
We thought maybe it was the cat that got into its nest. But when we look at the how the shells were broken and the insides removed, we don’t think a cat would have the anatomy necessary to pull that off. More likely a raccoon, though I’ve never seen one in the neighbourhood. But I guess that’s, as the title says, nature’s way. Some get eaten so that others may survive.
We doubt the Quebo will come back, even though there is enough time left in the year for new ducklings to hatch.
So there you go. There’s my sentimental side.
-Bernier
Saturday, June 7, 2008
Friday, June 6, 2008
Pedometry
I don’t know if ‘Pedometry’ is actually a word. Probably not, actually. But I really don’t care. That’s what I’m going to call it.
Does everyone know what a pedometer is? I’m pretty sure you do, though probably by it’s more commonly-used name, ‘step-counter’. Anyways, has anyone ever used one? Joggers will often use them to try and get a general idea of how far they’ve traveled in their exercise. But I’m no jogger. Yet I still have and use one.
I bought it probably a month ago. It had occurred to me that in a typical workday at Wal-Mart, I was walking pretty much the whole time. On days where I’d get called to do cash, it would obviously be less, but I figured I covered a lot of ground in any given day. And on days when I would walk home, whatever that number was would be even higher. So I decided to find out, and I bought a pedometer.
From the little booklet that came with the instrument, I learned that a healthy day of walking is about 10,000 steps. I had no idea what number I was doing, but I figured it had to be more than that. The first day I used it, I think I did about 16,000 steps. Since then I’ve done about that usually. Some days it’s substantially less, because I spend hours at the till. Oh and I’ve also learned that it’s about a 2000-step walk from Wal-Mart to my house, one way. I think one day I walked almost 21,000. That’s pretty much my record so far.
Someday perhaps I’ll actually use it as part of a training exercise. For now, I’ll keep doing what I’ve always done, and that is wearing it purely for curiosity sake; simply to know how many steps I take in a day. I don’t know if I’m doing anything with this information. But for $6, I figure at least it wasn’t money TOO foolishly spent.
And P.S. I just realized my previous 2 entries were both posted at 5:16 PM. Weird.
-Bernier
Does everyone know what a pedometer is? I’m pretty sure you do, though probably by it’s more commonly-used name, ‘step-counter’. Anyways, has anyone ever used one? Joggers will often use them to try and get a general idea of how far they’ve traveled in their exercise. But I’m no jogger. Yet I still have and use one.
I bought it probably a month ago. It had occurred to me that in a typical workday at Wal-Mart, I was walking pretty much the whole time. On days where I’d get called to do cash, it would obviously be less, but I figured I covered a lot of ground in any given day. And on days when I would walk home, whatever that number was would be even higher. So I decided to find out, and I bought a pedometer.
From the little booklet that came with the instrument, I learned that a healthy day of walking is about 10,000 steps. I had no idea what number I was doing, but I figured it had to be more than that. The first day I used it, I think I did about 16,000 steps. Since then I’ve done about that usually. Some days it’s substantially less, because I spend hours at the till. Oh and I’ve also learned that it’s about a 2000-step walk from Wal-Mart to my house, one way. I think one day I walked almost 21,000. That’s pretty much my record so far.
Someday perhaps I’ll actually use it as part of a training exercise. For now, I’ll keep doing what I’ve always done, and that is wearing it purely for curiosity sake; simply to know how many steps I take in a day. I don’t know if I’m doing anything with this information. But for $6, I figure at least it wasn’t money TOO foolishly spent.
And P.S. I just realized my previous 2 entries were both posted at 5:16 PM. Weird.
-Bernier
Sunday, June 1, 2008
Statistics
No, I’m not talking about university math here. I’m talking about random facts. In particular, baseball, hockey, and box office stats.
I don’t about you, but I’m a bit of a trivia buff. I love knowing and sharing random bits of information (ask my friends, they’ll probably roll their eyes and get belligerent). I’m not sure why I’m like this, only that I’ve always been this way. I even have an “award” that my hockey coach gave me when I was 9. Every player got this award, though each said something different on it, usually a quote or a quirk of ours that the coach picked up on through the season. Mine happened to say “Coach, Did You Know…?”. So I guess I’ve always been like this, and people have always known about it.
I’ve gotten so bad at times that one friend has imposed a strict ‘5 random facts per day’ limit on me. But I’ll have you know that I’ve rarely met or exceeded that number anyway. Disagree if you want.
Back to the topic. Currently I have a number of spreadsheets going on my computer. Basically I’ve kept a running list over the past few years of the all-time leaders in baseball, as well as the top 150 movies ever in the U.S., in terms of box office success. Don’t worry, I didn’t search the internet over to find out these facts. I got them from sites that already had them all listed. And I update my spreadsheets every Tuesday. Which begs the question: why do I do this? Why do I make a copy of a list that is there already, which updates itself all the time, especially when I have to write it all down from scratch, continually switching back and forth between pages? I can’t say I have a good answer to this, only that that is just how I am.
If you’re wondering why I mentioned hockey stats, it’s because I keep a mental note of all-time leaders, though I haven’t made actual spreadsheets. I imagine I may start adding that to my list of Tuesday updates come next season. I guess we’ll see. Or more likely just I’LL see.
I’m reminded of how back in the day, I would race Hot Wheels on this course we have in my basement. I’d sit there all afternoon with my stopwatch, timing them to see which could slide down the ramp the fastest. I’d even allot them points and rankings, not to mention individual names. Then I’d even load THOSE stats onto the computer, just for information sake. I haven’t done that in a while. Perhaps that’s a good thing. And now you know a little about the nerdish side of me.
-Bernier
I don’t about you, but I’m a bit of a trivia buff. I love knowing and sharing random bits of information (ask my friends, they’ll probably roll their eyes and get belligerent). I’m not sure why I’m like this, only that I’ve always been this way. I even have an “award” that my hockey coach gave me when I was 9. Every player got this award, though each said something different on it, usually a quote or a quirk of ours that the coach picked up on through the season. Mine happened to say “Coach, Did You Know…?”. So I guess I’ve always been like this, and people have always known about it.
I’ve gotten so bad at times that one friend has imposed a strict ‘5 random facts per day’ limit on me. But I’ll have you know that I’ve rarely met or exceeded that number anyway. Disagree if you want.
Back to the topic. Currently I have a number of spreadsheets going on my computer. Basically I’ve kept a running list over the past few years of the all-time leaders in baseball, as well as the top 150 movies ever in the U.S., in terms of box office success. Don’t worry, I didn’t search the internet over to find out these facts. I got them from sites that already had them all listed. And I update my spreadsheets every Tuesday. Which begs the question: why do I do this? Why do I make a copy of a list that is there already, which updates itself all the time, especially when I have to write it all down from scratch, continually switching back and forth between pages? I can’t say I have a good answer to this, only that that is just how I am.
If you’re wondering why I mentioned hockey stats, it’s because I keep a mental note of all-time leaders, though I haven’t made actual spreadsheets. I imagine I may start adding that to my list of Tuesday updates come next season. I guess we’ll see. Or more likely just I’LL see.
I’m reminded of how back in the day, I would race Hot Wheels on this course we have in my basement. I’d sit there all afternoon with my stopwatch, timing them to see which could slide down the ramp the fastest. I’d even allot them points and rankings, not to mention individual names. Then I’d even load THOSE stats onto the computer, just for information sake. I haven’t done that in a while. Perhaps that’s a good thing. And now you know a little about the nerdish side of me.
-Bernier
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
