Kite Strings

Crosses into Illinois three times. That accounts for a third of the excess.

http://xjubier.free.fr/en/site_pages/solar_eclipses/TSE_2017_GoogleMapFull.html
USA - 2017 August 21 Total Solar Eclipse - Interactive Google Map - Xavier Jubier

I may have just finally killed her.

Wanted to increase her homing range a little and took her up to the north end of the street - about 120 yards up from the deck - and gave her a hard toss back a bit after 11 local.

As usual she turned back and climbed to a high perch about halfway up in a big Tulip. Got some halfhearted answers as I talked to her going back to the house.

Then shortly after on the next effort from the deck no answers. No responses after several walks back to last sighting.

Wasn't real worried 'cause she's been uncooperative when she's happy at midday before.

But at about 12:45 the Blue Jays and Robins started going nuts with predator mobbing calls at the top of a tall Tulip between this and the next house to the north. Couldn't see anything, looked on the forest floor below for feathers but found nothing on that score.

Maybe there was something nearby that targeted her when I put her up. Maybe she was sitting tight and staying silent for that reason.

Not looking good. I so want to get in the time machine, keep her in, promise to never take a chance again.

Just had a downpour/thunderstorm. I'd given up on calling, looking not long after the last post. If she could've come back she would have. The Jays and Robins let me know there was no real hope left.

I think that there was a factor in play that I hadn't considered. The Cooper's kids have fledged and the parents have wandered afield from the nesting turf. I thought I'd be good for another month.

Forum posts I'm making now are just to escape some of the reality of the situation for whatever duration I can.

I hadn't heard that Blue Jay, Robin alarm mobbing action since I can't remember when - never in the time when Quinn was free flying. If I had I'd have grounded her. But I'm pretty sure the bird getting mobbed was sticking around getting mobbed 'cause it was on a kill / the Jays and Robins wouldn't have been mobbing anything that wasn't on a kill - they'd have been frozen and silent.

I keep hearing her call to be let in and keep realizing that I'm not hearing her. Her life ended, mine total crap again. And I was looking forward to the eclipse and in not bad shape when the day began.

This:

http://xjubier.free.fr/en/site_pages/solar_eclipses/TSE_2017_GoogleMapFull.html
USA - 2017 August 21 Total Solar Eclipse - Interactive Google Map - Xavier Jubier

is awesome but for some stuff ya wanna be in Google Earth itself. Monday I couldn't find the coast to coast length of the path (2506 miles) so I drew a roughish one using Jubier as a guide. Then I went into do-it-right/anal mode and found precise points at which the centerline intersected state lines where the twelve relevant states were first entered. Then I realized I needed to keep going and do the edges. Then the day was pretty much shot.

Then I sent the three files - which one just opens in Google Earth - to my nephew who thought what I did was really cool. Then I tried to upload them to Kite Strings and got:

The extension kmz is not allowed.

and found that to be an issue with lotsa - probably all - forums. So if anyone's interested contact me.

Full answer to the quiz question...

Because of the squiggliness of the Missouri and Mississippi Rivers (past and present) Kansas is crossed into two, Illinois is crossed into three, and Missouri is crossed into four times. (Made that discovery doing the centerline path as described above.)

Thanks. Classic example of how one's incompetence, negligence, recklessness, irresponsibility, poor decisions can and almost always do have consequences for others far beyond Ground Zero. Which is why I'm always saying that one of us personal freedoms / individual responsibility hang glider assholes DOES NOT have the right to do anything that has any risk whatsoever of results more serious than a scratch or bruise. Sorry everybody.

NMERider - 2017/07/29 02:38:29 UTC

The problem has been that far too many pilots have been far too lucky far too many times and so when their luck runs out it tends to be catastrophic.

Bull's-eye. Nailed it about two and a half days in advance. Thought I could manage the risk. Never before had a problem with hawks before November. Really great wake-up call.

Not doing well. Can't sleep, eat, do anything other than lose myself for a while on the keyboard. Keep looking up expecting to see her in/on the cage in the living room window... Gonna try to do the eclipse but any memory I have of it will forever have really painful associations. Big part of enjoying Trinidad/Tobago was looking forward to getting back to her.

Objects of the exercise were to let her learn a bit about how be a wild bird, sharpen up her flying skills, let her enjoy hanging out in the trees until she wanted to come back in - and let me enjoy what she was enjoying. And all that was working great - right up to the moment at which it all blew up in my face.

Heard this SECONDS after clicking Submit on the last:

http://writersalmanac.org
The Writer's Almanac with Garrison Keillor | A poem each day, plus literary and historical notes from this day in history

Exotic Treats
by Laura McKee

Especially on long drives through the country,
you like to tell that story about your old girlfriend
whose parrot was killed one afternoon
by a raccoon who stole in through the pet door.
It was horrible, you say. Feathers everywhere.
Are you laughing? Stop laughing.
She really loved that bird.

Fuckin' Raccoons destroyed the plastic/foam doormat we used for under her feeding station platform by the kitchen table. (The platform upon which she was parked on the kitchen table when the Redtail half succeeded in blasting through the window to get her on the morning of 2016/12/12.) I'd hauled all her stuff out onto the back deck to soak in Tuestay evening's rain and blast clean and just left it all overnight.