So I was sitting at the computer last night - around 2am or so - and heard a loud, rattling thump. My computer sits facing the dining room over a small room divider. There's a door from the dining room onto a small, screened in back porch - and a screen door to the back yard. The noise seemed to have come from outside the porch.

Anyway, it was loud enough to arouse both cats: Toyota had been dozing on the back of my chair and Xerox was under a chair a few feet away. When there was a second thump a few seconds later, both cats started growling, ran to the dining room and began stalking the door to the porch. This was followed by more rattling and banging and what sounded like scratching. I assumed something was trying to get in through the screen door from the yard to the porch - and my first assumption was that it was some other village cat.

But the thumping (against the door?) sounded a bit heavy for a cat, so my next thought was that it might be a raccoon trying to get to the bag of rubbish that was sitting on the porch. Anyway, the noise subsided and, while Toyota remained on a windowsill overlooking the back yard, Xerox wandered back to his place under the chair.

About five minutes later, though, the rattling and scratching started up again - a bit louder. Both cats were back on the scene, growling and fluffing up their tails. Then there were a couple of loud bangs, followed by some clattering and a few more loud thumps. I repaired to the bedroom to let Sean know that I thought a bear might be trying to get to the garbage bag on the back porch. A few years ago, a bear had come into the yard fairly regularly when a large garbage can had been kept outside the house. It would periodically toss the lid aside and tear apart the garbage bag inside, scattering rubbish all over the yard.

I must admit I was a bit spooked - as I suppose we're meant to be by things that go bump in the night - and was a bit goose bumpy by the time I got back to the bedroom to wake Sean.

"What? Why do you think it's a bear? Did you see anything?"

"No, but it sounds too large for a small animal."

"What sounds large?"

"The thumping and rattling. Like bigger than a possum or a fox. It's not a person because Xerox didn't hide [he hides behind the television when people approach the house] - he's right there with Toyota making cat noises at the back door."

"So what do you want me to do?"

"I don't know."

"Come to bed, then."

"With a bear or something out there?"

"It can't get in the house, can it?"

"It could if it's a zombie."

"It's not a zombie."

"How do you know?"

"Come to bed."

"I left all the lights and stuff on out there."

"Then go turn them off."

"..."

"Oh, all right."

By the time we got back to the dining room, the noises had subsided, but the cats were still a bit agitated. We turned off the lights and went to bed. "I guess it wasn't a zombie."

"Why?"

"They tend to be more persistent."

This morning, I investigated. The back door to the yard had, indeed, been attacked. In fact, the screen in the top half of the door had been replaced with glass for the winter - and the glass and most of the frame had been knocked into the back porch. The door is up a step, so the top panel is about four feet from the ground. As it turns out, it was a plexiglass panel, but it had been broken into three pieces nevertheless. The frame on the door was also slightly bent.

The weird thing, though, was that there were no scratches on the door (or anything else): the lower panel and frame are aluminum, painted white, and would be easily marked. The scratching I'd heard sounded like something scratching at a screen, but the only screen on the porch at the moment is on the inside door, right outside the dining room. There was one hair on the door frame below the punched out panel - black with a gray tip, slightly wavy, and about three inches long - not very coarse.

For some reason I was reminded of the Pennsylvania Creature that had been spotted in Westmoreland County back in the seventies. It was supposed to be a Marked Hominid, a slightly smaller relative of the Sasquatch. Anyway, night has fallen. We'll see if there's a return visit. Meanwhile, any thoughts?

Poll #1185931
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Tags: cat kingdom, nature studies, social and personal
humour: uneasy

The cave, I find, is always more interesting in the spring. Mostly, with more run-off from melting snow and ice on the mountains and heavier, more persistent rains, the cave is a lot wetter - the dripstone is dripping, the flowstone is flowing, the stream bed is streaming, the rimstone dams are damming, and the sound of dripping, trickling water is everywhere.

     

     

     
While I was in snapping some of teh wetness, I also did several portraits of the last of the bats (the hibernating bat population being another thing that makes the cave more interesting in the early spring - and late fall). There are only a few pipstrelles left - the little browns have finished hibernating and the last of them left the cave for the summer a few days ago. Here are a couple of them:
 

Tags: nature studies, photo/graphic, speleological
humour: impressed

We decided to take the scenic route to the nearest Chinese take-away after work on Sunday. It was kinda grey and drizzly, but we brought the camera along anyway. From the bitter countryside of Pennsylvania:


Spring House


Llamas


Furnace


Pump


Cow


Tree

Tags: nature studies, photo/graphic
humour: bitter

Since it fucking well snowed yesterday, I thought it might be heartening (or maybe just depressing) to finally post some of my "nature photos" from last spring. So, in memory of younger, happier times - seven months ago - a number of pics I took to record some of the new environs...


bee on dandelion


rickety web on footbridge
( more behind cut )

Tags: nature studies, photo/graphic
humour: nostalgic

Three new species of lemur have been identified by BioMed Central. Okay, it's not like more lemurs have been discovered (what had been thought to be varieties of the same species have now been determined to be genetically different enough to rate their own species classification), but it's a reasonable excuse to post some pictures of them.









Yay lemurs!

Tags: nature studies, photo/graphic
humour: chipper

So, one night in Savannah down. We checked in to our little suite in the Garden Hotel then headed out to meet Jaime and Mike (and Mike's adorable brother, Mark, and his very sweet girlfriend, Shelly) for a meal at The Lady and Sons, Paula Deen's restaurant. Unfortunately, Mark wasn't feeling very well (dehydration from a day on on Tybee Island, it seems), so he and Shelly headed out early. We stopped back the the hotel for a bit, then dropped Jaime and Mike home. Sean and I stayed up for a while, perusing the anniversary acquisitions (loads of books and CDs and DVDs and such) before retiring.

We were out early-ish for provisions and a wee stroll, then back here to regroup. Photos of uber-fabulous Savannah to follow...

Oh - and thanks to fridgemagnet, the happy news that two new species of lemur have been discovered in Madagascar (where else?) - a giant mouse lemur, Mirza zaza (they even have cute names), about the size of a grey squirrel, with a long bushy tail, and Goodman's mouse lemur (the tiny little bugger pictured below). Lemurs, by the way, are the closest living analogs to our primate ancestors, demonstrating that we are more closely related to cats than to apes.  :)


Speaking of wildlife, we saw The March of the Penguins the other night. I'll wait until we're back home before detailing what a gross disappointmnet that was. For now, DON'T WASTE YOUR TIME!

But who would've thought that a nature film would be the summer blockbuster? I guess that says something about the caliber of Hollywood's output these days. Aaand speaking of blockbusters, this week's This Modern World was kinda cute:


I haven't seen The Fantastic Four (I can wait to stumble across that on late night tee-vee in a few years time), have refused to see any of the execrable Star Wars movies since Empire Strikes Back, have already assessed The Chocolate Factory here, and can wait for War of the Worlds on DVD. Why further stuff the pockets of a raving Scientological loony and self-hating fag like Tom Cruise?

Okay - time to hit the streets of The Hostess City of the South again. Hasta luego...


ON EDIT: The Savannah pics can be found here and here and here and here. My evisceration of March of the Penguins can be found here. Nothing further about lemurs.

Tags: movie madness, nature studies, political diversion, social and personal
humour: relaxed