Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

The party of Reagan has become the party of Putin.

We can show the world that autocracy can be defeated.

rich, arrogant assholes who equate luck with genius

When you’re a Republican, they let you do it.

There are more Russians standing up to Putin than Republicans.

This chaos was totally avoidable.

Shut up, hissy kitty!

Hey Washington Post, “Democracy Dies in Darkness” was supposed to be a warning, not a mission statement.

Republicans in disarray!

Consistently wrong since 2002

People identifying as christian while ignoring christ and his teachings is a strange thing indeed.

Reality always lies in wait for … Democrats.

There is no compromise when it comes to body autonomy. You either have it or you do not.

Disagreements are healthy; personal attacks are not.

My years-long effort to drive family and friends away has really paid off this year.

Within six months Twitter will be fully self-driving.

Dear elected officials: Trump is temporary, dishonor is forever.

If you voted for Trump, you don’t get to speak about ethics, morals, or rule of law.

fuckem (in honor of the late great efgoldman)

He wakes up lying, and he lies all day.

Republicans firmly believe having an abortion is a very personal, very private decision between a woman and J.D. Vance.

I desperately hope that, yet again, i am wrong.

When you’re in more danger from the IDF than from Russian shelling, that’s really bad.

When we show up, we win.

You are here: Home / Pet Blogging / Dog Blogging / Respite Open Thread: Ducks and Danes

Respite Open Thread: Ducks and Danes

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Anne Laurie sent me this tweet thread, it’s a smile maker:

We had our own duckling rescue this week. The fire department and police joined forces to retrieve ducklings from a street grate:

May be an image of one or more people and road

May be an image of one or more people and outdoors

May be an image of 1 person and outdoors

May be an image of goose

 

And finally here’s my crew:

I’ve been trimming up the lilacs and making a big pile of branches. The dogs think this is their own personal stash of sticks.

Is it a bird of prey, is it a plane? Only the ducks know for sure.

I’m surprised they let me get this close with the camera – usually, they see it and run off (damn paparazzi).

There are more photos of everyone (including Maddie) here.

Respite open thread – I think we could all use it. What’s good going on in your world?

Reader Interactions

41Comments

  1. 1.

    Ken

    Baby ducklings share a snooze, doo-dah, doo-dah,

    (Surely I’m not the only one?

    BTW, I was reading cracked.com this morning, and I think I figured out where all those bitcoin investors put their bucks after bailing out. Probably safer than bitcoin, at least until someone introduces NFTs of the underlying commodity.

  2. 2.

    Wag

    I just finished a ride along the Cherry Creek bike path here in Denver. I passed about four or five those families with mama goose and five or six goslings each along the path.

    The goslings, even still covered in down, were huge.

  3. 3.

    otmar

    Austria is opening up. Vaccinations amongst my friends are starting to become more common.

    My wife got the first AZ a week ago.

    Let’s see how this will evolve over the summer

    I’m in the tram: on the way to watch my boy compete in a hockey game.

  6. 6.

    Almost Retired

    Loves me some ducks!  A duck clan from a nearby nature preserve have taken to stopping by regularly to hang out in the cement pond.  Unrelated, but I just picked up a friend at LAX.   Don’t ever do that.  In addition to epic crowds of people who have forgotten how to behave in airports, it is a massive construction zone.  Lesson learned.  If Jesus himself returned to Earth via LAX and asked me to make an airport run, I’d tell him to call an Uber.

  9. 9.

    eclare

    Nothing much to report, just a nice day in Memphis. Temp is 58, which is wonderful before the inferno begins. Got the doors open to get the breeze.

  10. 10.

    Steeplejack

    @eclare:

    It’s 52° and cloudy in my corner of NoVA. Was supposed to rain all day, but that hasn’t happened so far. It’ll be pleasantly cool for a while: not supposed to hit 80° until next Thursday, 90° the Monday after that. Fine with me! As you said, after that the inferno.

  12. 12.

    Ruckus

    @Almost Retired:
    Nothing wrong with an airport designed decades ago, that hasn’t and really can’t keep up with the amount of human traffic that it generates. Especially in an area that has grown population wise rather dramatically. LA county has one major airport (and 2 smaller domestic) and a population larger than 41 states. Do the math. 88 million people a year use LAX and there just isn’t anything like reasonable facilities. There are a lot of major changes underway, that will change a lot of that.

  13. 13.

    HinTN

    Might get to 60F today. Might get to 70F tomorrow. Might get to 80F Memorial Day. Some say there’s sweet corn from down south at the produce stand in town. May have to take a road trip.

  14. 14.

    Eric S.

    I flew into Philly this weekend with the softball crew. We are hear for a tournament. It’s my first trip since Labor Day 2019. Tournament was rained out today and tomorrow isn’t looking promising either. Last night hanging with the guys was some if the most fun I’ve had in a while.

  15. 15.

    Wapiti

    Just hit my fully vaccinated status this morning, and celebrated by going to the iconic Portage Bay Cafe here in Seattle with the spouse.

    And I think I’ve figured out why some places have a shortfall in workers. Holy cow, the place was hopping, and it seemed like they had 30-40 people working there this morning. The original Portage Bay is near UW, and some of the wait staff were there for 15 or more years. (So, not an asshole boss).

  17. 17.

    realbtl

    My 85 year old fiddler/harmonica guy and I played our first live show since last August. It felt great!

  18. 18.

    Quiltingfool

    Was going to quilt for a customer today (quilted a king size customer quilt yesterday) but decided to put that off and work on a scrappy quilt – got to get rid of all the small bits and pieces of fabric.  I do not want to end up in a Fabric Hoarder tv episode!  My quilt sales have dropped off on Etsy, which means I might just end up on a Quilt Hoarder show, yipes.  However, I just finished a custom cat quilt for an Etsy customer  (not quilted yet) and sent her photos, and she is very pleased with the result.  I wonder if I should create an Etsy store for custom quilts, especially for folks who like cat-themed quilts?  I would do regular quilts, though, I ain’t fussy.  Something to ponder, I guess.  I really love designing quilts.

  22. 22.

    Steeplejack (phone)

    @Quiltingfool:

    I wonder if I should create an Etsy store for custom quilts, especially for folks who like cat-themed quilts?

    LOL. I thought the “custom cat quilt” was actually for a cat.

  23. 23.

    germy

    Last week I walked into our local post office and bought four books of forever stamps.  I’m glad I did.

    As the name suggests, Forever Stamps can be used to mail a one-ounce letter regardless of when the stamps are purchased or used and no matter how prices may change in the future.

  24. 24.

    Ken

    @Cameron:  Daffy and Hamlet?

    Warner Brothers classics went there at least once, with Bugs Bunny and Witch Hazel, and the Animaniacs have used Shakespeare many times.  Ah, culture. Without Warner Brothers, I wouldn’t know any opera.

  30. 30.

    debbie

    I need to know more! How did 12 ducklings get past that grate? Did their mother ever appear?

  31. 31.

    Ruckus

    @HinTN:

    I was born and raised in LA and have flown in and out of LAX a lot. Up until 16 yrs ago when I left that job I used to fly all around the country about 30 weeks a year and LAX was not the worst place to fly in or out of. Really! I’ve slept on the floor of ATL more times than I want to think of (better than taking the airline up on it’s “hotel” – all the way across town on a bus, which gets you there at about 1am, all for the ride back at 5 AM – good times!) The best deal is/was, if you fly a lot, join one of the major airline benefit programs and have a rather nice place to sit and relax between flights. You need a lot of miles, but if you travel 30 weeks a year, you’ve got that. Another “benefit,” I was told by a Hertz rep once that I was in the top 5% of renters, meaning that I rented a cars more often than 95% of their customers. I used to fly so often out of my then home base that some of the flight attendants would recognize me on sight. To be honest, I don’t miss the flying one bit. OK one day, boarded sat down in my window seat, fell asleep and woke up, looked out the window and had a Twilight Zone flashback, there was a red brick wall out the window. I turned to the guy sitting next to me and asked if we were there. “You Son of A Bitch! They closed the door, backed up the plane and we’ve been sitting here for 45 minutes and you are the only person on the plane not pissed off!” I started laughing, mostly because it was funny, but also because I could sleep anywhere and did on planes most of the time. He looked at me and started laughing as well, at the stupidity of being mad about something that no one was happy about and no one could do anything about. Flying any more is like driving on LA freeways. Too many people, not enough space, rarely get where you are going when you want and it feels like a gigantic, planned, waste of time.

  33. 33.

    Steve in the ATL

    @Yutsano: FYI, Christmas over there starts at thanksgiving because, you know, they don’t celebrate that over there.

  36. 36.

    sab

    The pitbull next door, soon to be ours, went after a doe in the yard this morning. It/she chased the dog all the way back to the house and then growled (according to my stepdaughter) at the people. Do deer growl? Anyway, the pitbull finally came out from under the deck and slunk up the steps into the the house, so everyone is okay.

  37. 37.

    Steve in the ATL

    @sab: weird. Our English bulldog chases the deer out of our yard, then eats their poop.

  38. 38.

    A woman from anywhere (formerly Mohagan)

    OMG, the duckteens look all grown up! They’re bigger than the adult ducks. Thanks for the pics.

  40. 40.

    J R in WV

    @otmar: 

    Otmar~!!~ Great to see you here again!

    We too hope international travel opens up again. We would love to drive in the Alps of Italy, France, Switzerland (my grandfather spoke switzerdeutsch) and Austria. Hope your kid had a great game!

  41. 41.

    J R in WV

    @Quiltingfool:

    I have attempted to contact you via etsy.

    if that doesn’t work, Watergirl can connect us if you ask her.

    Seeking quilting !

Comments are closed.