Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

I see no possible difficulties whatsoever with this fool-proof plan.

Following reporting rules is only for the little people, apparently.

No one could have predicted…

You’re just a puppy masquerading as an old coot.

The jury literally has a bell they can ring to force Trump to show up on command. Greatest thing ever!

Republicans: The threats are dire, but my tickets are non-refundable!

Perhaps you mistook them for somebody who gives a damn.

My right to basic bodily autonomy is not on the table. that’s the new deal.

Republicans choose power over democracy, every day.

If marriage is the equivalent of selling yourself into slavery, women with self respect should reject the offer.

The frogs are rarely mistaken.

Republicans got rid of McCarthy. Democrats chose not to save him.

American History and Black History can not be separated.

I’m pretty sure there’s only one Jack Smith.

fuckem (in honor of the late great efgoldman)

You can’t love your country only when you win.

Republicans: slavery is when you own me. freedom is when I own you.

They love authoritarianism, but only when they get to be the authoritarians.

This really is a full service blog.

Republicans: “Abortion is murder but you can take a bus to get one.” Easy peasy.

It’s a new day. Light all those Biden polls of young people on fire and throw away the ashes.

Motown is Joe-Town!

Nancy smash is sick of your bullshit.

Come on, media. you have one job. start doing it.

You are here: Home / Open Threads / Acts of Kindness: Hitchhiking and a Pause

Acts of Kindness: Hitchhiking and a Pause

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If you hike high enough in the Rockies, you will for sure see these guys. They’re not shy at all, often perching on a boulder, staring at the bipeds as they walk by, and much less annoying than the chipmunks who are always trying to steal your lunch.  Greenwood Wildlife Rehabilitation is actually nearby and does great rehab work, everything from baby squirrels to local waterfowl. I was unaware we had a hitchhiking marmot problem until this report.

Just an FYI – Acts of Kindness is taking a two-week break. I’m traveling this week, and next week is going to be a whirlwind of crazy. Starting with Zander having dental surgery and barrelling to my birthday at the end of the week, with plans for lunches, hiking, and whatever else my friends and I can do to distract ourselves from the dog days of summer.

So, enjoy your marmots, and AoK will return shortly.

 

Reader Interactions

53Comments

  1. 1.

    Baud

    Acts of Kindness is taking a two-week break.

    I will refrain from being kind until you return.

  5. 5.

    Kropacetic

    @Baud: I will refrain from being kind until you return.

    No need. Let kindness accumulate and she will have an embarrassment of riches of kindness to choose to highlight when she returns.

  6. 6.

    trollhattan

    “Eeep!”
    That’s marmot for…many things.

    IDK if it’s still a problem but for a time marmots at the Whitney Portal trailhead–in California, the quickest access to summit Mt. Whitney–were hellbent on getting into engine compartments where they’d eat wire insulation, hoses, anything rubbery. It got so bad folks had to put chicken (marmot) wire fencing around their cars to keep the critters away.

    I do not know how they may fare after an antifreeze or power steering fluid cocktail.

    It’s a different problem than in New Zealand where keas eat your wiper blades and pull weatherstrips off your car.

  7. 7.

    Andrya

    Chipmunks are the only thieves?  I beg to differ.  There isn’t just a hitchhiking marmot problem, there is a thieving marmot problem.

    Backpacking near Yosemite, I momentarily put down my teacup to help another person fold and pack their tent.

    When I looked up, a marmot was finishing the last of my morning tea.

  10. 10.

    randal sexton

    @Andrya: second that.  High sierra marmots were pretty omnivorous.  I remember one that used to hang out at the rock bivvy spot on the way up to mt dana.

  11. 11.

    Fake Irishman

    Uh did anyone else see the news that Manchin and Schumer have a deal? Climate money, extension of enhanced ACA subsidies for three years, paid for with drug reform and closing corporate tax loopholes. Vote next week. *knocks in wood, throws salt over shoulder, looks nervously around for black cats*

    Dave Anderson call your office.

    john Cole call your senator’s office.

  13. 13.

    Miss Bianca

    @Omnes Omnibus: damn it! Second reference today! So again I feel obligated to preen myself over my Nice Marmot* t-shirt, which I happen to be wearing right now.

    *former band

  14. 14.

    Albatrossity

    When I was a card-carrying biologist, I published several scientific papers dealing with the lipid metabolic pathways in these critters. They’re amazing. They double their body weight every summer, eating basically salad. They hibernate from September to April/May, living off the fat they gained in their salad days. They do not eat anything during the hibernation time, but they do wake up to pee every couple of weeks.

     

    We still have lots to learn, and some of it is relevant to obesity, diabetes, and many other human maladies.

  17. 17.

    Hoosierspud

    My former workplace in Eastern Washington had open fields around it and marmots got into engine compartments often until they put up an electrical fence. One of the pathologists unknowingly brought one home with him and when he went out to his garage the next morning he found that the marmot trashed the place.

  18. 18.

    Sure Lurkalot

    @Albatrossity: That’s fascinating marmot info. I love the little critters and am very jealous of their sleeping and mid slumber urination schedule.

  21. 21.

    CaseyL

    I just looked it up to be sure, and yeah: Groundhogs are marmots are groundhogs. They sure look like the same critter, but I wanted to be sure.  Hope these two girls can re-acclimate to their native area.

    TaMara – I hope  Zander comes through his dental ordeal with no problems, and that you have a fantastic birthday!

  22. 22.

    Jay

    @Hoosierspud:

    McArthur Park in Kamloops is notorious for marmots.

    they den under the sidewalks, heaving the concrete up.

    their taste for rubber, is like porcupines, based on how rubber accumulates road salt in winter and it also never washes off. I used to keep a salt lick in my truck to divert marmots away.

    I repaired about a half dozen of garages, where the marmot hitched a ride, then trashed the garage trying to get out. Once had one tunnel through an pavement alley into a restaurant storage /fridge area.

  23. 23.

    Mnemosyne

    We’re back from my brother-in-law’s wedding in Chicago, and unfortunately we’re in isolation because we had an unwanted hitchhiker. 🦠

    Luckily, we were both already vaccinated and double-boosted, so symptoms have been mild. I bitched and moaned about the side effects of my Moderna vaccines, but they seem to have protected me better than my husband’s Pfizer vaxxes.

    In happier news, I got my very first hard copy books as an author, which was super cool. Ironically, my story takes place in Chicago during the COVID lockdown of 2020.

  24. 24.

    Albatrossity

    @CaseyL: The groundhog in the eastern part of the country is Marmota monax. Rocky Mountain marmots are M. flaviventris, the yellow-bellied marmot. There are other marmot species in North America and on other continents. They are all fascinating!

  26. 26.

    Miss Bianca

    @Mnemosyne: Damn, congrats and condolences all in the same post?

    I finally bit the bullet after wavering for a long time about whether or not to book a flight to Baltimore for my sister’s memorial service. Seems like *every single person* I know who’s been on a plane lately has caught COVID somewhere along the line during the trip.

    I am going to gal up and get my second booster before I go. And wear a mask the whole damn time, fwiw. More than that, I don’t know what I can do.

  27. 27.

    Redshift

    Nice to hear the whistle that gives it the name whistle pig.

    We had a woodchuck living in our back yard a few years ago. Didn’t stay long, but it was the biggest animal we’d ever seen back there.

  28. 28.

    Mnemosyne

    @Miss Bianca:

    We almost certainly got it at the wedding, and we weren’t the only ones. The airplane and airports weren’t too bad and most people were masked or at least kept their distance. So I would be more wary of the family gatherings than the public places.

  29. 29.

    Redshift

    @Miss Bianca: It’s not hopeless. I took a trip out West two weeks ago and got through unscathed, despite the level of masking being much lower than the previous time I’d traveled. You’re definitely rolling the dice with the new variants, but it’s not inevitable.

  33. 33.

    WaterGirl

    @Mnemosyne: We have an Authors in Our Midst series, where we feature … wait for it… Authors!

    Send me an email if you would like to be featured.

    my nym at balloon-juice.com

  38. 38.

    Jackie

    Out of the blue, I’m getting get rid of varmint ads.

    Surely, a coincidence…🧐🤔

  39. 39.

    RaflW

    @Andrya: Speaking of thieves, we watched with fascination (and for me, a few shivers of discomfort) as coati would open back packs in mere seconds if left on the ground at Iguazú National Park. They are very practiced at nabbing any snacks the tourists have, ziplocks – and even actual zippers – are like nothing to them.

    They’re kind of cute, but they’re also a bit too similar to their raccoon cousins for my liking. And they were everywhere.

  41. 41.

    RaflW

    @Miss Bianca: I’ve flown a few times in the past couple months, and BF just flew again on Monday.

    We’re vax’d and 2X boosted, and wear KN95s that fit well from front door of the first airport to exit of the last. We do take them off briefly to drink or eat, but that’s it.

    Neither of us have caught the ‘rona. We also continue to only dine outdoors at restaurants (wether the establishment is around our home or while traveling), and are pretty cautious about in-house friend visits (“Hey, we have this great deck, come on out and we’ll bring out drinks and snacks!”).

    Meanwhile, friends who travel like us but dine indoors? Batting like .400 on Covid hits.

  47. 47.

    Quiltingfool

    @sab: I have a groundhog!  Err, woodchuck?  Anyway, I call him Chuck.  Occasionally I see Chuck munching on grass in the front yard; I don’t have a garden, poor Chuck.  I did throw out some not-so-good watermelon, and the next morning it was gone.  Could’ve been Chuck, or possums or deer, who knows!

  48. 48.

    Mnemosyne

    @WaterGirl:

    I’ll send an email tonight.

    @Dorothy A. Winsor:

    Thank you! My story is only a little dirty, so it shouldn’t be too shocking. I can also vouch for the stories by my friends Guinevere Jordan and Trinity Wood, and A.R. Bell’s story is also good, though perhaps a bit racier than the rest of us.

  49. 49.

    Dan B

    @Albatrossity: Whistle Pigs!  They’ve been all over the North Cascades.  It’s seemed like forever.  You hike into their gorgeous alpine basin and they whistle warnings that echo off the cliffs.  One of the most enigmatic and beguiling aspects of hiking in the PNW.

    Their ‘alarm’ whistles are intense.  They have engaged that sweet and mysterious between alarm and poetry of the wild

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