Author Archives: Steve Mays

Jan’s Blues

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A few days ago one of Barb’s friends asked asked about singing telegrams. Something she could order online and email for a birthday. (Barb’s sister). I suggested she use an AI to create an original song. She sent a beautiful note which I uploaded to Claude.ai which promptly turned around some lyrics.

I uploaded those to Suno which cranked out the tune below:

“A slow twelve-bar in the key of seventy years.”
“She’s my sister from another mister. The soother of my soul.”

PS: I played the song for two people, both of whom didn’t care for it. I thought is was perfect.

Land Rover: Looking Back

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When Mr. Wolf finds a transport vehicle the Land Rover will be heading West for a little spruce-up and a new home. I’m feeling good about the decision to sell but get the occasional bout of nostalgia when I come across something like this timeline.

Turns out we still had miles to go. Mr. Wolf discovered a problem with the little 4-cylinder engine which necessitated finding a source for a rebuilt engine which was shipped to SF where Philippe spent a few months shoe-horning it into the Rover. All of which took another 8 months! So about a year-and-a-half from beginning to end.

Goodbye water filter

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When we built our home ~40 years ago, we had a well drilled which necessitated a pressure tank and lots of pipes in our basement. And a filter that was supposed to be changed every few months (I didn’t always do that). This involved balancing atop a ladder and getting soaked to the elbows. Been doing this unpleasant chore for four decades.

Couple of weeks ago we had a plumber come out to work on the filter and he sent a sample of our water to a lab. A week later the report came back and they found nothing in our water. No need for a filter.

This might be the result of the new well we had drilled last year but who knows. All I know is I’m done with this messy chore.

Sharp-shinned Hawk

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Living on 10 wooded acres, we have lots of birds flocking to the four or five feeders we have hanging over our deck. Sometime after I retired, I took over the chore of keeping the feeders filled and have come to love watching the birds.

Yesterday, for the first time, this guy showed up. A Sharp-shinned Hawk (Accipiter striatus). Identification rests on several anatomical markers that distinguish it from its near-twin, the Cooper’s Hawk:

  • Head Shape: It has a “pin-headed” appearance with a rounded crown. It lacks the prominent supraorbital ridge (the “brow bone”) that gives Cooper’s Hawks a stern, angry expression.
  • Tail Structure: The tail is relatively square-tipped with a thin white terminal band. In a Cooper’s Hawk, the tail is typically rounded with a thicker white band.
  • Eye Placement: Centered on the side of the head, contributing to the “bug-eyed” look typical of the species.
  • Legs: Noticeably spindly, “pencil-thin” yellow legs.

Given the barred rufous chest and dark slate-gray back, this is an adult. These are specialized ambush predators, so if you have bird feeders nearby, its presence is purely tactical.