Archive for the ‘found things’ Category.
23rd May 2010, 11:15 pm
Last week Danielle found a baby robin in the grass at her house; so young that it was mostly skin and without feathers. As the parents had apparently abandoned it, she decided to feed it until it flies away. This has been going well thus far, with it enjoying a steady diet of watered down canned dog food, berries, and insects.
Because it needs regular feedings the robin accompanied us on this weekend’s trip to the Manistee area for mountain biking, to Danielle’s work last week, and to my house this weekend. It’s doing fairly well living in its sock-lined cardboard box, but starting today it’s been trying to get out, stretch its now-feathered wings, and fly up on few inch high objects. I can’t imagine that it’ll be more than a few more days before it’s able to fly away.
If you compare the photo above (link) with this one you can see just how much its changed in a few days. Most noticeably it can stand up for long periods of time, climb things, and has many more feathers.
The rest of the Baby Robin Rescue photos can be found here.
12th February 2010, 02:18 pm
Today at work I was going through some old cabinets doing a bit of cleanup. One of the things I found was this wonderful, gigantic mousepad. It’s great!
30th January 2010, 06:37 pm
While out for a bike ride this afternoon I removed this proselytizing sign from the pedestrian bridge which parallels 22 Mile Road as it crosses M-53. I’ve seen tens of similar signs bearing some religious message all throughout the Detroit area. Each is somewhat poorly constructed and tied with a messy knot of white yarn to the cyclone fencing over bridges. I did my best to rip the sign and yarn down, but as a few knots and tassels remained I’ll have to go back another day with a knife and properly remove those bits.
Being made of poster board with stenciled and filled lettering under two layers of what appears to be contact paper lamination these signs would likely have lasted a few months then torn off in the wind. The holes in the corners were also punched through the lamination. I can only imagine how bad these would look after weather has done its thing and they are left dangling in the breeze. Then again, this person who wants to shove their rhetoric in everyone’s face must not have much concern for the community or environment, much less the interests of others.
12th December 2009, 11:05 pm
Today I went for my first below-freezing ride of the season, ending up in River Bends (surprise!) poking around both single track trails that I already knew and some that I just came across for the first time. Some of these new (to me) trails resulted in a better mental picture of how the trails, disc golf course, and rivers fit together.
After riding a bit of the unmaintained single track I happened back up to the normal hiking trail, and ran across two women with dogs on leashes. Following them was a small beagle, and they told me that it just started following them and if I see someone looking for a dog that I should let them know it’s with them. After sniffing me (and allowing me to note the presence of a license and name tag with phone number) on its collar, it started heading back the way it’d come, and the direction I was going. After telling the ladies that I’d take care of the dog I followed it for a while hoping I’d hear someone calling for it.
Since no one was calling for the dog I eventually grabbed it by the collar and played with it while calling one of the numbers on the tag. The person on the other end of the phone seemed pretty excited that I’d found their dog, and in not much time her husband was on his way to meet me. It seems he jogs River Bends frequently, so we were able to establish a place to meet; one of the benches in a notably straight part of the path. No more than 10 minutes later he came jogging through the woods and I was able to get his dog back to him. I’m really glad this worked out well, as both seeing a lost dog looking around for someone familiar and knowing that someone has lost their dog is a pretty sad thing. Here’s a picture of the dog while we were waiting for its person.
While riding around other parts of the park I came across lots of ice, all of which was fun to ride across even without studded tires. As these were mostly narrow and mostly snow covered puddles it was quite solid and not slippery and in places where I did break through there was just a bit of mud beneath. However, at one point I came across a larger flooded area, part of which is seen above, and while it was tempting to try riding through this bit of floodplane on smooth/hard surface it’s possible that this area could have been a few feet deep, and with the ice being an inch or so thick, I didn’t want to risk falling in. Not to mention that unlike the aforementioned puddles it had a slick glare which caused me a great deal of difficulty when setting my bike down, resulting in a controlled slide / almost-fall as seen above.
Towards the end of my ride I was heading along one of the single track-bearing ridges when I veered a little bit off the trail. Normally this isn’t a problem as I can hop up the edge of worn (into a U) single track and continue on like normal, but in this case with the snow kept my front wheel in the groove while my body and bike continued on off the trail. This resulted in a rather amusing tumble into the brush and down the ridge, with me looking back up at my bike (as seen here) after I stopped. I’d previously been afraid to fall here, as the hill is fairly steep and covered in a bunch of woody brush. However, with it being winter-time and my wearing multiple layers of clothes, the fall was mostly something to laugh at. This was actually my first decent tumbling-fall since the crash at Addison Oaks resulting in the skinplug, and thankfully the outcome was much different.
8th October 2009, 03:10 pm
Please enjoy this photo of the concrete driveway near my sister’s condo with a golf ball embedded in it.
3rd September 2009, 04:24 pm
This morning when pulling up to the post office at 22 Mile and VanDyke I noticed a pig laying in the alley behind the strip mall which Bone Appetite Pet Supplies. A few years ago I saw this same pig, but at that time it was just nosing around in the grass next to a sign saying that the pig is supposed to be there.
UPDATE: Since people have asked, yes, the pig was alive. It was breathing, but appeared to be sleeping. The bowl on the right contained a bit of bright yellow liquid, which I hope was some sort of nutritional supplement or the remains of food. If I’m remembering correctly the other bowl was empty.
31st August 2009, 10:40 pm
This free shelf here is another reason why one shouldn’t be afraid to take their neighbor’s trash right off the pile. While walking Roxie last night we saw this white shoe organizer sitting in the trash. One of the assembly screws had broken through the top, as if someone had stepped on it.
One new hole, moving the screw, and some wood glue and a clamp to repair the ripped out piece, and it’s quite nice again. Sure, these only cost $10 – $15, but free (and one less in the landfill) is even better. I really like shelves like this, as they are great for organizing small tools on a workbench or desk surface. There’s already one on my basement workbench and another on Danielle’s desk. This one on the garage workbench rounds it out nicely.
26th August 2009, 07:24 pm
This is not my image, but after finding it in this Reddit post this morning I knew that I had to make it. It’s quite, quite good. I made mine with thinly sliced home-baked bread, honey on the outer pieces, and peanut butter on the inner toasted bit. As others have described it, it’s like the Taco Bell Crunch Wrap Supreme, but better. The inner crunch adds a very nice new dimension to an old stand-by sandwich.
