A Pictorial Chronology of Two Mayas : From Birth to Adulthood

Last June it was shade of serependity when I had the rare distinction of intruding into a maya’s nest deceptively hidden in one potted bush lodged in our building’s roof deck.

One bright morning, I almost stepped on a small wriggly mass of pinkish flesh on the slowly heating concrete floor of the deck, being devoured by a frenzied horde of small black ants. Stooping closer I could make out the crude outlines of an organism whose internal organs were visible from its diaphanous outer flesh. It was a newly hatched bird that much I knew. Picking it up and shooing with my fingers the busy clinging ants, I settled it on a small cup cushioned with a folded paper napkin and positioned the makeshift nest on top and in the safety of the observation deck I had constructed. Hoping the mother would return and minister to her young.

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Princess – A Full-grown Lady?

Though not quite one year old yet in our best estimation, our resident mutt (a ShihTzu-Terrier mix) appears to be full grown in physical appearance. A truly mature bitch (proper in dog language) appearing ready to take on maternal responsibilities. Since she has not been neutered, there is nothing that can prevent her from exercising those – except with our firm and solicitous intervention.

She has been kept apart from the other noisy dogs in the neighborhood, getting only as close to them from our side of our grille gate, no more no less. No outside walks to fraternize with the neighborhood heavies. Her travels so far have been done as a passenger in our pickup truck.

We may have to learn more about the proper caring of mature bitches.

We will take it for now one day at a time.

Suffice it to say that all this time she has been a good dog – a good stay-inside guard dog and quite animated in her treatment of house residents. A high jumper and a definite enemy of neighborhood cats who stay outside our reach by roaming around rooftops. Some may even be stray or feral cats, but sight or smell of them turns Princess into a ferocious protector of hearth and home. At times jumping toward our perimeter fence to elevate herself even higher. Quite a neat move or trick for a dog quite challenged in size.

Man Years Vs Dog Years

Part of conventional wisdom instructs us that one year of any dog’s life is worth seven in man (homo sapiens) and over time we have come to accept that as accepted truth. Well, not so. Even Snopes.Com has weighed in to correct our wrong notions about this truism.

A couple of clear but general benchmarks for earnest dog lovers. Generally, small breed dogs live longer than big breed dogs. Per current history, longer living dogs can live to be over 20 years (record shows one living for 27 years).

Like us, abuse-prone creatures, the life span of dogs also depends on a host of factors. Genetics, environment, life style, and for dogs, even the type of breeds, etc.

And with dogs too, there is the at times forgotten angle to their life spans, that some dogs age slower than other dogs of different breeds. Meaning, two dogs born on the same day may grow, or “mature” differently. Thus, one may be said to be older than the other, though born at the same time.

To be realistic then, many would agree that a typical dog year is more like five years of human life.

Hey, no problem here. So you, Princess, are now two and one-half years old having been born about 6 months ago.

Another six months and you will be considered full-grown or mature. Enjoy the rest of your childhood!

For more on Princess, click here and here.

Transport For Comfort

Is it a plane? Is it a bird? Is it Supe…..?

No, silly. It is a gyrocopter, or an autogyro, or a gyroplane, or, err, a rotaplane.

Needless to state, heavier-than-air Homo sapiens has always been fascinated and intrigued about flying. Many a youngster’s dreams have been woven into episodes of being able to fly through flimsy air.

Of course, man has done most anything that strikes his many capricious fancies and whims, typically by inventing machines to accomplish them. He will even go beyond altering man’s exterior environment to make realities of those dreams. If given the opportunities, he will even invent or devise whatever means necessary to actually change man’s physical or mental constitutions in this pursuit, bound and limited most of the time by the perimeters of ethics and morality.

But enough of and away with the ethereal musings. Over time man has generally attended to with sterling successes in satiating his many wishes and fantasies, whether as necessities or simply as conveniences.

For God’s sake, we have planes and/or flying machines of various shapes and sizes to enable him to fly, or lift him from the ground and bring him places.

But that is not the attendant question. The more relevant question is how many of the vast numbers of humanity in the planet can afford to own a flying machine for his personal uses. On land, a vast number of us can travel faster than the fastest animals using a wide array of machines – bikes, motorbikes, cars, trucks, boats, jetskis, etc. And a vast number of us can own those land/water vehicles for our personal uses.

But a flying machine that we can use at the strike of our fancy or need? A flying machine one can keep in your garage or load up in your pick-up truck like a kayak for your skyward excursions? Now, that’s a great possibility. Easily translatable to reality.

Hoverhawk Corporation here in the US can provide you with the precious key to open up your own dreams of flying on your own, in your own little plane, transporting you anywhere you want to go.

For as little as 15k dollars plus shipping and handling costs, you can own the cheapest model which can be delivered to any location you desire, packaged and requiring some assembly before use. Most cars in the market today cost at least that much and most garages (and curbs) are filled with two or three cars to a family. Making one wonder why this addictive bias toward land travel does not carry over to the equally innate love of free flight in thin air. Like a soaring bird traveling to any part of the globe, unfettered by the bounds of the very limiting constraints of geography. Where one does not need roads, or valleys, or land or water, for land/water obstacles that may present some difficulty in scaling or navigating can be conquered by simply flying over them.

So the adventure begins. First item on the menu, learn about flying and its dynamics and when done, take some basic short-time flying lessons.

So excuse me, while I attend to those. Till then.

The Man In Black: Spidey

The 3rd sequel of Spiderman is out and promises to be another summer blockbuster as were the previous two. Or is it a prequel?

Something different has been introduced. Spidey in a black foreboding costume.

Nothing new. For serious Spidey comic book enthusiasts.

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Old Coin Reveals Truth?

On this day for lovers, did your mind wander to antiquity to magically conjure the classical image of star-crossed love in the persons of Egyptian Pharaoh Cleopatra and Roman Officer Mark Anthony?

Well, time to reset, or Ctrl/Alt/Delete.

Archeology has once again exposed the fantasized Hollywoodization of history's famous lovers.

Cleopatra - "beautiful seductress with goddess-like looks"?

Far from it and perish the thought.

What about - "a shallow forehead, pointed chin, thin lips and a witch-like nose"?

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Harmonize With A Harmonica

Ever been asked: Do you play any musical instrument?

Bet you, many of us have been and sadly, many of us will reply in the negative.

Of course, many of us can belt tunes, using our excitingly unique vocal chords as our musical instrument.

Okay, aside from that, which else?

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