WWW.RIDESIDE.NET

Posted by cdubrocker on 2006-02-03 16:12:10 +0000

Have you been to the Opryland Hotel? Now, that's a nice place to spend a spring day (not in a hotel room, but in the rotunda).

Posted by pamsterdam on 2006-02-03 16:12:55 +0000

Awwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww yeah.

Posted by cdubrocker on 2006-02-03 17:36:57 +0000

This thread's gettin' lively!

Posted by Miriam on 2006-02-05 22:07:51 +0000

Getting out there is a nightmare...SO much construction! I was actually afraid a few weeks ago when I went out to the theater near the hotel for that Munich screening. The road is incredibly narrow, and no one slows down...and it's not entirely clear where the exit and entrance ramps are or who has the right of way. Very not safe. I've been thinking more about going to see the Opry at the Ryman show in two weeks when Elvis Costello will be performing. Any takers? I'm sure I could get us tickets!

Posted by Miriam on 2006-02-05 22:08:19 +0000

I'm not getting Crisco anywhere near my American pie. ;)

Posted by Miriam on 2006-02-24 19:23:54 +0000

I keep forgetting to tell y'all that there are purple and yellow crocuses blooming in my yard! Also, there are families of robins and cardinals, and three kinds of fungus (two mushroom, one slime) growing from the treestump in the backyard. Today I saw two of the neighborhood vultures hanging out on top of the appliance store near my place. Totally creepy, but cool.

Posted by Null Protocol on 2006-02-27 16:56:56 +0000

everytime I see this thread, I cant help but think of that one song from the Producers....

Posted by Miriam on 2006-02-27 17:09:23 +0000

Good! That's why I started it.

Posted by Null Protocol on 2006-02-27 17:14:47 +0000

Miriam drops the Mel Brooks fagen! (ok... taking a deep breath and waiting for the 'is it really a fagen' diatribe to begin..)

Posted by Miriam on 2006-02-27 21:33:07 +0000

This weekend I spotted a blue jay in the yard. And the ecosystem keeps on comin'!

Posted by tgl on 2006-02-28 01:44:58 +0000

Around here, the penguins packed their bags and _went_south_ this weekend. Lovin' It.

Posted by lrf on 2006-02-28 21:29:42 +0000

penguins are awesome

Posted by Miriam on 2006-02-28 23:18:23 +0000

I think they were at the Formal Dance the kids I work with put together.

Posted by Miriam on 2006-03-09 14:46:09 +0000

There's a vase full of daffodils from my yard above my tv now. I think I almost backed over two turtle doves on my way out the driveway this morning. Today is supposed to be in the 70s with hail and tornadoes. Good thing I work in a big concrete building with no windows near my cubicle!

Posted by Miriam on 2006-03-30 16:04:32 +0000

Today the forcast is for the high 70s. Last night when I came home from work about 9pm, I pulling into the driveway and was making the turn into the carport when I noticed a critter in the yard. I backed up so the headlights pointed in the right direction and viewed a very brave, or shocked, bunny rabbit. It was like one of those huge chocolate bunnies come to life! This morning, in its place was a robin. Now, I'm pretty sure robins stick to a diet of worms, bugs, berries and seeds, but it was a little eerie to see it sitting in the exact spot as the bunny.

Posted by dawnbixtler on 2006-03-30 17:57:54 +0000

It was eating the bunny's shit.

Posted by Miriam on 2006-03-30 20:37:02 +0000

Or taking one of it's own!

Posted by tgl on 2006-03-30 21:04:42 +0000

Reminds me of a joke: A pope and a bunny were shitting in the woods...

Posted by Miriam on 2006-03-31 20:40:38 +0000

Saw the bunny again last night; this time it was hopping towards the brush at the back of the yard...very nice cotton tail! Unfortunately, this morning about 4am the birds who live next to my house started their coffee clatch. I'm really draggin' today, but am looking forward to seeing this gem tonight at 10pm! Would seeing that movie in Nashville constitute irony?

Posted by Miriam on 2008-04-15 20:19:41 +0000

Yesterday I decided it was time to mow the yards at my house; the grass was getting a bit leggy, and looked unkempt next to my neighbors' yards. So, I pulled out the push-mower and went to work on the front. In no time I'd gotten it looking pretty good, so I headed for the back yard. I was kind of tired, so I did a little, irratic mowing there, then decided I really needed to finish the job. It was cold (I could see my breath), so I was trying to hurry, and as I went around the silver maple (the last place I was mowing for the day), I hit a bump. I looked down, expecting to see a root, and saw a dead bird. Cloudy eyes started back at me from either a robin or bluebird. I screamed, pushed the mower back to the shed, turned it off, ran into the house and took a long shower to wash off the icky feeling. I called my parents to tell them about it, and after they finished listening to my story, they told me that they'd just enjoyed a delicious chicken dinner. At least they hadn't hit it with their lawnmower! Today I called the county extension office to see if they needed to test the bird for West Nile Virus, since I live between a creek and a big rain bank (pond of standing water). Haven't heard back from them yet, but I'm not ready to face the bird again, so that's okay. Still unclear whether the neighborhood cat got it or something more sinister. Let's hope for the cat.

Posted by pamsterdam on 2008-04-16 05:03:48 +0000

Gah! I know that feeling. Takes me back to last summer, after my uncle died and I had to get his house ready for viewing/selling after it hadn't been lived in for a couple months. London had an alternately very hot and very wet summer last year, so by the time I got to it the lawn (what Don called his 'back garden') looked like a small savannah, lined with gargantuan rhubarb plants and punctuated by two large apple trees toward the back. Don was a bachelor - with limited interest in baking but significant interest in baked goods - and had often brought the apples & rhubarb over to his neighbor's house for her to make crumbles & pies with. The weather was sweltering and it had recently rained, so the knee-high grass was damp and matted. I kept having to put the push-mower aside to rake up the matted-down grass and pluck out as many of the fallen apples as I could (many had already started rotting & some had nearly disintegrated). The density of apples grew as I neared the trees to the point where I was raking up piles of vinegar-scented mulch. Straight up the center of the garden was a stone pathway which revealed itself as I worked (it had been completely obscured by grass & mouldering apples), and it was there - toward the trees - that I started to find large black feathers. Don's pie-baking neighbor had warned me that a fox and her cubs were making the rounds in the neighborhood, so I was already being careful not to disturb areas that looked as if they could have been used as a den until I had the chance to investigate further. The feathers confirmed that the fox had paid Don's lawn a visit, and I started silently hoping that she had carried the remnants away... But a few steps further along the pathway I found what can only be described as the dry husk of a crow - most of the feathers intact, skeleton intact, but no crow inside. Like a macabre Halloween costume for a sick-humored small bird. "Hey, Jerry, look at me - I'm a crow!" As old Mozzer sang, I can smile about it now but at the time it was terrible. There were tears, a bit of hyperventilation, many hand-washings, and later a long, long bath. You have my empathy, m'dear. I'm voting cat.

Posted by pchippy on 2008-04-16 09:56:24 +0000

I regret to say that I once mowed (accidentally) a baby rabbit. I'm pretty sure it was alive before the mower hit it.

Posted by pamsterdam on 2008-04-16 09:58:27 +0000

Oh, that's awful! Poor bun-bun. And poor pchippy!

Posted by Miriam on 2008-04-16 15:36:17 +0000

Yikes!

Posted by Miriam on 2008-04-16 15:38:45 +0000

Holy mackrel! See...I would've thought the empty crow was really cool...since it wasn't fleshy anymore. Very Victorian London. Good thing snakes aren't so common there; that's what I would've been more scared of in such tall grass. Still, I can only imagine how unnerving that was. No word back from the extension office yet; I may give them a call again this morning.

Posted by Miriam on 2008-04-17 16:00:30 +0000

I'm thinking it was a cat or vulture. When I went to check on it yesterday after work, I saw lots of feathers, but no body. Bye, bye, birdie.