Bambi, hugs, and geese

There has not been a great deal of excitement here recently. We’re still having a good time at the Furnace, routinely making citizens arrests of Day Use Area abusers; your loiterers, litter bugs, loud talkers, speeders, furnace climbers, restricted area violators and we’ve issued a few warnings for PDA’s (public displays of affection) and nudity. I tend to go light on that. We even have a couple of drug busts and one noise pollution arrest. All for a better America and in the name of senior citizens everywhere. Well……….. Wishful thinking anyway. Kat said I’m just full of ‘BS’.

We’ve been down to see my old neighborhood friend and ‘Best Man’ Doug and his wife Karen. They’re about 30 minutes or so away in Marietta. We spent a day around their pool and then had a nice dinner last Saturday. We’ll be going down again one more time over the ‘Fourth’ before we get outt’a here!

We bought a new version of the Family Tree Maker software and we’re both working on our family lineage. I’ve had to reload mine from hard copy after losing our laptop hard drive some months ago. So that’s all coming along and the new software has lots of neat and new ‘bells and whistles’.

There is a new fawn in the area. This little deer isn’t much bigger than a minute, maybe the size of a small German Shepard. Nothing like Bambi, it has stubby little legs and a husky body and seems as quick, sure footed, and as nervous as a cat in a room full of rocking chairs. But I haven’t been able to get a picture yet. The little guy is camera shy.

Our homeless friends Steve and Patricia have not been around lately. They are a ‘down on their luck’ couple who spend lots of time here during the day and up to closing time. Then its load up their picnic stuff and head out to spend the night over on some county property on the other side of the mountain. They have a nice pick-up and are well read and enjoyable to talk to. It seems they did well until he lost his job sometime ago. Now he has the beginnings of Parkinson’s and she just lost her dishwashing job and was looking for another. We think she may have got something up the road in Rome. They are just a couple of months away from Social Security and Kat encouraged them to make an appointment and check out their eligibility including the disability issue. Supposedly they did and will starting getting checks in September? Anyway, Kat’s all worried about them and wants to go to McDonalds tonight where they spend some time and check on them. Soooo……….probably??

Our other regular customers are still coming about three or four times a week. This is an older mother and her disadvantaged son. Is that the Politically Correct thing to say? He is a few fries short of a Happy Meal. But he is a nice and harmless guy. He has to give me hugs when he sees me. This began to happen after the aforementioned Steve and his (not Steve but the disadvantaged son) mother and I had a conversation about the current political situation and I referred to our current crop of legislators as ‘535’ plus a courtroom full of morons and buffoons. They agreed and I was upset and obviously needed a ‘hug’. His mother, and by default, he, go to Shelter A and sit for hours and collect little fossils that are in the gravel by that shelter. I ask what they were doing one time and she said she’s collecting fossils for her kids, by the jar full. I was puzzled enough by that, that I never got around to the why?? Just one of those things that I really didn’t need to know. Yesterday he was waiting for me with open arms in the parking lot outside the restroom as I rode by on my bike. He’s kind of leery of Kat though. I think he understands he won’t be hugging her.

We do meet lots of real regular people too. Hikers, bikers, joggers, walkers, picnickers, sightseers, and just plain folk. But this wasn’t about that.

Most recently we had some young women drop off and abandon four young Canada geese in the park. As geese go they would probably be teenagers, who didn’t even know they were geese. As eggs they had been stolen and then raised by the girls who dropped them off. No geese to train them or imprint on. So the first two people they see here are Patricia and Kat. Guess who they kept trying to follow. We weren’t sure if they would make it through the night and were hoping they would not find out where we lived. They did not and the next morning when I rode my bike through the area, I thought they were gone, maybe with the other geese down at the river, or maybe even something worse. So I’m riding through the park and notice some movement out of the corner of my eye, look back and see one of the geese trying to catch me doing a young goose kind of a running, hopping, flying, goose-two- step kind of a thing, which was really pretty funny. The poor guy must have been desperate. I went back and looked down the steps (see picture) to the water and found the other three. We left a bit later, and the geese, by themselves again, started following Debbie, the cleaning lady, when she showed up. As morning wore on it became apparent that two of them were not doing well. We later found out they had been previously injured. Anyway we were trying to get them down to the river to the other geese but had no means of transport. I have a rule against geese in our car so that was not an option. They were under a picnic table, crapping all over and I rousted them out and started them after Kat who had started down the 200 yards (+-) to the river. I’m thinking, if we can get them that far, I’ll throw them in, and they’ll float down to the other geese and “viola”, problem solved. Wrong answer! The two healthy ones follow Kat OK, but I’m stuck with the other two who are not doing well. I carried them a ways but that doesn’t work when they flop around and don’t want to be carried, even if they’re not totally healthy, and you don’t want to be covered in goose crap. So I left them with Debbie and went to see how Kat was doing. She had gotten lost on the way and I straightened her and her two geese out and we got them to the water. So I started throwing geese in and when I got to the count of 8 I realized they were coming back faster than I could throw them in. This was my first real clue that this plan, in addition to being tough to execute, was a real bad plan or more likely just a complete failure. So back to the picnic area and the other geese. Now we have four geese again and they’re all pretty fagged. We left for a while with the geese resting and crapping under the picnic table much to the delight of Debbie. This called for a call to the Rangers. So Kat calls and leaves a report and we ignore the situation for a while. In the afternoon Kat thinks she sees one of the girls who dropped them off drive into the park and she goes to check. I meandered down just a bit later not quite fully involved in this fiasco and happen to run into our 12 year old Boy Scout/Ranger, Stephan. Actually he just looks 12. He asked me to give him the rundown before he takes any official action, because like most people now, they don’t want to take official action. The girl had shown up and I think he didn’t want to be the bearer of bad news or anything else. So I say I’ll check it out and let him know where we stand when he comes back. By now Steve and Patricia are there and the geese are still fagged so we give them water and talk it over. I finally have to break the bad news. The geese can not stay here and if they do they will be destroyed. This is bad news to Patricia who starts moaning but it does get the girl owners attention who says she’ll let her friend know and they’ll try to come back and get them. As an end to this Goose Rodeo, they did! That day! So it wasn’t a bad ending like you thought it might be, and the goose crap is even gone. Stephen, the Ranger, by the way, did not show up. But to be fair, most of the Rangers we have worked with would have.

Hooters, mashed potatoes, and peas

One of the reasons that we came to Allatoona Lake and Cooper Furnace to volunteer, is that my ‘Best Man’, Doug Heaton, lives in Marietta, just southeast of here. I want to clearly specify “one of the reasons”, because he has a big enough head about being the ‘best man’ already, I don’t want to make it worse.

We got together one night to have a drink and maybe watch a little of the NIT basketball tournament and the OSU Buckeyes who were playing that night. There are lots of choices here but we choose Hooters, mostly because Kat said, “why don’t you try Hooters” because she knew I had never been. I didn’t know what to expect, but, I can’t say that I was really surprised to find what we found. We got a table to watch the game and I was checking ‘things’ out (BG). There were the waitresses who were easy to look at, and the customers who appeared in every way to be from Georgia, mostly younger ‘good ole boys’ with a few ‘red necks’ thrown in for balance. Pretty much just your regular ‘mashed potatoes and peas’ crowd. So, I fit right in; my kind of crowd. I know that you have to serve ‘mashed potatoes and peas’ together, or how else you gonna’ corner those peas and get them on the fork? There may have been a few ‘peas on the knife’ people, but this is a more sophisticated part of Georgia. Anyway I ordered a beer and Doug ordered a white wine. Now here it gets a little humorous. Remember, this is Georgia. It’s relatively close to Atlanta and the metropolitan airs of the big city are encroaching, but then this was Hooters too. There’s probably not much wine served here yet. So the waitress comes back with an apology. She knows they have another wine glass somewhere “because we have two and only one of them is in use. I’ll go look again, but if I can’t find one, is a regular glass OK?” Now I maintained my composure and took it for what its worth, inside and out. Doug handled it mostly OK on the outside but on the inside it’s just another reason for him to bemoan living in the south and it showed through a little. But “hey’, I guess it’s not for everyone. I know there are lots of folks (strike that, here I should use the word people. OK, so) people, who have, at times, considerable disdain for the south. Doug has some of that! I don’t! I use the words like ‘folks’, I like grits, love Southern sweet tea, watch NASCAR, and when I’ve been here a while I begin to say ‘ya’ll’. Maybe it’s just a different exposure or maybe it’s because I know a lady, who is a relative, named Phyllis? Anyway, Doug took it a little different than I. We both had a good laugh, heck, were both still laughing. But for Doug it’s another reason to move back to Columbus or Las Vegas or anywhere out of the south. I guess I’d rather remember the phrase, “When in Rome,……” But then before I criticize too much I have to remember that I’m the one who asks for a beer at a wine tasting event while all the while bemoaning those %^@&#* wine snobs!


Oh, and Doug did get his white wine but it was in a water glass. Ahhh the South! Gimme’ a Bud! On second thought, make it a Newcastle Brown ale! Oops! Well; we all have our little prejudices don’t we?

The Critters

I already mentioned that we have various reptiles and amphibians around. But just in case you were worried you should know that we don’t see them much and they’re not a problem. More than anything we have birds and squirrels.

So we have the feeders out and spend an inappropriate amount of our income on bird food. But it’s what we do and we enjoy it so we will no doubt continue. We even have at least one new bird on our list. We had a male Rose Breasted Grosbeak at the feeder not too long ago and the female just yesterday. We also have seen Indigo Buntings but Kat said we have already seen those at Piney Point, Texas. I just don’t remember. Which once again proves the point, “getting old ain’t for sissies?” Anyway we have lots of birds; Gold Finch, Chickadees, Cardinals, Cowbirds, Woodpeckers and lots of LBJ’s (Little Brown Jobs) to name some. There are eastern Bluebirds down in the park but they don’t come into the trees and visit the feeders.

Then there are the ‘gawd dang’ squirrels. They have been a fight since we got here. It’s a good thing they have little tiny brains or they would probably take over the world. Without spending a whole bunch of money on squirrel guards it’s a real struggle keeping them away from the food and from destroying the feeders. I can’t put suet out! They will go to any length to get that, and have. It can be quite a show but in the end I just get pissed off and throw things that get broken and the squirrels pretty much know that I am ,at best, ineffective. Jade can keep some away but they know how long her string is and how slow she is too. I made a ‘sling shot’ but had a poor selection of materials and it didn’t do to well. I just shoot ‘pinto beans’ anyway; it’s not my desire to kill them (most often anyway), just keep them at bay. I think I might get a “Wrist Rocket” sling shot though. Just for “shits and giggles.” We have the feeders on poles or ‘Shepard’s Hooks’ and now I’m using Vaseline and lithium grease on the poles to keep whatever(?) from climbing them. I tried milk jugs that I center on the poles to make it difficult to climb around and that seemed to work for a while; not so anymore. We have Raccoons also and they destroyed the milk jugs, but the grease has them befuddled because of there weight and I think they have given up? Not the squirrels! No quit in them little suckers! Jade gets frustrated too. She stalks and chases sometimes, but then sometimes she pretends they’re not there to avoid the embarrassment. I said sometimes it’s a good show and it is. We have one feeder about 10’ from the window that’s on a spiral ‘Shepard’s Hook’ and I have greased it up pretty good. The squirrels get a run and jump, and get about half way up the pole before they start to slide down and around the pole. As Larry the Cable Guy would say,”Now that’s funny, I don’t care who you are!” “Hot Damn!”, I read this to Kat and she just brought me out a present for ‘Fathers Day”. Guess what? A “Wrist Rocket” sling shot! I gott’a go!

……………………………….So it’s a couple of days later and the squirrels have some sore butts, I’m almost out of grease and Vaseline, I don’t have enough pinto beans left for a meal, but, it’s still a losing battle. To add insult to injury, last night I was sitting watching TV and heard some rustling outside, got the flashlight and turned it on the feeder right next to the window and there’s a $&%#@ raccoon hanging on the feeder. He calmly looked at me and resumed feeding. I threw the flashlight and Jade at him and went to bed. Well, just kidding, but it makes a fitting end to the story. Actually, I gave up and went to bed where I finally realized and figured out how my other feeder got broken and needed to be replaced. #&%$#@ Bird feeders aren’t designed for hanging raccoons and leaping squirrels! But as I lay there contemplating all of this, I resolved to continue the fight. Well, maybe! Or maybe, it just sounds good ??????

The Gorton Fisherman and the attack of the Fog Amphibians

In our early days here at Cooper Furnace we had some rough weather. Enough so that if you’re doing anything outside you really needed to dress for it. One of those mornings I was riding through the park all dressed for it myself when I had an encounter with a stranger that somehow seemed familiar. He came looming out of the mist down by the river all dressed in a yellow slicker and nor’easter with boots, bucket, a big smile on his face, and the whole thing. I was sure it was the ………….. and then he spoke and I knew I had been duped. As he reached the top of the stairs from the river he said, “how y’all doing this morning, ya’ like my Gorton Fisherman outfit”? It was Ronnie, my favorite member of the maintenance and ground crew. Ronnie is just one of those people you have to like. He works hard, always waves or says ‘hey’, and never fails to let you know he’s willing to do what needs to be done. He’s a nice guy and another of the many people we’ve had the pleasure to meet in our travels.

That night as we drove through the dark and the rain down to lock the gate, we had to dodge the frogs jumping toward the headlights so as to avoid squishing them under the tires. The gate is about ¾ of a mile down the road and through a tunnel of trees and undergrowth. Normally it’s a very nice drive or bike ride but in the rain and the dark and the fog, with frogs jumping out at you, it was really a pretty creepy thing. Then, I was out in the rain closing the gate and see something slithering off the road and away from the car headlights. I went over to check it out and discovered a pretty good size Spotted salamander. It was a reddish brown and maybe 8” long. As salamanders go, it was pretty cool! So now you know why I call this entry the “The Gorton Fisherman and the attack of the Fog Amphibians”.

Since then we have seen several ‘Blue Tailed skinks (pictured) and Jade got loose to chase a snake. She was at the end of her string very intent on something in the woods and so Kat let her loose to see what she was seeing. Just as she did, she realized it was a snake so we’re both running after Jade trying to get her before something bad happens, because we have heard there are Copperheads and Water moccasins in the area. Jade chased the snake under some rocks and I hooked her collar with a lucky stab of my stick at about the same time and pulled her away by the scruff of her neck. So now we don’t let her loose much to chase things. Although, she did go after another skink under the coach just yesterday. I had to save the skink, less a goodly amount of tail. Just another day in Georgia with the reptiles and critters.