Gleaning Facebook: Snow Geese!

 Marion Dobbs reports rare and welcome visitors to Floyd Co. GA. -- Six Snow Geese at Garden Lakes this morning. As is often true, the interesting stuff shows up in the comments.

Here are her pictures:

Comments:

Chris Goodwin

Been an influx of rare ducks around here in last few years. Friend got a Ruddy Duck pic there last year at GL. At a farm pond nearby we've had some crazy divers including redheads, Barrow's goldeneye, and long-tailed duck. I also think there are a few pintail at GL.

Marion Dobbs

Ruddy Ducks are fairly regular in small numbers at Garden Lakes each year. There's one here right now. Redhead tend to come and go throughout the winter and often in large numbers. In late winter, they've been observed 200-300 at a time on Paris Lake at Georgia Highlands for the past few winters, late in the season. I believe Barrow's Goldeneye would be a state record, but Common Goldeneye is seen occasionally in Floyd Co. I don't think I've ever seen more than one at a time. I have one record of Long-tailed Duck (3 individuals) at Garden Lakes (2004), but there are a few scattered records throughout the state. I've not seen Northern Pintail anywhere this year, and I see them only rarely. One, perhaps injured, hung out with the Mallards/malloids at GL for a long time last winter. I monitor wintering waterfowl and other water birds in the county, reporting the records to 

Cornell Lab of Ornithology

 via eBird. If you are ever aware of any unusual birds or birds in high numbers, I'd appreciate it if you'd PM me! I know there are some good things out there on private property I don't have access to.

Chris Goodwin

It was definitely a female Barrows goldeneye. The 3 long tail duck were actually hanging with a group of about 50 redhead a few winters ago. And I also saw a group of canvas backs on a private lake just off the Coosa River on Highway 100 a few years back. That's the only ones I've seen here although they are quite common on Guntersville which is not far away. Thanks for the info

Marion Dobbs

If you ever see another Barrow's Goldeneye, be sure to get photographs. Aside from a 1940 record and 2 records in 2009, all in extreme northern TN, there are no records for any southeastern states.

Katie S. Kimbrough

Beautiful!

Melanie Collette Babb

There are many varieties of water fowl that pass through Garden Lakes each fall.

Marion Dobbs

And many that stay the winter or pass through in the spring. I've recorded 40 species of water birds (ducks/geese/grebes/coots/cormorants/herons/egrets/shorebirds/gulls/terns), including 20 duck species, over the past 15+ years. The big lake typically hosts over 1500 wintering birds at any given time over the colder months. It's quite amazing, considering it's only maybe 35 ac and surrounded by houses and human activity!

Gleaning Facebook:The Sky is Falling

 The Sky is Falling! The Sky is Falling!

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The above was my complete Facebook post. I preserve the comments below:

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David Matheny
We'll call you "Henny Penny.'

Terrell Shaw
Sky is made of wet stuff.

Clayton Hensley
In East Tennessee, ash is falling from the sky. Mandatory evacuations of several towns, more than a dozen fires in just one county, at least a dozen structures damaged or destroyed.

David Matheny
Heard Gatlinburg is burning…true? Hoping some Downpour reaches the TN, North GA, and Western NC area.

Clayton Hensley
Yes, the city has been evacuated. Not much confirmation on exactly what's burned, but part of the Park Vista Hotel did catch fire and people are having to stay there as the roads all around it are on fire. I would dare say there are multiple structures that will suffer damage, but we may not know that until tomorrow. At least 14 fires are burning in that county. It is raining, but wind gusts are still high and that continues to fuel the fires even with the rain.

Terrell Shaw
This drought has been devastating even w/o fire... but the
!!!! 

Thoughts and prayers for those in fiery areas.

Helen Keefer
Yeah...that stuff is called rain.

CeCe Baker
Yes, it is; and, isn't it wonderful!

Frank Norris
Does Chicken Little get out when the weather is fowl?

Gleaning Facebook: Exit Fidel, Enter Don

This meme (above) was submitted as a comment of this little post by Don Henderson. 

In the same month that Cuba's narcissistic authoritarian finally passes from the world's stage, enter stage right America's own narcissistic authoritarian. Ike, JFK, LBJ, Nixon, Ford, Carter, Reagan, Two Bushes, Clinton, & Obama all fought to defeat that little bully, and are rewarded by the Electoral College's presumptive selection of Donald 'Barnum & Bully' Trump right here in the Land of the Free.

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Comments:

Susan Polkinghorn

You nailed that. Check out Jill Stein's successful demand for recount and investigation into irregularities in WI. MI and PA next. 5 mil + raised in 3 days to pay for recounts/ investigations.

Tony Potts
See the world is already getting better since The Don's election. #maga

Laurie Craw
Look at the upside, Terrell. Cuba is prime real estate ripe for the plucking by Trump Enterprises Inc. In no time, POTUS Inc. and the Republican Board of Directors (the governing body previously known as Congress) will lift the embargo on doing business in Cuba and the island will be overrun with Trump golf courses, Trump Towers North, South, East and West, and Trump Cigar factories. There will jobs, jobs, and more jobs for unemployed Americans just a short boat ride away. And he will drain all the swamps in Cuba to build his Cuban empire. (He meant that literally, you know.) Now is the time to invest! Contact your Trump Brokerage agent today to get in on the ground floor,

Luis Schnitzer Da Silva
And, just to be safe, he'll get an exclusive from Raul.

Annie Shields
Thanks for pointing out that irony.

Dawn N Luke Andrews
O m g

Docia Hunt Thaxton
I'm really sorry that you are so depressed and angry about the election I mean that sincerely! But it is done unless as one former friend of mine said someone (she hopes) shoots Trump. Now Castro is dead and all some people can do is talk more Trump. Give me a break. I still think we have the best country in the world bar none. I was still happy to spend Thanksgiving with family and friends. I was still happy I woke up today and my dog still loved me. My cat still tolerated me. I guess some bad things will happen in the future but bad ones have happened in the past 70 years I've been alive. We can whine and cry or love and laugh. I prefer to think that if the sky is falling God will give me the right kind of umbrella of protection whatever that is. Unfriend me if you must but my glass will still be half-full!

Laurie Craw
Even people serving life sentences in prison, soldiers in the horrors of battle, people watching their children starve to death, people watching their neighbors being dragged out of their homes in the middle of night and loaded into cattle cars can say the kind of things you have said. As long as we ourselves draw breath, we can all be "happy" and trust God no matter what our circumstances. But it is required of a few of us to be "unhappy" with the way things are and to stand for something besides "me and mine." Terrell Shaw is one of those. I respect him greatly.

Docia Hunt Thaxton
The word respect was never used. Do not put words in my mouth. I know about the bad in the world. I have a grandson who was almost killed by a suicide bomber while serving in Afghanistan and also had to try to save an Afghan who was pretty much blown into two parts. He will tell you in a heartbeat that he swore his oath so that people can burn a flag, kneel during the national anthem, and march in protest. I resent that u think I am only concerned with "me and mine". You have no idea what we have stood for and yes marched for. I still see no reason to live miserably while working for change. A person who can be grateful for their life has even more reason to work to make life better for others. Maybe Terry, as I called him when we were teens, will want to unfriend me but I will let him decide if I am too Pollyanna for him.

Terrell Shaw
Docia my blog, and now most often, my FB page iscwhere I choose to express myself. I will continue that. Those who read my wall are free to reply briefly in agreement or disagreement... as longvas they arevpolite. One of my pet peeves is when commenters suggest, in so many words, that I shut up.

I beleive the following:
Putin made an effort to influence our election and succeeded.

Donald Trump is a damaged human being (pathologically dishonest, a textbook example of extreme nacissism, unstable)

The GOP has actively sought to suppress voting among women and minorities.

Trump is an admitted sexual predator.

Trump gas been compromised by his ties to white nationalists and the Russions.

Trump has proposed torture and murder.

Trump has a multitude of conflicts of interest and no inclination to fix those.

Trump is incredibly ignorant of world politics and uninterested in learning.

Believing those things I have no choice as a patriot but to scream bloody murder.

Terrell Shaw
I will continue to love and laugh and enjoy my friends and family, but I will be ever vigilant. A narcissistic authoritarian has, by crooked means, gained the presumptive majority of electoral votes. Barring a miracle he will take over the executive branch of our government supported by majorities in Congress and on the Supreme Court. Our country has not been under such great peril since the 1860s, in my opinion.

So as long as I have breath I will continue to rail against the evil of Donald Trump until this crisis has passed.

Docia Hunt Thaxton
I guess I just think working together is better than snarling like a dog passing a peach pit over every thing. I dare say if any of us could dig deeply enough into many "secrets" of the political world we would throw up our hands in despair instead of continuing to try to fight the good fight.

Laurie Craw
Docia, I feel I might have misunderstood your original comment when I responded to it. That happens on FB sometimes. You, like many, were probably just trying to move on from a bitter and shocking election campaign and outcome by counting your blessings and trusting that good will prevail. It was these two sentences, however, that pushed my buttons: "Give me a break" and "We can whine and cry or love and laugh." These seem flippant and dismissive of Terrell's (and my) legitimate concerns about this one-of-a-kind president-elect and his administration. "Whining" is something we associate with children, not adults. I think we all have to try extra hard now to take others' concerns seriously. Only then can we work together.

Terrell Shaw
The idea that we cant trust our leaders, that they are all liars, charlatans, crooks... like Trump, is exactly the message the authoritarians want us to believe.
Trump is different, and very dangerous. We must be vigilant.

Docia Hunt Thaxton
Your friend, Laurie Craw, seems to feel that I have no respect for you and that I am concerned with me and mine. Since she knows nothing about me and you have continued to Trump instead of concerning yourself with my beliefs maybe there is no meeting of the minds here. No one has asked if I agree or disagree with anything said. My only suggestion was that everything in life was no more wrapped in Trump than Hillary. My late husband was very involved. In politics. One of my sons is also. Believe me I know at lot. Some older scandals you may have never heard. So what that does not make me omniscient. I do what I can the best I can.

Terrell Shaw
I sent you a link by message to a good article by Timothy Snyder. I imagine Laurie knew Orbie when she worked at the RNT. Laurie is our dear friend. I did not understand your reaction to her comment.  Have a great evening. My computer died last night and iPhone computing is for the birds! 

Docia Hunt Thaxton
All I have is iPhone. If you don' understand me reaction to her then you did not read carefully or you have no hope of understanding me or Orbie.

Terrell Shaw
Hope springs eternal.

Debbie Barefield
Not a good thing to say but so glad he is rested!

Beau Gordon
Wish you would learn not to hold back...speak up and say what your mean.

Donald Murdock
A nation that would allow someone to be elected who proudly represents all the worst of human characteristics, and whom most of us wouldn't want to be anywhere near for fear that his slime might rub off on us, has no right to deem itself a great nation. Our system has alwqys been flawed but, at this point, it seems to be unravelling.

Terrell Shaw
As a pre-teen I remember worrying whether the world could survive till I grew up... because of the external threat of nuclear war. That is the sort of primal fear I feel now, not for myself but our posterity, and not from external but domestic threat. The wonderful framers created a near miracle in Philadelphia in 1787, but also included an inadvertant time bomb in the electoral college. It nearly destroyed us in the 1860s, and may finally do it today. The great American cancer, slavery, is reaching out of its grave to trip us up again.

Luis Schnitzer Da Silva
I second that emotion... about nukes and slavery.
I still think that all of the American ills stem in one way or another from the racism brought on by slavery.

Gleaning Facebook: Gladys Morris First Grade Class

Laurie Craw I tought you might like to see this pic that my friend Zelda Buford shared on the McHenry facebook page.

Laurie Craw

Wow! Aunt Gladys really DID teach first grade at McHenry. I only saw her at home, never at work or with children. It's so strange that the adults in our childhood lived these "other" lives we never saw. Wish I could get a copy of this picture, but will save it here to show Rachel and Sam. Uncle George Morris was on the McHenry school board, I think. Do you know?

Terrell Shaw

I remember you telling me that. I wonder when the McHenry Board ceased to exist?

 

Gleaning Facebook: Inflation and Deflation

 It's days like today I am reminded how grateful I am that a certain beautiful blond agreed to marry her fortunes with mine 45 years ago.

The anesthesiologist said he'd put me in a deep sleep very quickly, but I decided, OK, this time I'm gonna fight it and see if I can stay aware of the indignities about to occur. It's my curiosity. I really would like to see the screen. To watch my innards on the TV. So I made my self super aware. I am stronger than any anesthesia.

I was out cold in a few seconds.

As I came to, seemingly seconds later, the most beautiful woman I know was stroking my arm, leaning in to kiss this old prostrate man occasionally, and laughing with me about the rude noises I'd been encouraged by the nurse to emit. (This part went on a while. I don't know if a bicycle pump was involved in the procedure, or if they just used a full-sized scuba tank to inflate me. It's a wonder I didn't rise to the ceiling like Aunt Marge.)

Anyway that sweet sexy woman at my elbow when I awaked, put up with all I went through last night and today, drove me home while I talked more freely than usual, ensconced me in my easy chair, while she busied herself in our kitchen. In no time she presented me with a breakfast of omelet with spinach, mushrooms, Canadian bacon, and feta topped with salsa and yogurt, (real) buttered toast just the way I like it, grits swimming in real butter, and a cup of perfect coffee.

I am truly a lucky man. I have an unblemished colon and a kind and gorgeous wife.

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Gleaning Facebook: I get comments...

Spencer Musick

Spot on!

Brenda Ron Carroll

Communism. No constitution, no bill of rights. two classes, the haves ( which you or I are not) and the peasants (us) no property so our homes will be taken away, pensions and retirement yanked away too. Censorship. No air conditioning.That is the issue now cousin. Do you really want to live like that? I sure don't.

Terrell Shaw

Pardon?

Brenda Ron Carroll

I am leaving FB so this is my final statement on here. Between Obama and his globalist agenda pushing (communism, look it up) and now the Chinese demanding censorship, This is where they want to push the country.I have always thought you an intelligent man, loved your humor and proud to call you family. And thank you for making Dad happy with the picture. You will never know how much it meant to him. You never know the little things can do so much more than big ones. Take care cousin. Love you.

Terrell Shaw

I don't understand your comment. Of course I agree that classism, lack of rights, ending pensions (social security & medicare etc), censorship are bad. Some of those are reasons I oppose the Great Narcissist and why I have supported President Obama. 

Communism? Air conditioning? Chinese censorship? Fail to see a point.

I enjoyed talking with your Dad several times in his last years. I'm glad I managed to get that pic to him. My dad and his brothers considered the Norton boys just two more brothers. You take care too.

Suanne Bierman Laqueur

Pardon?

Suanne Bierman Laqueur

We were two steps away from Godless communism under Obama? Really?

Don Henderson

Having record highs in the stock markets during Obama's presidency, just to name one capitalist ideology, sure speaks to the opposite of communism.

Suanne Bierman Laqueur

A constitutional law professor doing away with the constitution. Imagine.

Don Henderson

I'm not sure if you're being sarcastic, but godless is what the government is supposed to be, according to the constitution.

Last time I checked, I could be wrong, nothing has been removed from the constitution.

Suanne Bierman Laqueur

I was being sarcastic.

Bill of Rights still there? All of it? Not scribbled out in red ball-point pen?

Larry England

Thanks for trying to explain; a little touch of one being exposed to a lot of false news and lies on the FB/elections tour.Whew.

Laurie Craw

He can dish it out but he just can't take.

Gleaning Facebook: Lucky Man

Two posts to preserve today regarding that once-a-decade indignity:

This was actually posted second --

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It's days like today I am reminded how grateful I am that a certain beautiful blond agreed to marry her fortunes with mine 45 years ago.

The anesthesiologist said he'd put me in a deep sleep very quickly, but I decided, OK, this time I'm gonna fight it and see if I can stay aware of the indignities about to occur. It's my curiosity. I really would like to see the screen. To watch my innards on the TV. So I made my self super aware. I am stronger than any anesthesia.

I was out cold in a few seconds.

As I came to, seemingly seconds later, the most beautiful woman I know was stroking my arm, leaning in to kiss this old prostrate man occasionally, and laughing with me about the rude noises I'd been encouraged by the nurse to emit. (This part went on a while. I don't know if a bicycle pump was involved in the procedure, or if they just used a full-sized scuba tank to inflate me. It's a wonder I didn't rise to the ceiling like Aunt Marge.)

Anyway that sweet sexy woman at my elbow when I awaked, put up with all I went through last night and today, drove me home while I talked more freely than usual, ensconced me in my easy chair, while she busied herself in our kitchen. In no time she presented me with a breakfast of omelet with spinach, mushrooms, Canadian bacon, and feta topped with salsa and yogurt, (real) buttered toast just the way I like it, grits swimming in real butter, and a cup of perfect coffee.

I am truly a lucky man. I have an unblemished colon and a kind and gorgeous wife. 

Comments

Sam Burnham
That particular recovery room can be a crude, humorous place for sure.

Terrell Shaw
Yes indeed.

Luis Schnitzer Da Silva
I'm with you except for the grits

Nina K Pettis
No problem; I'll take the grits!

Luis Schnitzer Da Silva
Nina K Pettis ugh

Laura L Adams
And THAT is the definition of True Love!

Chris Goodwin
Glad u r cleared.

Helen Keefer
Man! That breakfast sounds almost worth what you had to go through to get it!

Lillian Shaw
gross

Terrell Shaw
Ha! You don't know a fraction...

Michael Joseph Colombo
I did mine without anesthesia last time. It never really hurt except your colon spasms when the probe goes around the bends

Terrell Shaw
They never gave me that choice! Maybe in 2026... if I can hang on that long!

Marion Dobbs
I did my first one without anesthesia. It wasn't painful, and it was really interesting. Kind of like a tv special on the working of your innards.

Michael Joseph Colombo
I don't like being put to sleep, unless I'm watching Riverdance

Terrell Shaw
Ha!

Mandy Maloney
I think you are a lovely writer. I so enjoy everything you post. Even this. Which is the first time I've ever smiled at a story about colons.

Terrell Shaw
Well, this makes me right proud, Mandy, --- in a Benjamin Franklin sort of way! (Someone out there will get that.)

David Matheny
It's nice to make Foul Noises and not care one whit.

David Marlin Rains
U da man!

Suanne Bierman Laqueur
"Let us be lovers, we'll marry our fortunes together..."

John Barnett
DECADE?????? WOW! I would love that LOL Every three years for me. I heard there was something else besides the YUCK drink??? I guess I heard wrong LOL

Galen Dale Foster
I am happy all was well my friend. I must tell you this. It was about ten years ago that I had my second procedure and I observed the entire procedure start to finish. I waited and waited to enter twilight land never happened. I have a high pain tolerance and I never said anything until it was over it was very interesting.

Melissa Pyle-Hamilton
At age 56, I have never had one, and I refuse to. Is this stupid? Yes, but I want no garden hose test. I admire those of you who are so brave.

Terrell Shaw
Colon cancer is bad stuff. The procedure is bearable, and makes for great stories and funny Facebook posts. 

David Matheny
You don't feel a thing and you won't care...they give you stuff to put you in La-La Land. I'd recommend EVERYONE have this done, especially when you reach your 50s and especially if you have a family history.

Melissa Pyle-Hamilton

David- I do not have a family history. Neither of my parents ever had a colonoscopy. My Mom never had a Pap smear since I was born in 1960 until she died in 2009. I guess we are stubborn.

Claudia Kennedy

Have had a couple myself. Lost a few pounds with the 'lemon stuff'. Glad you had the royal treatment afterward.

Juretha Mc Millian
Awesome!

Docia Hunt Thaxton
I was awake twice! I like lots of drugs lol

Sandy Doughty
Terry, I went through that procedure ONE TIME without anesthesia or anything so that I could watch the procedure on screen....believe me, you do not want to go there!!

David Marlin Rains
I found love on a colonoscopy... er, two-way street 

Ralph Davis
Congratulations Terrell
All was going well with your relating your day "until" you said you talked more freely than usual.
No way man, No Way...
LOL

Rose McDonald Darby
Both are things to be thankful for!

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This was my first post on the topic today ---

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Well a friendly Harbin Clinic Rear-End team tunneled into my (t)rump and did some sight-seeing, ascending, transversing, descending, and sigmoiding to their hearts' content, and declared the view about as pretty as the rest of my topography. No problems. My goal is to live till 2026 so that I can enjoy another night of imbibing that revolting cold lemon-lime glop every few minutes till I want to spew. Yuck!

Yay!

Now back to work stopping the nation's (t)rump from defecating all over the expressed wishes of the 63+ million people who voted to keep the ACA, to protect our environment, to build the middle class, and to fight bigotry. I want even poor folks to have the ability to endure uncomfortable preventative care like I got this morning. I want my diabetic friends to be able to have decent insurance. I want my children to be able to look forward to the Social Security and Medicare that keeps me going in my my old age.

And, while I am slightly freed in my expression by the anesthesia recently administered, let me warn you. As long as I have breath I will fight for an America that is 1) MORE perfect, is 2) JUST, has 3) PEACE at HOME, and is 4) PROTECTED from foreign threat, where the 5) COMMON GOOD is a national goal, and 6) LIBERTY is protected for even the least among us for all time.

Comments:

Suanne Bierman Laqueur I wish the FBI would crawl up Trump's financial butt with a fiber-optic camera....
David Matheny ALL-CLEAR??
Terrell Shaw Yep.
Suanne Bierman Laqueur Did you have a warrior's breakfast after?
Terrell Shaw Ahh... I think I'll put that in another post. I shoulda taken a picture, but OI wolfed it down too fast.
Suanne Bierman Laqueur My husband is like a bear woken from hibernation after his. Ten-egg omelet.
Suanne Bierman Laqueur WE HAVE A BLOCKAGE!
Terrell Shaw Personally clear. Nationally, it is a cancerous blockage.

Suanne Bierman Laqueur "Looks malignant to me, doc…" (Sorry, I kind of ran away with my joke. Glad you're A-OK!)
Melanie Collette Babb Glad everything came out okay.

CeCe Baker So glad everything has checked out okay. As for your continuing efforts, keep up the good work!
Don Henderson Trump was a national enema, he forced out every piece of poop in America.

Martha Waters Glad to hear that "all" is well.

Ralph Noble Video at 11:00??
Rita Lawler So you have space for a nice thanksgiving
Laurie Craw Glad to hear it and keep on keeping on.
Anita Stewart Glad it turned out OK. When you reach my age, you can decide whether or not to have another "hinny scope".

Melissa Pyle-Hamilton So thankful everything turned out fine. A prayer answered.
David Matheny Go Get 'Em, Tiger!!
John Barnett I've got to do that in the next couple of months. I am going to try to wait until after New Years. I have to have that done every 3 years YUK!

Ruth Pinson Glad it turned out well.

Docia Hunt Thaxton I'm supposed to go every three years because my Dad had colon cancer but I cheated this year and had the DNA. That bought me two years before the periscope! As you say the prep is the worst part lol! Glad you got a "clean" bill of health!

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