March 28, 2014

A Roseate Spoonbill Photo Session in the Sunshine

Friday,  March 28, 2014

My day got going earlier than on some days.  I needed to have some blood work done at the doctor's office, so I decided to try it before going to the office.  The bad thing was that Ron had a job set for a specific time and they were moving slowly at the doctor's office, so after waiting 40 minutes, I told them I would come back another day.  Since it had been "fasting" blood work, I had not had breakfast so I picked up some on the way to the office. 

Ron was staying busy at the office and so I helped as much as I could so he could leave, but every time he started out the door another customer stopped him.  He finally got out the door at time for him to start the job, but they didn't seem to care.  I must say, the job was at a new Chick-fil-A that is about to open near our house!  They must have heard about me!  He even came back with an invitation to their Opening Night!  I will be glad to welcome them to the neighborhood.

After that job, Ron came back to the office so I could get my lunch.  Then he headed out again on several things, staying out much of the rest of the day.  I spent the morning filling key hooks with blank keys for us to use cutting keys for the customers.  Normally our grandson does that chore, but he wasn't with us for the day.  Of course I continued waiting on customers and doing paperwork.  I got a lot done. 

Several of the customers were hard to hear and seemed to not be willing to take "no" for an answer. More and more customers buy "Made in China" locks (padlocks especially) at the Dollar Stores and then can't understand why I can't make keys for them.  It is because in China, some factories often lack quality control, or they combine the designs of two or three American lock companies and make up their own locks with their own blanks for the cheap locks.  The keys are often thin and the American blanks, even if they have the right groves, are too thick to go in the lock.  If the customer wants a lock for short term use, and they don't plan to give out keys to anyone else, the locks may meet their needs.  If they need 10 copies of the key, it may not be the best choice.  Oh, well, off that soapbox for now.

Ron had a busy week (thank you, God) and is out on a couple of jobs today even though we are not open on Saturdays.  Ron stayed late at the shop and worked and I left to run errands on the way home.  I stopped by the same resaca that I had a couple of days ago to photograph the Roseate Spoonbills again, this time in the sunshine!  There were a dozen of the Spoonbills this time instead of the previous 7.  There were also two Great Egrets in the tree with them.  I just noticed, this is just one tree.  The birds were noisy, but I couldn't figure out which ones were making the noise.

Again I didn't have my tripod, but balanced the camera in the same tree where I later discovered a large number of huge ants!  Thank you, God they didn't want to nibble on me.

I spent a while taking pictures and then went to do my errands.  It was 6:30 by the time I got home and workmen doing work on a house across the street had parked where I planned to work on trimming the bougainvilleas.  I considered asking them to move the cars and then decided to work in the backyard first and hope they soon left.  It didn't take long in the backyard to notice that there was no wind at all after days, if not weeks, of high winds.  It was also hot.  It was 7:00.  I pulled out my phone to check the temperature and it was 94 degrees!  Can you believe??  94 at 7:00 in March?  Oh, my.  So I spent about 30-45 minutes in the backyard and decided not to try doing the trimming.

 Once in the house, I fixed supper and finished the 1,000 piece puzzle while supper cooked.  Ron and I have decided this is one of the hardest puzzles we have worked.  It was fun and I love the picture, but it is not for young kids.