Owls and the Circle of Life

I'm going to start with the "good news" portion.

That horrendous looking thing above which seems like something out of a 1970's Toho Studios creature design workshop is, in fact, a Great Horned Owl owlet.  Ie:  a baby owl.  Now it's adorable, right?  Lil' baby owl.

Over here in Austin, we've sort of made the Great Horned Owl that nests at the Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center a  local celebrity.  We call her "Athena".  And every year for well over a decade, she's found a perch in the planters built into the gateway arch to the Wildflower Center.  In that spot, she lays her eggs and raises some bebes.   

Don't worry - it's safe from people and prying eyes.

Happy Jackie Robinson Day

Today is Jackie Robinson Day across Major League Baseball.

Post B-Day Report Out

Well, I'm 51 now.  Whoo-hoo.  

Every year I do a post on my birthday with a song about the year.  You can listen to the playlist here.

I'm also raising money for the Austin Humane Society, where we adopted Jeff the Cat, Scout and Emmylou.  So feel free to donate a ton of money.

Just imagine being someone who has been reading this blog (and The Signal Watch) since I started posting in 2003.  Good gravy.

I don't hide from the birthdays as they come, but what I want to do for my birthday has changed greatly.   For our 50th birthdays (Jamie is about 3 weeks older than me) we had a joint party.  This year all I wanted to do was nothing.  Like, let me just do the absolutely normal weekend things I always want to do and usually find a reason I can't or shouldn't.  

We Came Back From the Moon!

Emmylou is overwhelmed with the moment

So - our brave astronauts are back from The Moon.

First, I abso-@#$%ing-lutely bawled my eyes out when the parachutes popped and I knew the crew was going to be safe.  Wasn't expecting that emotional reaction at all - but I guess the risks were larger in my mind than I'd wanted to express.  But more than that - it's been so long since it seems like people wanted to try for something bigger than pettiness and cruelty and, frankly, just helping one another survive.  And Artemis II brought that back in ways I haven't felt in a long, long time.

beyond The Moon

NASA's page has plenty of great photography, and I highly encourage folks to take a look.  

We Went To The Moon!

what if it was made out of spare ribs?

The mission is far from over, but today has been a day I wasn't sure I'd see in my lifetime (as a conscious adult).  Today, people orbited the moon.  

The mission is Artemis II, and as I type this, four people are currently doing science aboard the Orion Capsule.  They just witnessed a lunar eclipse in space.  

clockwise from left - Koch, Glover, Hansen, Wiseman

The astronauts are:

• Reid Wiseman - Commander
• Victor Glover - Pilot
• Christina Koch - Mission Specialist
• Jeremy Hansen - Mission Specialist

The crew is notable for containing the first woman to orbit the moon (Koch) and the first Canadian to the moon (Hansen).  

I've been blown away by how well they all seem to communicate ideas, feelings and concepts as they're on their journey.  It's really moving.  If these people are eggheads, they seem to have found the poetry in their souls.  

I'd also mention NASA clearly is hiring when it comes to women in STEM as a great number of the staff in Houston are female - including CAPCOM and Science Chiefs.

So far they've been stunned by the *actual* color of the moon, which is maybe more brown and green than we know (but this may be an artifact of their eyes being in space).  They've seen actual collisions of meteors with the surface.  They've seen the topography, and named a crater after Commander Wiseman's late wife, Carroll, which makes me want to @#$%ing cry just thinking about it.  Imagine being able to name something that may have that name *forever* after the one you love?

The goal is to sort out what else we need to know about the moon and test current equipment before we start on next phases to establish a permanent lunar base.  

Is this a good idea?

I think so.  But I also think it sounds wildly dangerous.  So.  Hopefully we know what we're doing.  

The feed is really good for sharing audio and some images.  The real haul will come probably after the astronauts are safely home - which is scheduled for the 10th.  

For the current feed as of 04/06/2026:

Easter

Happy Easter, to those who celebrate.  To those who don't, you're missing out on a holiday that blends the apotheosis of a whole multi-national religion *and* plastic, brightly colored chicken eggs filled with jelly bellies.  And sometimes you get ham.

I always found Easter a very odd holiday.  Depending on the whims of government officials, we might get Good Friday off, but mostly not.  So it's not a holiday that felt relaxed in any way.  At our house, there was always a lot of pressure to fit in a lot in a very short amount of time, eat an obscene amount of food, plus you had school on Monday immediately following.  AND my folks would have family friends come, or we'd go see them.  Which means, as a kid, it was a holiday where you got to wrap it up by cramming in homework while full of ham and jelly bellies whilst over-stimulated.  And sometimes while in a moving GMC van.

It's also a holiday where the temps are starting to get hotter in Texas, so it could also be a day where you dressed for church in the morning, but by the time church ended, you were maybe a bit dewy.  

Speaking of...

I also remember knowing the jig was up on good Easter baskets as a kid when my mom dropped a stick of Right Guard in my basket circa 5th grade.  So, yeah, here's The Good News of Christ's resurrection and the hint that maybe I was aging into an era of getting a little ripe.

As a religious holiday - sure.  I like Easter.  Who doesn't like knowing you're forgiven and get a pass to Cloud City?  

As everything else - my feelings are mixed.  

This may be because I once ate the ear off Steanso's Easter Bunny which led to me getting as beat up as I ever got in my life.  And, frankly, I deserved it.  Do not eat the ear off another man's chocolate Easter Bunny.

These days my parents have wised up and host a Saturday Easter celebration at their house so they can do church-related things all day Sunday and not worry about us.  Which we did yesterday.  Easy squeezy.  I ate too much sugar, though, when my niece shoved a "bird's nest" in my face and said "I made these.  You have to eat one." and I already had carrot cake on my dessert plate.  

My egg hunting this morning was limited to laying in bed while the dog chewed on my hands (her favorite morning activity) and then I ate some Wheaties while trying to remember who Jalen Hurts is, and wondering if he has any scandals afoot.

UT Women's Basketball Season Ends - in the Final Four

Well, that is that.  

UT Women's Basketball is definitely back.  We didn't just make the tournament, we dominated right up until the Final Four in which we played UCLA.  

From the first few minutes, it was pretty clear something was off.  I suspect, but don't know, that nerves got the best of Texas.  The Final Four is *it*.  You made it.  

But the shooting average was shockingly bad.  Texas scored only six points in the first quarter, and that's usually what they put up in the first two minutes.  While UCLA was defending hard, Texas also didn't just run its offense and settle in and find the shot.  They were running and gunning and the result was bricks ahoy.  

Usually solid contributors like Madison Booker couldn't buy a bucket, at one point 1 for 17 (at which point, you need to stop shooting for a minute and pass) winding up 3 for 23.  Rori Harmon and Jordan Lee didn't suffer quite that much, but only put in three each.  

Team wide, it was a season low performance, and absolutely the wrong time for it to happen.  But sports is almost as mental a game as it is physical, and between the Elite Eight and the Final Four, Texas psyched themselves out.  

But...  that's okay.  That's just what happened one game on one night.  The team was better than any UT team in decades.  We had great personalities on the court, and they did what they were supposed to - playing with a joy that is contagious.  They won the SEC Tournament and beat UCLA and South Carolina in the regular season, so it's not like we should hang our heads in shame.  We beat teams in the NCAA tournament that I thought would give us a very hard time.

Of course, all of this happened right after the weird confrontation between SC's Dawn Staley and UConn's Geno Auriemma.  I saw it unfold, and I am as perplexed as Staley and Holly Rowe.  I won't comment much more than to say - what was that, man?

UCLA is the real deal - their win was no fluke.  Credit where it's due.  Lauren Betts and Kiki Rice are phenoms.  And I'll be watching the final game.