Wednesday, March 05, 2008

Red-winged blackbirds... I haz dem!

FINALLY! This past weekend, a few red-winged blackbirds finally came home to the marsh! Surely this means that spring is just around the corner! All we need is a few spring peepers and some fireflies, and it's springtime for Delia!

We're certainly having some spring showers here, along with warmer temperatures, that are causing some major flooding all around the area, including my basement:

That's four inches of water in the basement, which means my laundry room and my workshop in addition to a big room where the furnace and oil tank (and a bunch of other crap) are. The flooding shorted out the motor in the furnace, so I woke up to NO HEAT.

This melting snow and tons of rain are really making life difficult. I had to get the furnace guy to come and dry out (literally--with my blowdryer) the motor in the furnace, and we had to call another guy with a big pickup and a chain to pull the car out of the mud at the bottom of the driveway:

I've discovered that the washing machine still works, but the dryer does not. I'm hoping it is just drying itself out and I'll be able to put that freshly washed load into it soon... I hope?

Needless to say, no work for me today. Instead, I spent the day getting the car towed about four feet for $25 (other people wanted over $100!), buying a submersible pump to get the water out of the basement (another $75, but hey--we saved that on the towing!), pumping the water out of the big basement and the small basement (we have two separate basements under two different sections of the house), waiting for the furnace guy to get the heat back on (I'm only now thawing out from not having heat all night and most of the day), making some really yummy potato-leek soup, putting floated-away stuff back in place in the basement, washing clothes but not drying them, and finally settling in for a quick episode or two of "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" (I'm watching Season 3 right now).

After I'm done posting, I have to study for yet another calculus quiz tomorrow night. Oy vey. But let's not talk about that. Let's focus on the spring songs of the song sparrows and the oka-lee of the red-winged blackbirds! Welcome home, birdies! (Sorry no picture but it's still raining outside.)

8 comments:

Lynne at Hasty Brook said...

Onka-lee!! I haven't heard that sound in, oh, maybe 3 years.

At least it seems like it...

Mel said...

Good luck with the quiz! :)

Anonymous said...

Wow, Delia! What a pain all that water. Here in our drought, we would welcome it, but not in our basements!

We've had a mess of redwings back at the feeders. They crack me up because they shriek as they land on the feeder.

We've got a blue bird couple checking out the birdhouse, too. I love their exotic beauty. I'm such a sucker for brightly colored birds.

Earl Cootie said...

So many interpretations of red-winged blackbird calls I've heard/read! To me, it sounds like they're calling "Jim Cavieeeee-zel!" but my hearing's never been so great.

Spring showers for you. We're finally through our winter storms and seeing sunshine for more of the week than not.

But the house finches are out and singing. Our resident Bewick's wren is singing every morning. I read on Rock Paper Lizard that the rufous hummers should be returning this month. The sandhill cranes will be passing through eastern Washington in the coming weeks. Ahhhh. Finally.

Dr. Monkey Von Monkerstein said...

Holy crap! I wondered where you'd been. I hope everything is okay now.

Mary said...

Sorry....there's something about flooding that makes me nervous.

Our RW Blackbirds over-winter here and I never get tired of them.

Spring is coming, Delia!

Hang in there and do well on that quiz. :o/ --- Calculus, yuck.

dguzman said...

Lynne--I hear ya. I feel like winter's lasted for about six years.

Mel-thanks!

DCup--too bad I couldn't send some water your way. I love the colorful birds too! I bet you get to see painted buntings down there, don't you? I would LOVE to see one!

Earl--if they're really shouting Caviezel's name, it's because they couldn't take all the gore of Passion of the Christ!

Dr. Monkey--never fear, I am here!

Mary--it's kinda scary when you know you can't do anything to stop it. You just have to get a pump and hope for the best.

KGMom said...

Oh Delia--so sorry for all your troubles. Hope things look up. Hope you aced the calc test.
Hope the blackbirds.