DRK i'd Junk-o

I got to see a new bird in our backyard this evening. I had meetings downtown this afternoon, and when things were finished there, it was too late to take my Metro train back out to where my car was parked and then drive back to the office - so I drove straight home from the Landover Station. At the beginning of last month I figured out how to use the hands-free feature in my car, so I can do some work calls while commuting - as of October 1, the Maryland law went into effect that disallows use of hand-held cell phones while driving. When I got home

and stepped out of the car, I was welcomed to the chirping of a northern cardinal - a male was in the top of the cherry tree in the front yard, his bright red coat contrasted against the dark gray clouded sky. After taking off my coat and tie, and placing my ID badge on the table next to the front door, I looked out the patio sliding glass door at the feeder to see if there was any bird action going on (1). There were three house finches jockying for position on the feeder. Just then a few darkish colored birds swooped into the yard, with one lighting on the gravel path. I had a pretty good idea of what general kind of bird it was, so a quick look at my copy of Peterson's A Field Guide to the Birds of Eastern and Central North America confirmed what I though: a dark-eyed junco. A description of this junco that is similar to the Oregon junco we were familiar with back home in Corvallis can be found by clicking at the U.S. Geological Survey Website here. When the birds swooped into the yard, their flight pattern was different from the other more regular frequenting species we see. The question for today is whether there were just passing through, or will be new regulars to our yard this winter. The dark-eyed juncos are widespread across much of the United States during the winter.
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(1) Did I ever mention that I can be a very dull blogger? Definition of dull found by clicking here.

Giants Win, Four Games to One

The first baseball team I was aware of was the San Francisco Giants - the Giants were our family's team - the Dodgers, were not talked about. As I watched this year's game five of the World Series, I could tell that it was with a bit of distant interest. Being on the East Coast, it is hard to stay up on work nights with the time zone difference to watch games that end after 11:00 PM when they are broadcast from the West Coast - but then, maybe that is the tell-tale-sign that I really am no longer the Bay Area fan I used to be. I know that 17 years in the Pacific Northwest turned me and my family into Mariners fans (1) - the year we moved to Oregon was the year Oakland lost to the Dodgers, and the following year was the Battle of the Bay Series, with earthquake (2) and all when Oakland trumped the Giants. Don't get me wrong, I am tickled that the Giants won last night, and stayed up way past my bed time to watch the analysis of the final game and the series on ESPN2. I know that I would have an easy time rooting for Giants if they matched up with almost any American League team - except, maybe the Mariners. The photo above with Tim Lincecum the winner of games 1 and five tells it all. A great ESPN This is Sports Center commercial featuring Lincecum is found clicking here. It is these kinds of things that I miss during the six months Major League Baseball is not up and running.
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(1) There are much better Giants fans than me. Tonight on All Things Considered on NPR, there was a short report about 74-year-old Bill Kent, head of the New York Baseball Giants Nostalgia Society, and his decades-long love for the New York and San Francisco Giants - 56 years after the Giants moved from the East to West Coast, he is still a fan. That is dedication to a team, regardless of geography.

(2) Because of the earthquake, a ferry dock had to be constructed to accommodate commuters crossing the bay while the Oakland Bay Bridge was repaired. As is happened, my brother was a worker on the dock, and one day Dave Stewart, an Oakland pitchers came by, and Brian was able to get his autograph on a Heath candy bar wrapper. He mailed it to us in Oregon knowing that our then nine-year-old son Dan was a real fan (3), but for some reason, the envelope never made it.

(3) In the fall of 1988, Brian, Dan (seven years old), and I saw the game in Oakland when Jose Canseco hit his 40th home run in his 40-40 season (first to get 40 home runs and stolen bases in the same season). The only down side of the game was that Dan threw up at the game soon after the blast over the left field wall, so we missed the rest of the game - it turned out to be 11 innings. It is interesting to see how a crowded walk way filled with people coming and going to the concession area parts like the Red Sea in front of Moses when a kid projectile vomits.
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SF Giants On Top Of The World With 1st Series Win

Henry Schulman, Chronicle Staff Writer

Tuesday November 2, 2010

Arlington, Texas -- There stood pitcher Matt Cain, at 26 the longest-tenured player on the 2010 Giants, raising the circle-of-flags trophy above his head on the field so hundreds of San Francisco fans who refused to leave the Rangers' ballpark could see it.

"Wow, this is sick," Cain said. "We're the World Series champions of 2010."

How long the faithful have waited to hear those words - not years, but generations. The Giants moved to San Francisco in 1958 and had not touched that trophy until Monday night, when they beat the Texas Rangers 3-1.

The Giants needed only five games to win the franchise's sixth World Series, its first since 1954. They dominated Texas in ways they could not have imagined during a 162-game regular season and two rounds of playoffs that lived up to the team's unofficial motto of "Giants baseball: Torture."

The unlikely Most Valuable Player for an unlikely World Series winner was Edgar Renteria, an injury-plagued shortstop from Colombia who might retire after the season and whose two-year, $18.5 million contract was ridiculed because the Giants gave it to a player thought to be washed up.

Renteria already belonged in the pantheon of World Series heroes. In 1997, then 22 and a big-leaguer for less than two seasons, he won Game 7 for Florida with an 11th-inning single. On Monday, Renteria secured a seat at the head table when he supplied all of the Giants' runs with a three-run homer in the seventh inning that broke a 0-0 tie.

Renteria called his shot against Cliff Lee, twice telling center fielder Andres Torres before the game he was going to go deep.

"He told Andres he was going to hit one and he did it," outfielder Aaron Rowand said. "He Babe Ruth-ed it, I guess."

Tim Lincecum, the two-time Cy Young Award winner, allowed three hits and struck out 10 in eight innings in the most important win of his 26-year-old life.

On a team with so much youth, it was fitting that Buster Posey, a 23-year-old rookie catcher, did the keenest job summarizing what this championship means to an organization and a city that was starved for it.

"It's crazy to think with all the great baseball players who have come through San Francisco, there hasn't been a World Series championship," Posey said.

"The beautiful thing about the organization is, you've got guys like Will Clark here. You've got J.T. Snow here. You've got Shawon Dunston here. When we get back to San Francisco, we'll have Willie Mays and Willie McCovey and Gaylord Perry. The list goes on and on. It's so humbling to have won the first World Series in San Francisco. It's unbelievable."

How fitting that the Series ended with closer Brian Wilson blowing a strike-three fastball past Rangers outfielder Nelson Cruz, setting off a celebration sure to rock the Bay Area for a long time. After all, everyone had generations to plan it.

52 title-free years

With the first toast, revelers could bid good riddance to the ghosts of failures past.
McCovey's line drive to Bobby Richardson in 1962, the earthquake sweep in 1989 and the Game 6 collapse in 2002 - their power to spook the faithful is gone, defused by a championship year led by four homegrown pitchers, including Lincecum, who came up huge in the clinching game.

Former managing general partner Peter Magowan, a Giants fan since 1951 who could not guide the franchise to a title during 16 years at the helm, said this title makes up for everything.

"It does. It erases it," Magowan said. "I don't think a day goes by that I don't think about the '02 World Series. I still think a lot about '62, to say nothing about all the other near-misses. This does knock it all away."

Nailing it down

With two outs in the seventh inning of a 0-0 game, and Cody Ross and Juan Uribe on base after singling, Renteria knocked a 2-0 cut fastball from Cliff Lee over the wall in left-center field for a three-run homer that helped secure the trophy.

First baseman Aubrey Huff, who broke into tears as the World Series win truly dawned on him, said he was happier for Renteria than anyone.

Renteria was derided by fans for not living up to his contract. In 2010, he spent three tours on the disabled list with three different injuries. He also was injured in late September when the Giants, who were not hitting, held a pregame meeting inside the batting cage at Wrigley Field.

In one of the season's most emotional moments, according to those who attended, Renteria rose to speak. He was in tears.

"I had a feeling this was going to be my last year," Renteria recounted Monday. "I told my teammates, 'Let's go. Let's play hard. I know we can do it. I believe in you guys. If you guys have a chance to put us in the playoffs, I'll help you once we get there.'

"The Giants organization gave me a two-year contract and I was not able to help them. But they always had my back. I just wanted to do something big for them."

The Giants still had to get nine outs after Renteria's homer. Lincecum got six. Though he allowed a seventh-inning homer by Cruz, he also struck out three hitters in the inning and one more in the eighth.

Lincecum was lights-out

Lincecum was not sharp during the Giants' Game 1 win. In Game 5 he was lights-out and became the 15th pitcher in history to win four games in one postseason.

Posey said he knew it would be OK before the game when he saw Lincecum's demeanor.

"It's called being a gamer," Posey said. "Walk into the clubhouse today and the guy's as loose as he can be, joking around, same old Timmy. He had no idea he had an opportunity to go out and win Game 5 of the World Series and win us a championship."

Afterward, it still had not sunk in.

"It'll take over later on tonight," Lincecum said, "when we get to be by ourselves and really think about everything."

Thought You Should Know

We got an email today from our son letting us know that one of the soldiers he served with for three years at the Tomb of the Unknowns at Arlington National Cemetery was killed in Afghanistan on Thursday, October 28 - "Thought you should know" was the title line. Yesterday
there was a short report on the NPR Morning Edition radio program about a memorial service held earlier in the week in Afghanistan for another soldier in the 101 Airborne Division who was recently killed. I make a point not to tune out reports of casualties - to stare at the reality, and try not to become callous. When checking the Corvallis news earlier in the week, I also saw that a Marine from nearby Albany had recently been killed. A few months ago I happened on a report in the Los Angeles Times that showed a picture of a father holding his son's Army photograph after learning of his son's death - I knew the father from high school. All of these reports touch me - sons of former classmates, soldiers from

towns or states where we have once lived, loved ones of old friends who go to former churches we attended, and most recently - graduates of the Naval Academy. But this is the first time someone I have met has been killed in war - closer still since our son,  Badge 536, had worked with him. The news about Staff Sergeant Adam Dickmyer, Badge 528, is close to home. We had met him several times when visiting the Tomb, and he was the commander of the relief when Mike took his last walk on the Fourth of July three years ago - he ate the meal we brought to the sentinel's quarters to celebrate the end of Mike's 38 month tour.

I read that the family of Staff Sergeant Dickmyer wants to have him buried at Arlington where he served for six years (1). The daily funeral schedules is posted at the bottom of the cemetery's Website homepage. A photographic memorial put together by Rex Looney who regularly photographs life at the Tomb of the Unknowns is found here. The Associated Press has posted a number of photographs of Staff Sergeant Dickmyer when he was received at Dover Air Force Base (2).
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(1) Internment is scheduled for Wednesday, November 17 from 9:00-11:00 AM in Section 60 at Arlington National Cemetery, the service begins at the Memorial Chapel at Fort Myer.
http://www.facebook.com/#!/event.php?eid=130725056983236

(2) See an earlier post about the significance of Dover Air Force Base.
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Fort Campbell Soldier on patrol dies after being struck by an IED 

October 30, 2010

Fort Campbell, KY – A 101st Airborne Division Soldier died October 28th, when struck by an improvised explosive device while on dismounted foot patrol in Kandahar Province, Afghanistan.

Staff Sgt. Adam L. Dickmyer, 26, of Winston Salem, NC, was an Infantryman assigned to 2nd Battalion, 502th Infantry Regiment, 2nd Brigade Combat Team, 101st Airborne Division (Air Assault). He joined the Army in October 2002 and arrived at Fort Campbell in November 2009.

His awards and decorations include:  Meritorious Service Medal, Army Commendation Medal; Army Achievement Medal; Army Superior Unit Award; Army Good Conduct Medal; National Defense Service Medal; Global War on Terrorism Service Medal; Army Service Ribbon; Non Commissioned Officer Professional Development Ribbon; Air Assault Badge; Expert Infantry Badge; Parachutists Badge; Tomb of the Unknown Soldier Identification Badge and Marksmanship Qualification Expert Badge.

Dickmyer is survived by his wife, Melinda K. Dickmyer of Arlington, VA; father, David Dickmyer of Winston Salem, NC; and mother, Stephanie L. Dickmyer, of New Port Richey, FL.
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Other follow up articles reporting Adam's funeral at Arlington National Cemetery are found at:
Boston Globe
Washington Post and here
Winston-Salem Journal

Aves de Uruguay y Argentina

As soon as we drove out of Colonia into the country side, I knew I was going to be disappointed. I couldn't believe the diversity of birds I saw out the car window on our way to our scheduled appointment at the Instituto Nacional de Investigación Agropecuaria research center at La Estanzuela, but there was no time to stop and look. All I could do is jot down descriptions of what I saw - hoping I could recognize the birds by my notes and memory later when in my hotel room with my copy of Field Guide to the Songbirds of South America, The Passerines by Ridgely and Tudor. It was a wonderland of new species. I saw birds in Argentina as well, especially the last day near Buenos Aires, but nothing like what was across the rolling hills of farm land in southern Uruguay. For sure, I would love to go back again in spring and spend all of the time in world just looking.

a. White banded mockingbird
b. Shiny cowbird
c. Forked tailed flycatcher
d. Red-crested cardinal
e. Rufous hornero
f. Brown-chested martin
g. Southern burrowing owl
h. Yellow brown tyrant
i. Scimitar-billed woodcreeper
j. White-tipped dove
k. Plumbeous ibis
l. White monjita
m. Chimango caracara
n. Snowy egret
o. Rufous hornero nest

And, this was just the start. For a check list of Uruguary birds, click here. For a check list of Argentina birds, click here.

Argentine Politics - On Display

I knew nothing of contemporary news about Argentina before visiting last week, much less Argentinian politics. So it caught my attention this morning while listening to the morning radio news when a report came on that the former president and husband of the present President of Argentina had died today. While out walking back to our hotel the
first night after the reception for the conference I was to speak at the next day, I noticed a sign board at the side of the street with posters for a political candidate. As it turned out, he was a former friend of the President's husband's against whom he would be running in the 2011 election - now that won't be. It is interesting that in Argentina, most anyone you talk with has a political opinion - just like here in the United States. Also, on my last afternoon in Buenos Aires, the traffic in the city was particularly bad - by any standard. The Embassy folks said their was a follow up protest to one the day before because some one had been killed during the  
previous day's demonstration. At a stop light from across the boulevard going in the opposite direction, I took a picture of the marchers - an image of times past as I remember seeing in the news - also not mattering whether it was in the U.S. or Argentina. When reading the State Department briefings about Argentina (and other South American countries) before leaving on my trip, there was a warning to avoid political rallies, so I was fortunate to see one from a distance - and catch a photograph.

Itsy Bitsy Spider...

All summer I have been trying to get a look at what I thought was a black widow spider, living in the valve box that holds the irrigation controllers that water our yard. I didn't know black widows lived in Maryland until my wife mentioned earlier in the year that she had seen one in the valve box. I have several times cleared the sticky webs that reminded me of the ones we always had in our garage in California - just no sight of one. But today, when I went to turn on the valve to give the resident female eastern box turtle a little wetting down, there was the spider hiding in the valve box cover. A quick visual identification guide of the spiders found in Maryland can be found by accessing the link by clicking here. A nice general guide to identify various insect orders can be found by clicking here.

Very Good Day

Three favorite college football teams, three wins.

Ricky Dobbs leads Navy to last-second win over Wake Forest.
Associated Press

WINSTON-SALEM, N.C. -- Ricky Dobbs led a brilliant touchdown drive capped by a 6-yard pass to Greg Jones with 26 seconds left to give Navy a 28-27 win and hand Wake Forest its second straight last-minute loss.

Dobbs, who had been knocked out of the game briefly after taking a sack on the previous drive, found an open Gee Gee Greene for a 34-yard gain to the Wake Forest 15 with just over a minute left.

Then on third down he hit Jones in the right corner of the end zone. Joe Buckley kicked the tie breaking extra point and Navy (3-2) avoided a second straight loss.
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Final: Oregon State 29, Arizona 27
By Ted Miller

TUCSON, Ariz. -- Arizona couldn't defend its No. 9 ranking against a resurgent Oregon State team that again appears to be making a turnaround after a slow start.

That slow start is attributable to having played a pair of top-five teams, TCU and Boise State -- two teams that will be pleased with this result.

There is some bad news, however, from the Beavers 29-27 win over Arizona. All-American receiver James Rodgers suffered a knee injury that looked like it might be serious, though there was no official word.

The Beavers win was a coming out party for quarterback Ryan Katz, who turned in a career best day, passing for 393 yards and two touchdowns, completing 30-of-42.
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Oregon wins with no style points
By Ted Miller

Sometimes a 20-point win on the road doesn't feel so good.

No. 3 Oregon piled up 558 yards and beat Washington State 43-23, but it was a costly day. And not just because the win lacked the style points that are often required to keep moving up in the polls.

First, quarterback Darron Thomas was knocked out of the game with a shoulder injury. Also, running back Kenjon Barner was seemingly knocked out, though the nature of his injury hasn't been revealed. He was was in stable condition and undergoing tests at the hospital, Oregon reported.

Oregon is 6-0 for the first time since 2002. With Alabama's loss at South Carolina, it's possible it could take another step forward in the polls.