The secrets of the fire swamp...

Sitting on my cousin's couch in Phoenix, she opened her iPad and started showing me photos she'd taken of this crazy warthog-like animal called a javelina. She has a herd of them that run through her yard regularly, eating her neighbor's roses. I'd never heard of a javelina before, but it so clearly looks to be a member of the pig family. My aunt corrected me, saying they were peccaries not pigs. Yeah, like that's a word I've heard before. Someone said they're actually large rodents.

Seriously? R.O.U.S.es?? That'd be even more awesome. When we were leaving that evening two javelinas ran across the street right in front of us. A few hours ago I never knew they existed, and now I've seen them in real life. Unfortunately, they're not ROUSes any more than they are pigs. They're mammals, but that's as close as the relationships get. I could understand the pig-mistake, but why is there such a strong belief that they're rodents? Now I just need to see wild armadillos and I'll be set.

First World Problems

Every night I excitedly check the weather so I can knit my measly single row on my scarf. I always hope that the temperature stays within the same 5 degree span for more than a single day. A lot less ends to weave in if it's 2 rows the same color. Or even if it stutter-stepped the same color every other day would work. But of course that never happens. Every day is a new color. D shook his head and said "First world knitting problems".

 I love that man.

The weather report

I accept my area is known for unpredictable weather that can change in the time it takes to refill your drink. That the temperature can shift 30 degrees or more in an afternoon. Fine. That's why I have 5 active-use coats in the hall closet. But what I can't handle is what these shifts do to our local flora & fauna. Just look at our 35 year old maple trees:

They're budding! In January. This is wrong. What's worse, I was out running earlier this week (in shorts and a T-shirt, no shoes) and heard a peeper frog. Just one plaintively singing, and it was really sad knowing no other frog will hear his voice again. I wish I could've found him and taken him home to safety. Because 2 days later it's 45 degrees colder.

For an even clearer example of how messed up our weather is, here's my Daily Temp Scarf for January.

Each color represents a 5 degree span, with greys the coldest then purples, blues, then greens. The light grey is below 30, the light green is above 70F. And this is just the daily high temp. Some days that was just after midnight, and the temp fell steadily through the day. And this in no way records the 2" of rain we got in one night this week.

I do love the scarf, every day I can't wait until it's late enough to check the temp and knit my row. And it's always a bit of a letdown when the row is completed and I have to bundle it away for another day. I finally decided to knit the temp. at home rather than my travel experiences. Because the weather geek in me doesn't want this insanely striped pattern to be diminished by artificial changes in temp due to location.