look close

Look close.
Don't just look at the bird even though the bird is looking at you.
Look under the limb the bird is on. 
Recognize it?
I love silly Saturday.

So much luck. We got Thursday off and the weather was perfect. I worked Friday and that was the day it rained. Today, Saturday, was perfect. Tomorrow it will rain some more but that is perfect because I'll do indoor chores. 

Today I got to see some friends at Wilde Lake and I met a photographer I've been following on Facebook. He takes outstanding pictures of birds and he is why I've begun going to Wilde Lake. Being the shy, reticent, introverted, low-confidence person that I am, I walked up to him and introduced myself and my friends. He was funny and gracious and completely surprised. (His camera was huge. I don't even mean the lens, I mean the camera. Yes, I have a little mirrorless but dang. What hand muscles a person must develop!)

Over the past 24 hours Ukraine repelled Russia from eight cities, towns, and villages in Donetsk Oblast.


The US, South Korea, and France will send almost 200 generators to Ukraine. The EU will provide 200 medium-sized transformers and a large autotransformer from Lithuania, a medium-sized autotransformer from Latvia, and 40 heavy generators from the EU reserve in Romania. Ukraine is working to make it possible to import electricity from the EU, maybe 600 MW. South Korea will provide 20 high-voltage generators and fie mini-excavators. The generators will be delivered by chartered flight Dec 12. 


I watched a news report this morning that said that some of the ethnic minorities in Russia fled to Mongolia. Many of them wound up homeless and Mongolians are taking them in and teaching them the language. Mongolia has decided to grant temporary residency permits. 


Russians are growing more critical and gloomy. 


Some spies were caught in Sweden. 


The Serhiy Prytula Foundation, named after a prominent Ukrainian actor, has been crowdfunding since June. This is the organization that was going to buy Bayraktar drones before the company donated them. They bought access to the database of ImageSat International satellite images for a year. The result? The "People's Satellite" has allowed them to find 2,600 pieces of Russian equipment and find their locations in Ukraine, Russia, and Belarus. They let Ukrainian intelligence find weapons systems, radars, pontoon crossings, boats, and tents. They found 150 places where Russian forces were located. 


There is a letter from an FSB agent explaining why he thinks Putin will not use nuclear weapons. One reason is that there isn't one person who decides. There are doubts about whether Russia's nuclear weapons actually still function.