Stoneage Ramblings

By John R. Stone

A couple of weeks ago a few dozen robins stopped in our yard for a visit. They picked around on the ground for a while and then attacked the mountain ash that still had hundreds of berries left from last year’s crop.

It only took an hour or two and the tree was picked clean. I, for one, was thankful because that meant the remaining berries would not fall on our deck (not that a few hundred hadn’t already fallen on the deck) and need to be swept away.

After stripping the mountain ash bare they went across the street to our neighbors house and went to work on the remaining crab apples. I suspect neighbor Bob was glad to see them, it meant there would be fewer crab apples to be picked off his driveway and sidewalk.

Enroute to church Easter Sunday we saw lots of geese standing on the ice at the edges of lakes and ponds with kind of a bewildered look. It was time they should be setting their nests and Mother Nature was not cooperating in that effort at all.

It has been an ugly spring and just about when a person figures the cold has to go away very soon, it doesn’t. The snow on Easter Sunday was kind of a downer. I can think of so many Easter Sundays when we have been out in the yard doing something, if nothing more than sitting there absorbing the smells of spring.

Let’s hope this week things start getting better. I’m sure the farmers are more than itching to get in the field, the rest of us are ready to get to tending our lawns and gardens, the softball, baseball and golf fans are ready to take to the fields and fairways, and those without a specific pastime to practice are more than ready for some warmer weather!

Enough of this!

          -0-

Since I wasn’t outside one day I was looking around Facebook Marketplace. I’ve never bought anything there but it is interesting to see what’s for sale. Sometimes I have to open the item just to see what it is, I can recognize no useful purpose from the picture posted.

I stumbled across a 1941 Aeronca recently. That’s a small single engine aircraft that apparently still flies although it would now be 81 years old. It does need its annual certification but for $15,900 it could be yours. That $15,900 is probably at least several times what that aircraft sold for new back before the start of WWII.

It is hard to think of buying anything 81 years old unless it is an antique or has collector value. But aircraft are different. Their style has not changed much in the last 81 years. Plus they need to be maintained to be certified as airworthy.

If that is too old for you I saw a 1947 Piper single engine aircraft for sale for $49,000. That one had completed its annual certification.

          -0-

The long winter has brought a new level of grumpiness to our daily coffee group. The weather, often ignored as normal during “regular” winter barring some unusual behavior like 15 inches of snow, has become a daily topic. We all refer to our phones to get whatever app we are using to see if we can find the most optimistic forecast for the next week.

It seems that every time we look next week will be better and we very much look forward to the better weather to come. Then, on Monday, when that weather has not arrived, and the forecast has been adjusted to reflect the current reality, a level of grumpiness sets in. 

        -0-

On Easter Sunday I posted a few seconds of video of the snow that was falling early in the afternoon on the already covered ground. My Swedish friends posted emojis with horrified looks on their faces.

My brother sent a picture that really got me. It was a picture of his feet as he was watching something on TV in his screen porch while reclining either in a chair or couch. He was barefoot. That hurt.