Well, as it turns out mom and dad doves knew what they were doing, and hiding it quite well. Today I looked out the window and the nest was vacant! Upon closer inspection, there was the baby dove on the ground, going through her final pre-flight check. Minutes later, he/she was up on the wall being fed by mom (or dad), and while he/she’s hung pretty close to the tree all day long, baby dove appears to have officially flown the coop. Which is great, because the side and the back desperately need some lawnscaping attention!

To watch the Red Sox lose like they did today was heartbreaking. There’s no excuse for Kevin Youkilis watching a called third strike go by with the tying runner on third with one out. In a sitiation like that you have to be aggressive.

I’m very concerned about the Sox’ lack of offense coming out of Loretta and Gonzalez at second and short, respectively. The defensive skills they bring are well understood, but in the American League these two positions are also offensive ones, and as the season goes along, the pressure to produce offensively will only get worse. One final note about the Sox: Rudy Seanez is a bust.

On a final note for today, I think we can officially mark the start of summer, as the heat really came on today, and temps are supposed to be in the low 100s this week. It will now stay that way until the second or third week of October. Sigh…

Enjoying the last couple of days of reasonable weather, as, starting Monday the temps are gonna be in the low 100s and it looks like they may stay awhile.

Looks like momentum is building for a massive outpouring of protests for Uno de Mayo this coming Monday. For the life of me I just don’t understand what the pro-iillegal immigration advocates hope to achieve. I can tell you that in the circles I travel in, people are pretty pi$$ed off about the whole thing, and I share this view that the protests risk losing whatever sympathy and support they might have gained from the March rallies.

(BTW, part 1: I think the hubbub over the Spanish version of the national anthem is absurd. At least it’s sung well, which is more than you can say about the countless times it is butchered prior to a baseball game. IMHO, Ray Charles’ version of “America” sung during one of the Boston post-season series - the 1986 World Series, perhaps? - ranks as the best performance of one of our national songs I have ever heard.)

For the record, Michelle shows the original Francis Scott Key manuscript and related cool stuff!

And, of course, Hugh puts it all in perspective: Talk about fiddlin’ while Rome is about to burn…

There have beeen more attempts at foreigners - in this case, from Saudi Arabia - successfully hacking into conservation weblogs. Michelle has all the intriguing details.

Maybe it’s just me, but the spike in gas prices doesn’t bother or surprise me. But, of course, it does the Democrats, who are clueless on national energy policies. My bet is that many of the same people howling about high gas prices are either: a) driving large SUVs, b) stacked in line waiting at fast-food drive thrus for the third or forth time that week, c) opposed to drilling in ANWR or off our coasts, d) opposed to nuclear power plants, e) the first ones who would scream about an oil refinery planned for their community, or f) all of the above. The fact is, we live in a far different world now than we did thirty years ago, and it is the emerging, energy-thirsty Asia economies and greedy world-wide market speculators that are primarily responsible. Complaining about oil company profits is useless - they’re the ones taking all the risks, they should reap the rewards.

Congrats to Rob and the New Orleans Saints fans - they got Reggie Bush, and that should generate some much-needed enthusiasm and excitement in The Big Easy. Perhaps this is an omen of good things to come - like, maybe, a less-than-boisterous hurricane season?

No sign of progress on the Mourning Dove Maternity Watch - I’m starting to think the original egg was not going to produce a baby, and there’s another egg in the oven. Either way, mom and dad don’t appear to be concerned, so why should I?

…Wasn’t that the name of a Gogi Grant one-hit wonder? From the sounds of it, she was in that same early-to-mid 50s class of popular music artists as Rosemary Clooney / Jo Stafford (?); I’ll let Auntie Marge comment on that - she’d know better than anyone!

But I digress.

In New England where I come from, you can always tell from the sky when the weather is about to change for the worse. You have a nice day: blue sky, gentle or no breeze, but then that mackerel sky starts to appear, and you can bet your run of good luck is about to end.

Here in the Arizona desert, it is the wind that tells you a change in the weather is about to happen. Case in point: yesterday afternoon. It was round 85 or so, with a high blue sky and intense sun that burned your skin even if you were out for a short walk. Around eight last night, we could tell a breeze had sprung up, ’cause we heard the wind chimes outside. This morning, we had the same blue sky as yesterday, but the air felt different and the sun not quite so intense. Sure enough, the wind picked up during the day, clouds formed, and the temperature dropped to around 70 - cool for this time of year. We even had a sprinkle pass through earlier tonight.

Walking outside tonight to figure out a) why my front lawn watering system seems to be no longer operational, and b) why my pool filter seems to be running on a different schedule (more on that another time - grrrr), I could see that the clouds had moved on, the wind too. The air has once again changed, and you can tell it will be back to the 80s again tomorrow. That’s weather here in central Arizona.

It’s been a relatively cool spring thus far, and very dry. People ’round here seem to think that means a hotter summer than usual (now THERE’S something to look forward to, eh?) with less chance of an extended monsoon in late summer. We’ll see.

***

Status quo on the Mourning Dove Maternity Watch. Is it just my imagination, or are mom and dad starting to get tired of this routine? More and more, I see them catching short dove naps while in the nest…

***

Today I found out I’m going to New Orleans for 3 days two weeks from this coming Saturday. The thought of it makes me excited, yet strangely apprehensive at the same time - almost like when you know you’re soon to meet someone you love, knowing they’ve been through a very difficult or different time and you don’t know what to expect.

For the past several weeks, all we’ve been hearing about here in Phoenix is the absolute chaos that will result when “Uno de Mayo”, the organized May 1 boycott of work by illegal aliens being pushed by so-called “immigration rights advocates” (who, BTW, could care less about the rights of Indians, Russians, and Asians pursuing already-established legal paths to immigration, only those from Mexico and Central and South America who have entered the country illegally via our unprotected southern border). Supposedly, the purpose of said boycott was to show just how much us lazy, affluent, uncaring (but legal!) American citizens absolutely depend on illegal immigrantion to support our way of life by doing the work no one else is willing to do.

Me, I could care less. (Oops, that makes me uncaring, doesn’t it?)

You see, I’ve never been a fan of boycotts. When Christian fundamentalists protested Monty Python’s movie Life of Brian upon its release back in 1979, all it did was generate more publicity for what was, truth be told, a pretty minor release at that time. When Major League Baseball went on strike, I wasn’t pleased, but when it started up again I watched, listened, and enjoyed it as much as I did before. Whenever I pass union workers protesting in front of a business, I usually make it a point to change my plans and immediately turn in and buy something. As much as I think the French are a bunch of miserable, ungrateful ba$tards, I have a bottle of Grey Goose vodka in the refrigerator and would gladly purchase a truckload of Veuve Clicquot if I had the dough.

The same holds true for obstructionists. Like John Lennon sang in Revolution (BTW, combining with Hey Jude to be THE. ABSOLUTE. GREATEST. 45 RPM record ever released, bar none):

You say you got a real solution
Well you know
We don’t love to see the plan

When Democrats decided to play the obstructionist card on Republican attempts to reform Social Security, confirm strict constructionist judges, drill in ANWR, support the Administration’s efforts in Iraq as the main front on the Global War on Terror, and protect our nation’s borders, I said no problem - I didn’t vote for you before, and I’ll be happy to continue that pattern until you smarten up and put forth your own alternative plans to reduce the deficit and wasteful spending, reform bloated government assistance programs, and begin to take our nation’s security (economic and otherwise) more seriously.

(In other words, Howard Dean-Harry Reid-Nancy Pelosi, instead of whining, bitching, moaning and complaining about everything Republican and George W. Bush, let’s see YOUR plans. Republicans discovered in 1996 (and John Kerry in 2004) that you can’t be successful just running AGAINST someone or something, you have to put forth your plan and your vision. Believe me, after the way this White House has run things since its re-election, I am open to alternatives, but I don’t hear anything other than retreat, withdraw, and increase government control from your side of the aisle. That just ain’t gonna fly with me.)

But I digress…

As this Uno de Mayo boycott got closer, however, of a sudden, those promoting this idea - at least around the Phoenix area - started getting a little cold feet. A couple days later, it appears to be back on, but methinks there’s enough cases of the yips going on here (to put it in golf terms) that it’s not gonna be nearly as big as once envisioned.

And you know why? Yesterday the thought occurred to me: why stop at simply boycotting work? Why not attempt a 100% boycott of EVERYTHING illegals do in American society? In other words, don’t just boycott your workplace on May 1, drop out of American society for one day and see what happens. You know, boycott the schools, colleges, and universities that educate your children; boycott the hospitals and care centers that treat you and your families; boycott the restaurants and businesses that serve you and provide you opportunities to work.

But you know what? They won’t do that, and you wanna know why? Because, Skeezix, they know the road to El Dorado runs in both directions. Illegals get as much - (actually, when you consider the drain on our public and private services, perhaps more) from being here than they give. Heck, isn’t that why they risked life and limb to get here in the first place? How can you rally a major protest about something that benefits you far more than you it?

My guess is, in the end I don’t think there is going to be this massive outpouring of supporters clogging highways, closing restaurants and public buildings that everyone fears. Oh, there’ll be scattered boycotts and rallies, but nothing like the ones we saw a month ago. After all, these promoters and so-called “advocates” aren’t stupid - they know they got their voices heard in March, and they now fear all that good progress might be lost amidst amidst a backlash that might go something like this.

Like I say, for me it doesn’t matter. I was planning on a pitcher of #6 margaritas featuring La Hacienda del Rio’s Official Lime Juice to show my support not matter which way the wind blows. After all, around here the wind only blows three ways: dirty, dry, and hot. I see no reason at this juncture to change my plans. Do you?

Feeling a little squirrelly starting at those cubicle walls. Feel like mooooving yourself out of that nice comfy chair now that it’s spring? Hopping mad about the gas prices down at the local service station (thought: do they even call them that anymore?)? If you get a smile from checking out these unusual sites, well, I toad ya so!

This site is pure bovine madness - and I ain’t talkin’ the “mad cow” variety. It’s in support of the PBS series Texas Ranch House. Check out the “cow cam” (dial-up users. you may find it takes a while to load). What’ll they think of next?

One creature I miss out here in AZ is the Gray Squirrel. (We have these wacky looking things called the black squirrel, but to me they’re just hawk and vulture food.) I know, I know, squirrels are destructive ba$tards and a pain in the a$$, but they’re also fascinating and cute too. I still remember the legendary battles my dad and Mr. GS used to have out on the back porch of their condo as he tried to protect his bird feeder from these glorified rats. Well, if you too have a hankerin’ for those squirrelly days of yesteryear, check out this site.

My friend Dona is absolu