Occasional Jots and Tittles

I’d honestly thought finishing the legislative session would have freed me up to have more time for my blog. Instead, it seems like it’s been non-stop one project after another.

First was the anniversary party for my folks, which took us up to July, and I hit the ground running launching our new software company. It’s one of those specialized products that only a handful of companies are likely to need, but for those who do, it could be a no-brainer to buy, so I’ve got my fingers crossed. The preliminary modules and the framework for the system as a whole have been released.

That’s involved Jonathan going to Houston for a week to train staff at one of our first installations, and I’ll probably get to go over there myself soon. Hope to head west from there to pick up some west Texas birds this fall.

Then there was the Feliciana Hummingbird Celebration, at which I’ve helped as a banding assistant for the last four years. Numbers were up this year from last year, though not to what they once were; we banded 18 new birds and had one returnee female from two years ago. It was an interesting turnout and I got to answer a lot of questions for folks. A crew from the Rural Broadcasting Service (which provides regional content to small cable system operators) filmed a piece on the festival, including a nice section on us banding the birds.

I’ve also been mapping out travel plans for the rest of the year. Originally I thought I wouldn’t be able to travel much, but I’ll be making a short trip to San Francisco and the Wine Country with my friend Damon in September. While there I’ll get in a few days of birding with my friend Kevin, and hope to have dinner with the Woofpup boy. Later in November, I’m going back to south Texas with my friends Jeff and Jerry, and my brother-in-law Mark, for some border birding. So vacation is taken care of.

Lastly I’ve actually been using my Facebook page to keep up with what other people are doing, although I haven’t posted much to mine.