Kaylee about to emulate a Wood Duckling :)

[waldenbound]

I have tinnitus too! I will never know the sound of pure silence
Kaylee, I like birding too. My thing is owls, but I can never see the buggers. But I love owls.

[Everyroadleadshome]

Hi Kaylee,

Glad to have you on the forum, from your previous experience, I think you'll do just fine with the mobile adjustment.

[Kaylee]

Thanks for the warm welcome everybody!

The last week has been rough, with machinery noise, burning of leaves/etc, and heat&humidity.
Fortunately, Friday's supposed to be rain & cold all day.

Just a quick partial reply...

To my fellow Noise Sensitives:
Have any of you ever investigated the possibility that you might be on or close to the autism spectrum?
I've always been noise sensitive, and strongly suspect I am. My Dad was also very noise sensitive and had other autistic characteristics.

I highly recommend searching for interviews with "Temple Gradin" and watching the movie HBO made about her - very enlightening!
The only "good" thing about becoming TBI, is that it's a lot easier (and less pejorative) to explain that, than that I might be on the spectrum.

One of my future passion projects is building a Quiet resources database that helps both those groups (TBI & Autistics).

frater secessus:
Ditto on cranes!
Top of my birding bucket list is to experience their migration stopovers in the Platte River area of Nebraska.
Twice I've been to the stopover area in Indiana, and got to see them dance.
The volume in Indiana is tiny compared to Nebraska's half million, plus the Platte's terrain is cooler.

Gary:
Yes, please do add me to the hidden place.
I have some Dumb Questions about, um, we-all-know-what.

waldenbound:
Owls rock!
In your wanderings, keep an eye out for bird club outings that include owls, particularly in the Spring. The longest I was in one place, I helped out with the local club's Spring intro to birding, and the leader always made sure to show them a couple of Great Horned Owl nests, with youngsters easily visible - a great treat for both beginners and experienced!

[Blacktank]

let me know that you can see the female camper section

[Kaylee]

let me know that you can see the female camper section

Yup, I see it - thanks Gary!

[Kaylee]

Update:
I did launch, but had an opportunity to do it in Baby Steps/Bounces.

Spent last Wednesday night at my storage unit, sleeping in my new configuration (length of car, vs my previous curled-up-in-backseat approach).
Learnt a few things, like do not put a wide hard box beside one's knees. Now fixed.

There was a birding get-together happening near the Missouri River, very close to South Dakota, Nebraska, Minnesota, Iowa, so I signed up for it. It was hosted at a local college, and housing was in the dorms. They let me arrive early, and stay a "few" days longer.
That's where I am right now.
There's no smoke (phew!), and predictable noisy times, so I'm winding up some stuff that I wasn't able to do before.

Still have some admin headaches (mostly DMV related) that I'm waiting on, so might stay hear until right after M-Day.

Unexpected nuisance: found a brand new crack at the edge of my windscreen (hand length).
Will look into getting that fixed tomorrow.

Bright Spots:
- great birding last weekend!
- my SSA estimate of benefits arrived at my PO box (according to USPS Informed Delivery)
- as I type this (7pm), my solar panel is sitting inside my North-facing dorm window, charging my battery-controller-thingie

Slowly but surely.

[Kaylee]

Mini Update:
I'll be relaunching in a few hours (mid-day Wednesday).

I got a bunch done over the last week and a half, including a surprising victory with my "home" state's DMV. I now have a valid driver's license, after almost a year of frustration. Phew!

I had been planning to pop over to South Dakota to get their allegedly easy instant one, but now I have to kill one to two weeks while I wait for the permanent issue license.

Figured I'd pop over to my storage unit in northern Wisconsin, so checked the area for free campsites and found multiple ones in the UP (Upper Peninsual of Michigan) with an unexpected luxury: "vault toilets".
Since I have yet to buy #2 "gear", that instantly sold me.

Nothing quite says "baby steps" like a toilet, albeit an "austere" one.

Still no internet, but I'm going to pop into a Walmart or two on my route, and if they have all the bits&pieces for a viable "Straight Talk" $20/month plan, I'll probably buy it. My #1 campground candidate is supposed to have both Verizon and AT&T, so if the hotspot&plan do NOT work, I'll return it quickly.

I'm also going to try to "free" my backseat cushions, to cure the angle issue.

Will pop by the Library at my last temp housing, and load up on books, then treat this as a Reading Vacation, so any solar issues will be less stressing. Stress bad, Books good.

[Cammalu]

How is the weather up there Kaylee? Nice for camping?

[Kaylee]

How is the weather up there Kaylee? Nice for camping?

Forecast:
Daytime highs: mid-60s to high-70s F.
Nightime lows: low-40s to low-50s F.
For me, that's near perfect weather.

My only concern is the bugs.

This last weekend, here in the middle of the Great Plains, the highs hit the low 100s F... and then there was the heat index!

[Cammalu]

Sounds about like perfect weather to me. Do you have window screen for your rig? I’ve seen a lot of people with sufficient DIY ones.