# (Old) Going bats in the MMP **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Tags:** mmp\ **Created:** [October 23, 2023, 5:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/old-going-bats-in-the-mmp/991945 "2023-10-23T05:52:41Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 1\ **Showing post:** 28
**Author:** ![purplehorseshoe](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/purplehorseshoe/32/2996_2.png) [@purplehorseshoe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/purplehorseshoe)\ **Post date:** [October 23, 2023, 7:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/old-going-bats-in-the-mmp/991945/28 "2023-10-23T19:04:02Z")
> [@I hate when I do that in the MMP! - old](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-hate-when-i-do-that-in-the-mmp-old/991640/318): > > **[Granite Dells](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Granite_Dells)** is a really popular rock climbing destination and we can tell when the eagles are nesting because that’s when the Dells become female (no nuts hanging off them). Took me way too long to get that one. > [@Baker](#): > > First! Finally!!! > [@dogbutler](#): > > Second! W00T! Tell me **swampy** is still under the weather, without telling me **swampy** is still under the weather. > [@nightshadea](#): > > the look on her face was "they fly now? No fair! " The mental image is hilarious. > [@Wheelz](#): > > Still not used to getting up this early! The hardest part, for a lot of people, is not throwing a mental temper tantrum about getting sent to bed early. > [@FairyChatMom](#): > > use the pre-made rolled-up crusts, so mock away. I know how to make a crust from scratch, but I choose not to. Same, and same. The frozen crusts are IME utter crap. But the refrigerated ones made by a company that starts with “P” and rhymes with “Illsbury” got a thumbs up from the snooty Cook’s Illustrated folks, and that’s plenty good enough for me. I’ve had homemade, and I’ve had ^^ and the only difference, to me, is the labor, both in the actual making, and the 🤬 cleanup. > [@FairyChatMom](#): > > I know she’s torn - despite his mental problems, he is capable of dealing with many aspects of his life, but he doesn’t want to. I think it’s largely because most of his life, his parents have done for him. But MIL is old and tired and it’s just too much for her. What’s the old adage? “Chickens always come home to roost.” I’m sorry, this is gonna be harsh, but she created this problem, and now it’s falling into someone else’s lap to deal. That sucks. For you, the designated lap. > [@FairyChatMom](#): > > But if he doesn’t keep up with his psych meds, this will keep happening, and short of putting him in a home where they’ll dose him regularly, I just don’t know. You already know the answer. It’s right there ^^ and that IS the only sustainable solution. > [@FairyChatMom](#): > > Some of the stuff I’ll try to sell: They’re like kittens; I wanna take 'em ALL home! (The jellyfish, especially.) How’d the fundraiser go? > [@FairyChatMom](#): > > Guess I should get out of my jammies and into clothes. Eventually, anyway. It’s nearly 2 p.m. I’m considering it. > [@LSLGuy](#): > > No conversation about bats would be complete without mention of downtown Austin’s famous bat bridge: I lived there, for seven glorious years. (Hook 'em! \nn/ ) I knew a long time ago that the bats would be one of the top things I’d miss. Hell, I used to work at the Austin American-Statesman (best job I ever had) so I got to park in the employee lot to watch. Their employee car stickers had a bat - kept that sucker on my windshield for years after moving back to Dallas. The “bat show” really is something. People absolutely coat the grassy banks near the river, so there’s lots of dogs, toddlers, etc. while everyone jostles for space. Plenty of mosquitoes, too. … for a while. Once it gets close to dusk, everyone kinda quiets. Looking towards the river. You’ll eventually see one. Maybe two. The brave ones (or extra hungry) scouting it out. Then a few more. Then it’s like a living river, absolutely _pouring_ out from under the bridge. It’s fascinating to try to focus on a single individual - picture rush-hour traffic on a 4-highway grid, but in 3 D - nobody ever hits another, but _damn_ they come close. I never understood the old nature documentaries about zebra and wildabeest (“There are so many, it’s difficult for predators to track individual prey…”) until I watched the bats. It really is challenging. Late summer is best - the pups have started to fly, so the “river” doubles in population. > [@LSLGuy](#): > > (and smelled) the sleeping colony gently sort of chirping at one another. Yeah. They stinky. But that was a good description of the daytime sound. The area under the bridge is redolent, but the auditory outweighs the olfactory, for me. High pitched, you can _barely_ hear it … but when several thousand individuals are making the same (to us) sound, trust me, it registers. > [@LSLGuy](#): > > there was a redtail who lived in or near our building. We’d often spot it perched on someone’s balcony railing. Very few pigeons about and we always credited the hawk with that. Absolutely credit where credit is due. I can picture the fierce stare now! > [@LSLGuy](#): > > all his wheels fall off at once. Besides rapidly fading ambition & memory, the acute problem is severe arthritic hip pain that the docs are badly under-medicating due to the opioid DEA scare. That is just a giant ball of suckitude, and also, one of my biggest fears. > [@LSLGuy](#): > > I’ve known Dad a long time, but we’ve not talked in about 3 years; back then he was still a force of Nature. Oh, give the ol’ guy a call. It’ll give him some break in the sucky routine of his life. > [@LSLGuy](#): > > In bed at 1am and up at 5:45 and a bit bedraggled. Four hours. Just like me.🙂 The solution is NOT caffeinating. Go pee (that _is_ why you woke up, isn’t it?) and have a snack, smoke - oh, right, not you, that’s me - and then toddle on back to bed. The ocean will still be there when you wake back up again. > [@TokyoBayer](#): > > Hi!! How has everyone been? We’ve been fine. FINE! But { _sniff_ } you never called, we’ve been so _worried_ ! (Sorry, that was my mother poking into the chat. I called her last week on Wednesday, I think, and she was all, “You didn’t call Monday!” - my usual day off - and I had to explain, yet again, that telephones are a 2-way technology. “I wanted to talk to you!” “So why the fuck didn’t you call? Or better, text?”) > [@nelliebly](#): > > nobody’s going to jail. Damn. And here I was, waitin’ for a good story. (I am genuinely, truly, sorry for whatever it is that happened. I joke, as my coping mechanism for awkwardness.) > [@nelliebly](#): > > She left a sparkling clean house, a welcome note, and a lovely panettone. Sometimes, when I think there’s no hope for humanity anymore … > [@nelliebly](#): > > Knee Watch 2023: The Nellie Files **Netflix:** “Are you still watching?” I always think of that screen as a little kid poking a dead critter with a stick. “Hey. You dead yet?” > [@nelliebly](#): > > I betcha I can see 20/30 or better. That must be AMAZE-BALLS. > [@nelliebly](#): > > realize with gratitude that I was seeing it for 3 people, myself and the two cornea donors I can’t even imagine how that must feel. I saw a video of a woman listening to her dead son’s heart beating in the donor girl’s body, and even my shriveled soul teared up. > [@nelliebly](#): > > We used to have night hawks at our place in Wyoming I’ve seen pictures of nightjars, are they the same? Weird lookin’ things. I’d love to see one in person. > [@dogbutler](#): > > to unscrew up the load the 12 year old looking Blueberry made(Jebus, did they cancel puberty or something?) Coupla weeks ago, a customer pulled up to my drive-thru window who _I swear_ was thirteen. > [@dogbutler](#): > > Luckily, there was an empty package car in the 223 slot, because we completely filled that with the one bulk stop. Mind you that first package car had 3 other bulk stops, and 60 regular stops still on it. { _tilts head sideways, confused expression on face_ } > [@dogbutler](#): > > > [@Wheelz](#): > > > > flock”? Is that right? > > “A Bella Lugosi of bats”? 🦇 🧛‍♂️ This is now the acceptable term. Thus I have written, and thus shall it be. > [@The\_Stainless\_Steel\_Rat](#): > > Another great place for bats is Singapore’s “Night Zoo” (open late in the evenings for nocturnal animal displays). You can walk through a large enclosure of BIG Malaysian bats, and it’s so dark that you can be inches away before you notice them. One of my few bucket list items is to see one of the big fruit bats in person. Preferably, to hold it and snuggle it, and then try to steal it for my very own. Okay, not the last part - my brain is too pragmatic to even let me enjoy my own silly fantasies! But to experience one hanging off my forearm, even for a moment .. ? I could die happy. That, and seeing the aurora borealis (“Northern Lights”) in person. > [@Paintcharge](#): > > Ah the joys of having a pick-up truck. My late beloved **Other Shoe** had a pickup. He’s been dead ten years, and I could still hear him laughing at your post. > [@teelabrown](#): > > It looked like a big swirling tornado, and the flock trailed out over the desert, disappearing into the dusk. Swap “high rise cityscape” for “desert” and you have Austin. Very good description. “Swirling tornado.” Apt. > [@teelabrown](#): > > Just got done with the despised task of cleaning the stove top. Me, too! (My way is easier: close eyes, go to other room.) Also, I don’t cook as much as I used to - it’s _amazing_ how much more 🤬 cooking and cleaning I did while living with men. > [@teelabrown](#): > > if you scrub too hard, you remove the red paint that marks the upright position of the knob This is why God gave us nail polish. Hell, screw boring red .. go sparkly lavender for the knob dials! > [@peedin](#): > > Current barn just has pigeons. I hate pigeons. Put up a welcome wagon for barn owls. Sweet heart-shaped faces; talons primed for pigeon murder. --- _[View the full topic](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/old-going-bats-in-the-mmp/991945)._