I don’t know all the facts about the wildlife visiting our large business park, but we’re surrounded by housing developments on three sides and an “unused” reservoir not too far from us on the other. Besides the small critturs that I’ve mentioned before, mallards come and go, with a little help from animal control now and then. (It may even be Fish & Game employees who come in, but from a distance, I’ve seen them with large nets attached to poles.) In addition to eight unattached male mallards, we’ve had two pairs of mallards this year. Each had as many as a dozen ducklings hatch this season. The fluffy young ones are a delight to watch, paddling furiously around the ornamental pond in the center green area of the complex. The pond is well supplied with plants, mosquito fish, and other inhabitants, and has a pretty strong current in places.
A security officer commented to me one lunch hour that the young ones don’t last long. We know there are predators at night, including coyotes, and probably feral cats. Animal control comes in, as needed, to move the survivors and the parents out to safer habitats. More stunning to learn was that the bachelor mallards attack the young of females who have made them angry by rejecting their advances. (Sounds a lot like the behavior of egotistical human males to me.) The mate will drive off any male that bothers his little family, as well as two-legged observors who get too close for comfort. One group of employees sitting at a nearby table was open-mouthed, when a rejected suitor paddled back, grabbed a duckling by the neck and held it under water, trying to drown it. The father of the duckling reacted furiously and drove the murderous-intent intruder away. Next day, some slightly older ducklings were present, three whose downy feathers had dropped out, allowing adult plumage to show. It looked as though the first mated pair had been moved back with their surviving youngsters, or had found their own way back!
Life’s dramas go on all around us, and we’re usually totally unaware of them. It’s such a privilege to be an observor.
www.shirleyannparker.com/discoveries.htm
RoboHelp, as we knew it, is no more. But the core of that brilliant team who developed the product line, has a follow-up product, and it’s going to be even greater. After Macromedia bought eHelp’s product line, then got bought by Adobe, one product after another was killed, dumped or outsourced. All the RoboHelp creative team was let go, all but Mike Hamilton. It’s a long story, but Mike’s out now, too, and most of the crew are back together–those who aren’t scattered to the four winds. With a new company, MadCap Software, and a new product called Flare, they’re now beta testing version 2. With brand new code, Flare “might” be called RoboHelp on steroids. Flare, along with MadCap’s other innovative products, Mimic and Capture, are going to be fantastic additions to the tech writer/help author set of tools. Check things out at http://www.madcapsoftware.com/
If you live in a mobile home or know someone who does, be sure to check out this article by Linda Meckler at http://ezinearticles.com/?id=176772 It’s almost unbelievable what’s happening with so many mobile home parks.
The Coalition of MobileHome Owners - California has a brand new website at http://www.comocal.org/Home.asp with up-to-the-minute news about critical legislation that will impact your life. Check out the site rightaway! Don’t just live in fear of losing your home. To quote from the website, “Today CoMO-CAL has hundreds of members in Los Angeles County, and membership in other areas such as Sacramento, Santa Cruz, Santa Barbara, San Diego, Riverside, Palm Springs is growing.” The more members they have, the stronger they become, and the more good they can do for you.
Live in a mobile home park, or planning to retire in one? Do you have friends or relatives who are worried sick about skyrocketing rents at their park, year after year? You need to find out what your and their rights are. Join with others who are fighting for a decent lifestyle at an affordable price.
The many problems are essentially the same in most mobile home parks throughout California. In addition to needed repairs that never get made, parks flood, rainy season after rainy season. A major injustice is that rents go up and up every year, often because the park has changed ownership without any warning. The problem is so bad that people are being forced to abandon their homes. However, even if they move out, they still have to keep paying through the nose. Rent control ordinances aren’t as common as people might think they are!
In the San Diego area, at least, a number of active groups are doing a lot to make sure residents of mobile home parks receive fair treatment. One of them, County Mobile Home Positive Action Committee (COMPAC) publishes a 2-page monthly newsletter (The COMPAC Chronicle). They also hold General Meetings every other month at Lakeside Mobile Home Community Clubhouse, 9395 Harritt Road, Lakeside, California. Membership dues are $10 per year. Please contact Mel Robinson - President, at compac441@aol.com for more details.
Other mobile home organizations include: SMOAC - Santee Mobile Home Action Committee, EMPAC - Escondido Mobile/Manufactured Home Positive Action Committee, SMMR - San Marcos Mobile Home Residents Association, OMHA - Oceanside Mobile Homeowners Alliance, Inc., and GSMOL - Golden State Mobile Home Owners League.
Staying informed and supporting one or more mobile home organizations in California will benefit those who really need your help now. It may also have a profound influence on your own future down the road.
You might want to visit Lori Prokop’s site at http://www.bookmillionaire.com/ to vote each week on which author should appear on the soon-to-be televised show. I have no preferences so far myself, so I’m not currently rooting for any particular author. Watch the video showcase for yourself and make up your mind! For ten weeks, five different applicants will be featured, so be sure to cast your vote each week for Book Millionaire.
www.shirleyannparker.com/discoveries.htm
Having fought a losing battle with the display of this blog for the past four months, I’ve finally given up on making it more attractive to the thousands of users of Windows XP and Internet Explorer 6. My host now tells me that adding styles to their blog templates throws XP/IE for a loop. Other than suggesting that I complain to Microsoft, they have no further suggestions.
Since everyone knows how much Microsoft charges for tech support, going there is not an option. I may visit a user forum when my hectic schedule allows. In the meantime, I’ve discontinued the table, and the images in the sidebar. Sorry that things are now so bland. Maybe I can actually get back to creating blog entries, though, now that I’m not trying to get those entries to display properly. Oh, and I still have to reformat everything that’s in the archives, so bear with me, please. Thanks, everyone!
“There are always possibilities. We just have to live long enough.”
www.shirleyannparker.com/discoveries.htm