thank goodness the day ended well

Wildlife Wednesday, I got ya wildlife Wednesday.

I have nothing planted on my deck which is good because if I had, it wouldn't anymore. Someone ransacked everything. 

Yesterday someone peeked out while I was beginning my performance review. After the meeting I put glue traps all around my bookcase. An employee called at 5 to vent and make sure management knew his boss sucked. At 5:30 someone squeaked because he stepped in one. 30 minutes of venting and advising was enough, I told the employee I had an emergency, and rushed to the park. 

This morning I had a meeting at 8:30. We covered what we needed to when at 8:45 I realized the squeaking wasn't a bird, looked over at the bookcases, and saw someone trapped. I told the person I had an emergency and rushed TWO new someones to the park. 

This afternoon there was a meeting that I, fortunately, only needed to listen to, because I saw my third someone of the day. I went over and scared the someone into stepping into a trap. 

These things did not happen to me when I worked in an office. 

Procedure change: rather than put mouse-on-glue-trap into mouse bucket, convey to park, and there put vegetable oil on trap, for the last one I put him and his trap in the mouse bucket and put vegetable oil on the trap while he was in the bucket so he could free himself sooner. This reduces the stress and resultant risks to the health of the mouse. Wear a glove, remove trap, convey mouse to park, tip bucket over. 

I am either working off some really, really bad karma or I'm building some incredible store of good karma. 

Fortunately, my workday ended by reviewing my slides for the climate finance class which was really fun and involved lots of laughter and no mice. 

The color of my new wild phlox is stunning. It is violet blue and looks fantastic with my unexpected violets and my grape hyacinth and bluebells. Next year when the phlox grows fully in mounds with flowers it is going to look so amazing that I will just stand gazing at it with my mind blown. 

The picture is of some violets, not in my garden. 

A Kyiv radio station switched places to a makeshift studio in a small village. When the radio team reported to the local military station to volunteer, they were asked if they had any fighting experience. No. The soldiers urged them to keep doing the radio station. They sourced laptops and a mixer from Austria as part of a Europe-wide effort to send aid and supplies to Ukraine. They recorded segments, transferred files to a network of producers across the EU who got it online, and sent the signal to broadcast towers. They broadcast music and people listen while sitting in air raid shelters. They broadcast news about the war, poetry and stories from their listeners, and announcements from the military. Everyone is doing what they can to help. 

Military equipment maker Rheinmetall is going to supply 50 used Leopard 1 battle tanks to Ukraine if the German government oks it. 

Yes, some people are still buying Russian oil, but the sanctions are still interfering. It is hard for them to sell. Their storage facilities are filling up. The refineries are cutting output. The oil wells are cutting back on pumping. It is hard to get oil from the ground to end users and it will get worse. If it stays down it will put the Russian economy into a recession and damage its ability to pay for war. In addition, it is hard for the oil companies to get funding, machinery, and parts. Some components are simple, some are manufactured by US and European companies. 

Russia has targeted food supplies across Ukraine, including packaging and bottling factories, stores, and warehouses. An executive of a food company led a convoy of eight trucks bringing 300 tones of food from the company and others from France. Some driving stretches were 19 hours long. Ukrainian iron-ore miner imported 60 metric tons of milk powder. Nestle donated instant noodles, baby formula, pet food, and bottled water. 

The US wasn't ok with Poland's idea for a plane swap because it involved delivering them from a US base in Germany. Slovakia is going to transfer its fleet of Soviet-era MiG-29 Fulcrum fighter jets to Ukraine and the US is sending Patriot surface-to-air missile systems to Slovakia to make up for the resulting shortfall in their defense capacity. Ukraine has very successfully used old jets to take on better equipped Russians. The airspace is contested despite Russia's more advanced jets and greater numbers. 

You remember Nessie? Meet Yukki, a Siberian husky. Many dogs are terrified of fireworks and run away on holidays when they are set off. Yukki ran off when Russians attacked Bucha. His owner, Marina, mother of three, fled with her children but Yukki ran away. Yukki came home but they were gone and the house had been burnt down. The neighbor took Yukki in, but Russians began shelling and Yukki ran away again. A Ukrainian soldier named Andriy Smirnov found him and posted on social media. Eventually the post reached Marina. Andriy is taking care of Yukki until Marina can safely come back.