Hola, Sneakers! Welcome to the greatest podcast with “dragon” in the title, hosted by an Ian Boothby and a David Dedrick who live in or near Vancouver, BC ever!
This week on the show: nothing special; what we are about; treasonable offenses; grueling novelties; time sensitive; artificial artificial intelligence; alien invasion playlist; simultaneous existence; fantasy spots; Madeleine mix-up; Eloise facts; country slashers; incomprehensible accent; hypothetical make-’em-ups; the Scottish question; Disney domains; suburban characters; toon talk; pig problem; weird shoes; early nights; complaining prayers; the Prince of Pants; making mini pizza craze; do-it-yourself meals; disgusting food; family religious tenets; angry cat; great news; unhelpful advice; scared smart’ near death; don’t despair; sympathy for hags; and, finally, the Question of the Week – Sneakers respond!
Thanks for listening.
Question of the Week: What interesting animals live near you?
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I’m so glad Pia is okay Ian! No need to apologize, you have to take care of things the way you see fit. Please give her a hug from Delaware. ???? Thank you for the podcast guys.
It’s good to hear that Pia is fine. That time between something unusual showing up on a test or exam and getting the all-clear from a follow-up can be nerve-racking.
I’ve heard that some people dream the Hag is sitting on their chest, hence the term “hagridden.” When I experience sleep paralysis, I dream it’s a strange man standing by my bed. Maybe what you dream about is based on a subconscious fear or a cultural myth you’ve been told.
In our part of East Vancouver, we get squirrels, raccoons, skunks and coyotes but I think the most interesting animals are the crows. Every evening, thousands of them form a huge flock as they fly east over the city to a roost in neighbouring Burnaby near BCIT. It’s an ominous sight but we always say, “bye-bye, crows” when we spot them to wish them well on their nightly commute.
We have lots of red deer in the Scottish Highlands. Even where I live, around a mile from the centre of Inverness, we’ll sometimes see one taking an early morning stroll down the centre of our street. Red squirrels are beautiful, and still fairly common, though the greys have taken over in much of the rest of the country. We get occasional hedgehogs and foxes in our garden, and my daughter once met a badger there too. Herons are plentiful, as are red kites, and we sometimes see an osprey. Right now, we’re getting regular visits from ducks, crows, jackdaws, goldfinches, greenfinches and kingfishers, plus an occasinal sparrowhawk, and several varieties of bee and butterfly. At night, large numbers of bats swoop around our windows.
One summer, when our son Jake was around two or three, he kept finding dead pipistrelle bats, which he’d pick up and bring into the house. We contacted a bat protection society, who asked us to freeze one of the bodies for someone to come and collect. Anyway, that wekend, my mother came to visit, opened the freezer, and totally freaked out. The fact that she was in the act of stashing an entire cow’s tongue in there somehow wasn’t at all weird to her. Finding a dead bat, though, hoo boy…
Sending love to Ian and Pia – so happy for you both.
I can’t imagine going through that with Pia, I’m sure minutes seem like hours waiting for a result. Very relieved to hear everything is fine, your dedication to Pia really made my heart swell. You both are blessed to have each other, love from way down south in the Lone Star State!
We have coyotes where I live and the babies howl at night, you can hear them from the nearby fields. We also have more rabbits than I’ve ever seen, the neighborhood sometimes looks like their shooting a live action version of Watership Down.
One night I was at the store in the parking lot and I heard the coyotes howling from very close by. I looked out across the dark field that was next to the parking lot and I heard something coming, it was about twenty rabbits running at top speed from the dark field. I’m guessing the coyotes were after them and were chasing them my way!
Hooray for Pia! And for Ian too! Having had a few family members go through similar situations recently, I really feel for you both and am very glad to hear that everything is ok! Sending you both hugs from Australia. With the time difference you’ll probably get them at 4 am or something…
As far as animals go, probably much of our wildlife would be a novelty to North Americans. We don’t have any large predators that’ll bulge your doors in, though. We recently had a few ibises picking the grubs out of our front lawn for a month or two, about 2 metres from our front door. We have cute little possums here that if you inadvertently get near them in the dark will make a sound like Smaug discovering you’ve stolen his gold cup.
We have a drought in the south-east at the moment, and have been getting kangaroos invading suburban school sports-grounds looking for grass. Contrary to legend, that is NOT normal in this part of the world. Apart from the ones that everyone keeps in their garage and rides to work.
Oh, and our cat has recently started bringing in baby eastern brown snakes through his cat-flap. These are thought to be the second most venomous snakes in the world. My wife is not happy with this development.
Glad to hear Pia is fine.
Interesting animals that live near me? Well, I think all animals are interesting!! We live in a small town in the middle of an agricultural area so we have your usual farm animals a stone’s throw away; we also have the region’s zoo literally around the corner/across the field from us.
It was rumoured that a black bear had escaped from the black bear/grizzly bear/wolf enclosure but I’ve never seen him in my travels.
We did, a few years ago, have a yearling black bear appear at the barn our horses lived at (about 5 minutes from our house) at the end of one summer – he spent the morning under the tree eating apples (but I never witnessed this, just was told about it).
The closest bear I have seen to my house was one crossing the freeway about 15 min. away by car from our house (we were driving the car, not the bear) – that’s the only bear I’ve witnessed on this side of the Fraser River – there are lots on the Maple Ridge side, as it’s next to the mountains and Golden Ears Park.
At our horse’s old barn we also had a herd of resident white tail deer, about 5 of them, typically. One year one of the babies was a pinto or multicoloured deer. I hadn’t realized that deer came in that colour.
About three miles south of us between two large parks there is apparently a breeding pair of cougar; I know a few people who have seen them, but I never have. They have apparently lived in the area for at least 10 years.
At our actual house we are near a forested area, where some owls live, and there are beavers there in the stream. We have squirrels that visit our back yard, and someone released some doves in our neighbourhood a few years ago, so we have a few of them sitting around cooing regularly. As well, hawks, eagles, raccoons, possums, and coyotes are other wildlife that I have seen.