THREE ITEMS

Three items in this weeks' blog. First, the picture above, a mother duck and her babies, newborn babies.

This is the time of year when we see the baby ducks entering the world in one of the many ponds that surround the home division we live in near Phoenix. Most of the other fowl have fled North by this time to avoid the heat. This coming week our forecast calls for 99 degrees as a high for the next seven days. Yikes! It's only late April early May and near 100 already? We are not snowbirds, we are full-timers here in Arizona at the edge of the Sonora Desert that stretches south well into Mexico. So summertime temperatures stay consistently over 100 every day and even into the night hours from now on until about September.

But this morning, just seeing new life, fresh and happy life, bobbing up and down in the cool pond, made me appreciate just the every day pleasures of life and being alive. All you have to do is turn on CNN and you will be instantly depressed; Poison gas in Syria, death and destruction in Boston, unnecessary delays at airports, price of gas into the stratosphere...and on and on. That is why, I think, it is important to connect with life and nature and wildlife around you, wherever you live as much as you can. If you live in the city, or the country or in another country other than the U.S. where we live...enjoy the world around you. We are all above ground on this planet Earth only so many days, enjoy each one and be thankful just for being alive.

Item #2: http://abclocal.go.com/kabc/livenow?id=7602707  This is the url link provided by KABC-TV, the owned and operated local affiliated ABC-TV network station in Los Angeles (where I spent many years during my network broadcasting career.) This is a great view, with audio, of Laguna Beach, CA, just south of the megalopolis known as Los Angeles. The area is a beautiful seaside cove where the water is clean, relatively speaking compared to Santa Monica Bay, the homes are beautiful and the living is quiet. Laguna Beach is a beautiful peaceful beach community and if you are ever in L.A., check it out. Until then, you can enjoy this peek at what is happening now on the beach with this live streaming video.

Finally, I posted previously that I was "fixin" (that's a Texas slang term, sorry) to start up a podcast, maybe 15 minutes in length, once per week or so, as a companion to my writing websites at www.frederickfichman.com and www.visit-the-zoo.com. I have all the components about ready: a fancy studio MXL microphone, a Mackie 4-channel mixer, a PCM-D50 Sony digital field recorder and Sound Forge Audio Studio mixing software. I want to do this right so you can hear my scratchy voice clearly and it doesn't sound like I am using my bathroom for a studio with a $5 Radio Shack mic, sorry RS. I am also thinking about shooting video simultaneously and uploading to my new video channels on You Tube and Vimeo. I asked for response awhile back as to whether you wanted me to press forward with this plan for a new podcast. I am still looking forward to feedback. So, give me a few comments below.

Well, that's all from the desert. Take care everyone and check out my new video channels. Have a great weekend and a productive week ahead. bfn.

https://vimeo.com/channels/frederickfichman  Vimeo Video Channel
http://www.youtube.com/user/fjfichman/feed   You Tube Video Channel

Frederick Fichman
www.frederickfichman.com
www.visit-the-zoo.com