Minutes waiting on charging: 20
Minutes waiting on ferry: 90

It was such a startling experience to find this Carolina Mantis stranded on a branch sticking out of the water twenty feet from shore. She swayed side to side in that typical mantis way, trying to get a better depth perception on objects around her. I started taking her picture with my closeup camera, but the LED light must have attracted her (or maybe she was sick of her branch). Either way, she’d soon jumped aboard!

I put down the mantis-claimed camera, picked up another…and the mantis made her way from the front of the boat to my paddle then walked directly up that until she was staring straight at me. If she were a cat, that would have been a Subtle Hint^TM that she wanted to go ashore. So I poled those twenty feet as best I could, keeping her part of the paddle dry.

As soon as land appeared, she jumped into a tree and was gone.

You’ll notice I said “she” — the short wings are a dead giveaway that the mantis I found was female. And those same short wings mean female Carolina mantises can’t fly once they reach this stage of their lives.

So maybe she really did want to be taken ashore?

I’ve often wondered if I’d know a Carolina Mantis isn’t the more common, invasive Chinese Mantis when I finally stumbled across the native. While I’ve seen a few immatures that I wasn’t able to distinguish, the moment I saw this adult I was positive she was something new.

In addition to the short wings on the female, one feature to look for in both sexes of the Carolina Mantis is the dark spot in the middle of those wings. The species also tends to be smaller than the Chinese Mantis, although my female’s presence was strong enough that I didn’t really notice that in the field.

One thing I got wrong: the beautiful patterning on this mantis isn’t quite as diagnostic as I’d at first assumed. Instead, mantises match the coloration of their surroundings each time they molt. Clearly this one molted atop a twig.

The fourteen minutes I spent with that female felt like a once-in-a-lifetime experience…then the next day I saw two more Carolina Mantises (including a male who seemed to be stealing from a spiderweb). Turns out this is breeding season and mantids are particularly visible right now — go out and look!

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Driving 10 hours to the beach. Then a ferry. Then putting up a tent hopefully not in the dark.

Receptionist claimed that if I self paid for a doctors visit it would he insurance fraud.

Sigh, now I have to write a letter to their board suggesting they not mislead their patients.

(I assume it would violate an agreement they have with the insurer, which is no excuse for that behavior)

Retrospective: I visited Carter Caves State Park once in November 2025 and twice in May 2026.

Carter Caves isn’t Mammoth Caves. I mean, the two parks are in different parts of Kentucky and are run by different folks (state vs. federal), so that’s a given. But they’re also different enough that I think many people would be disappointed if they went to Carter hoping for Mammoth (and vice versa).

The Carter Caves caverns are much smaller, much closer to the surface (which means more critters!), have vastly fewer human visitors plus smaller tour sizes even at peak times, boast less awe-inspiring formations, and offer self-guided options.

My favorite part: Laurel Cave (upper right photo)! You have to get a permit, and access is only allowed when bats aren’t hibernating (May 1 to Labor Day, can be closed during heavy rains). Those caveats aside, Laurel Cave is the very best underground option for awe-seeking introverts. You can go at your own pace and sit as long as you want in the dark. Plus, the cave is a straight shot that you can stand up in most of the time, so it even works for beginners. Horn Hollow Cave is open year-round but isn’t quite as beginner-friendly, so I didn’t take my husband or sister (wild-cave virgins) there. But Horn Hollow is on my list!

What about the cave tours? They’re good, but you’ll be moved along quickly and won’t have time to commune with the spiders, crickets, salamanders, and bats. I’ve been to Cascade Cave (which walks you through three caves with lots of water) and X Cave (upper left photo, not quite as amazing but cool in that you can see a dry cave and a wet cave intersecting). I really got a lot out of the Cascade Cave tour guide’s spiel about living and dead caves and the demonstration of how to use UV lights to see if a formation is still growing.

Is there fun for non-cavers? Yes! I particularly enjoyed the awe-inspiring beauty of Smoky Bridge (first half of the video) and Box Canyon Trail (where I took all of the lower tier of photos). There’s also an amazing waterfall near the entrance of Laurel Cave where I could have sat for hours (second half of the video).

Is there paddling? Yes! On a drizzly morning in early May, my sister and I had the small but wild Smoky Valley Lake all to ourselves for several blissful hours. There are also naturalist-guided paddling day trips through what sounds like a really neat canyon-like creek…but ours was cancelled due to drought.

Would I go back? Since I’ve been there three times in last seven months, that’s a definite yes. Carter Caves does get busy fast as the year warms up, though, so I’d probably once again grab the sweet spot just as the self-guided caves open…or go in the winter and up my game to Horn Hollow.

quite a change from when it was under construction 2 years ago!

fixed my electric lawnmower -- my guess was right, and a off balance blade was causing the motor to think it was overloaded at low idle

my rural neighbors have started asking me about solar and whole house batteries

Also worth noting that this fact is not disclosed on the ballot or vote.debian.org at all, which is probably emblimatic of how well Debian will do at disclosing LLM use going forward.

A college friend and I get together halfway between our home bases once a year, so we’ve spent a lot of time exploring the western slice of Pennsylvania and Maryland plus a little bit of north-central West Virginia. This year’s expedition involved five nights along the Allegheny River just outside Kennerdell, Pennsylvania, and it has been a definite crowd pleaser!

The river is the most amazing part due to its clear water, copious submerged plants, and so much aquatic life. We used an outfitter to make the paddle from Franklin to Fisherman’s Cove an easy trip then DIYed it with a shorter paddle from the Kennerdell launch to our Airbnb a mile and a half downriver. I also pulled out my snorkel so I could revel in the fish, crawdads, mussels, and snails up close and personal, as you can see in the video above.

We could have easily spent all four days on and in the river, but there was much more to explore on land. The region is a nexus for rail trails, and we dipped into two different paths which pleased us for two different reasons.

First came the Allegheny River Trail, which runs along the eastern bank of the river for 32 miles. We enjoyed a short 4 miles each way from Kennerdell Tunnel heading south, then half a mile through the tunnel plus a bit further north. That was enough to see that the paved path passes through communities (a downside for me) but also gives easy access to lots of gorgeous mountain streams (major plus).

(Do not miss the tunnels! It was a literally cool and exciting experience to bike through the Kennerdell Tunnel, pictured above. For me, a phone light was sufficient, but my friend needed the real flashlight I’d brought and you might too.)

Despite loving the tunnel, the best part was elsewhere. If you drop down off the side of the rail trail, you can pass through Civil-War-era stone culverts like the one pictured here (mile marker 115) and find ultra-cool cave species (like the Eastern Cave Long-jawed Spider with its gauzy egg sac) that have made these human-created structures home. There were even little stalactites forming on the twentieth-century concrete addition in the front!

Next up, the Sandy Creek Trail crosses the Allegheny River Trail at Belmar (where you can pedal across the Belmar bridge and enjoy lovely river views). We made time for a short jaunt from Rockland Road to Belmar and back, which involved passing over several fun bridges.

The downside of this trail is that it’s raised up so high that there aren’t many spots where you can easily access the beautiful stream running below it. However, just a short distance west from Rockland Road, there’s a well-used walking trail running down to a gorgeous streamside spot that’s clearly used for swimming and fishing…and which also gave me an opportunity to wade and look at more aquatic critters like the Johnny Darter above.

My friend is a waterfall-lover, so I always try to find her at least one waterfall on every trip. Freedom Falls was the only one nearby, and it did have a lot of visitors. However, at lunchtime on a Friday, the space cleared out for almost an hour and we were able to relax at the base of the falls while enjoying the roar of water all on our own.

While waiting for the falls to depopulate, we ambled extensively upstream, enjoying the diverse mushrooms, plentiful salamanders, and one very amenable toad. Even though this area is a network of well-trodden ground rather than a preserved area around a single trail, I highly recommend the spot for naturalists as well as waterfall lovers.

Our other on-the-ground amble was along the River Trail in Clear Creek State Forest. The trail is basically a road, so you have to wander a bit to see cool stuff, but we were thrilled to stumble across a newt, scads of mushrooms, and perhaps a dozen tiny toads who were clearly enjoying their new life on land.

What I would have liked to do if we’d had more time: Hire the same excellent outfitters (but reserve ahead so they’d actually be there when we showed up!) to float down French Creek. Plus repeat and extend many of the adventures above, especially the snorkeling and culvert-hunting.

What I wouldn’t change: The airbnb was so much better than anticipated. Both amazing deck and riverfront access could have kept me happy for days, and you can easily bike to the Allegheny River Trail from its front door.

Gear I used for underwater photography: Full-face snorkel and waterproof camera.

For real geeks: INaturalist trip report is here if you want to see all of my observations.

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_{Fine print: The two gear links are affiliate links, so I get a few pennies if you purchase these products I already use and love…}

2026: the year of the linux cringe

Interesting to see what people are getting up to with vibe coding and then reverting that in the next release without any indication of what bug it introduced.

In other news, replaced a git-annex dependency and sped it up by about 400%