Harlan's

Saturday proved chilly and rainy. Sunday the weather improved. I took Sparrow for a long walk on the Ridgeview Trail. He likes a good walk. We met a year-old Goldendoodle named Neo. Sparrow experiences a bit of nervousness around larger dogs, though Neo and his owner were both charming.  I saw a Loggerhead Shrike when we got  to the end of the trail.

The people suffering in Ukraine have been on my mind. Tonight we watched the State of the Union address on television.  At lunch I walked in Heritage Park in Sachse, where I saw another Loggerhead Shrike and a dark morph Harlan's Red-Tailed Hawk.

I played in an on-line blitz chess tournament on late Monday night. I scored only 2 out of 7, and managed to lose one game to a much lower-rated player, though I did win one from a higher-rated player. During the weekend, I studied endgame videos by IM Anna Rudolf.  I find it useful t to study the primer material to help me remember things I used to know.

Tonight I solved chess puzzles on Chess.com. I got my puzzle rating over 2000, which is not all that high, but is still a new high for me.
I also donated at a Ukraine fundraiser by American GM Ben Finegold.