baby blue jay

we built our house at 7420 and took residence in december '77. puckett west, or poor puckett as i often call it, was a new neighborhood with multiple empty lots and no trees on our street back then, and no birds come to think of it. the first birds to take up residence were the omnipresent house sparrow. thirty plus years later the neighborhood has matured and so has the bird population. it was exciting some years ago when we spotted the first robin of spring. since that time, though we are not true bird watchers, we have noted numerous different types of feathered friends. many, many mourning dove and their fatter cousins the white wing dove, red wing blackbirds, cardinals, a variety of finches, grackles and starlings, an occasional mallard and this year we have blue jays. the juvenile blue jay pictured above explains what all the blue jay fuss was about this morning when our three kitties were out and about. papa jay is quite vocal and extremely loud! it's funny to watch the feline cowards cower in response to his scolding. whether his baby chose to make an early exit from the safety of the nest, or he? was evicted by an impatient parent, is unknown. i wish the little guy luck. from what i can see he? is not fully fledged and his flying needs work. lots of work. take care baby blue jay. it's an urban jungle out there. aio

splendor in the weeds

reading my kel's latest entry at "the monkey heart discourses" i am reminded that it has been a year since she and kev picked up lock, stock, barrel and kitties for the move to the "big easy". can it be? only a year? that means that it's been almost that long since i laid eyes on the two of them and their trusty sidekicks, oliver and alice. "ya'll come" she says, but you might want to wait until it cools off. november would be good. the gulf of heat and humidity are a force to be reckoned with, it's true. this dry land cotton farmer's son has been baked nutty brown by the south plains sun and lived to tell about it. but that was dry heat. still, november, that's five months away and edging toward a second year anniversary. moth to flame. such is the lure of lady nola, for some. the lure for me is family, pure and simple. i need me some kel and kevin time. i'm feeling it bad. to borrow a phrase, "how long has it been since you had a heaping bowl of family time"? "well that's too long now!"

computers! friend or foe? love 'em? or hate' em? as for my self, it depends on the moment and how responsive the computer in question is being at the time. my pc is a five or six year old hp, one of those christmas time wally world door buster specials with so-so speed and memory. over the years i've boosted both of those to the max to be had from what is a very entry level machine. my i.s.p. has boosted speeds available over the years, i just haven't seen them translate to my machine. don't get me wrong, for the applications i use it has been quite sufficient. of late however, it has been performing exceedingly in the snail lane. when i got home from work on thursday, i couldn't sign on to the net at all. how am i supposed to check for the latest installment at "the monkey heart discourses," if i can't get online? none of the tricks i've used in the past to solve the problem seemed to work. same deal on friday night. oddly i could sign on the net via the wife's lap top using my wi-fi connection but nuttin' honey when it came to my pc. when i got home from work on saturday night i still couldn't sign on. i thought, "i'll give it one more try. if it doesn't work this time, i'll swallow my pride and call for tech assistance". as a variation on a theme, i decided to disconnect the wireless router and cable modem, shut down the computer, wait a few, then reconnect everything and bring the pc back up. having done this multiple times on thursday and friday, i had no expectation that it would work this time. my pc takes forever to boot up. when it finally finished, not believing in anything like success this go-round, i clicked on the internet and turned around to watch tv. in a bit the wife said, "look it's working!" and there it was, the internet, back from what?-- an early summer mini-vacation?. and not just back, but the old pc was cranking out connect speeds worthy of those promised in the suddenlink ads? what the ....? where has all that speed been hiding? no matter, i'll enjoy the lighting speeds while they last. i think it's best not to look a gift i.s.p. in the mouth. aio

melancholy might aptly describe what i'm feeling at the moment. with summertime comes the weekly chore of lawn maintenance. to ease the time spent on the chore i usually have my mp3 player's buds jammed deep into my ears. i've been caught singing along with michael buble, los lonely boys, little texas or my not totally unbiased favorite, burned blue. it was bb's "balancing lead and light" that began filtering into my consciousness just as i was finishing with the lawn. i could have turned the player off and gone on my way but i didn't. listening to the cd all the way through for the umpteenth time make's me think again of what might have been. i suppose there was a hint of a dream of fame and fortune somewhere in the backs of the guys of bb's mind. a dream of being discovered, of being the next "smashing pumpkins", or maybe not. maybe it was my dream. as the last echoing drum beat of "one armed man" faded away what is likely the real reason for my mood comes to mind. 512+ miles between little a-town and the live music capitol of the world? maybe so! aio