We have a mother bird and some new babies this week. Mama made a nest conveniently located in the crook of a downspout. It's safe from cats, birds, and our dog. The eaves shade the nest and keep off the rain. We noticed mama sitting on the nest intently, rarely leaving for a break. And then a few days ago, I noticed an empty shell on our deck and Mama was MIA. "Oh, no!" I thought the worst, so I reached up and grabbed the nest to see and found TWO very healthy baby birds. "Oh, no!" I bet now because I touched the nest, Mama will have nothing to do with them. I quickly put the nest back and moved out of the way. Sure enough, much to my releif, Mama arrived to feed the babies.

For some reason, I just feel bad for any hurt little animal. I don't like to see them suffer. Of course, that doesn't apply to ants in the house. They're getting sprayed. It doesn't apply to moths in the house, either. I suck those critters up in the vaccuum. I figure spiders are somewhat useful, so I keep one or two of those around. Termites - gotta go. Last year some yellow jackets took up residence in our backyard, and I got stung. Those buggers were nixed. Pretty much most insects can go. Mice and rats would have to go if I found any around. I don't have much use for worms, but we have an uneasy peace. They don't fly around, and I don't roll in the mud after it rains.

But except for those, I feel bad for all the OTHER animals when they get hurt.

Most times my feelings of animal injustice extend to fiction writing. As friends know (and I've mentioned in a previous blog) books like Sounder, Where the Red Fern Grows, and Charlotte's Web drive me up the wall.

But anyhoo, Mama bird and babies are doing just fine.

Back to Blogging

I promised my friend Laurie that I would get back to blogging, especially now that school is almost over. Yahoo!

Unfortunately, school isn't over yet. We still have two days to go. While it is nice to know that soon we will go from working 24/7 to sleeping 24/7, each remaining day must be carefully navigated like an obstacle course with harrowing traps.

To make matters more interesting, the air conditioning unit on our side of the building went out. So I had to navigate the course in 80 degree heat with 22 stinky 11-12 year olds in a cramped room. At lunch time I had to leave and drive around the block blasting the air in my car. By 2:00 in the afternoon, I thought they had it fixed and that I could feel a breeze. That turned out to be an hallucination brought on by heat stroke.

As soon as I got home, I turned on the air conditioner in my house and laid down on the bed. Caveman followed me upstairs to see if I was ok. I wasn't. I was highly irritable and hot. I explained my day trapped in a hot room with hot, stinky children and I wanted to not be hot.

"I'm fine. I think the house is perfectly comfortable."

"You've been in your office in the basement. Of course you're fine. I need a chance to cool down."

"Maybe you have a temperature."

"I'm hot on the outside, not on the inside."

"Are you sure?"

He was smiling benignly which translated means he was unaware that he was in imminent danger. I was hot, Hot, HOT! Only imagine the exclamation point as a dagger because I was considering stabbing him to drive home the point. (And that reminds me that I could back over him in the driveway if given the opportunity. But I digress.)

He let me know he was off to play poker with his buddies and to call if I needed anything. I took a xanax and went to sleep on the sofa in the living room where it was much cooler.

Needless to say, the Love of My Life is alive, I'm feeling much better today, and the air conditioneer in my classroom is working. Two more days to go.