BD Present, But It's No Joke
As a personal birthday present to me, the universe left 8 inches of cement in my driveway. Thanks a bunch.
The good part is that I am not lifting a shovel. It's sposed to be in the mid fifties (that's the low teens for everyone else in the world) tomorrow and it will all turn to mud. Then I'll be able to tell exactly where the dog has been in the house.
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Shortly after posting the above comment, the Wonder Dawg and I went for a nice loop walk through our little patch of the neighborhood before the sun and the wind began to relieve the branches and twigs of yesterday's candy coating. It was like walking through a hollywood set where every surface is coated in the purest white frosting. It is quite wooded here and the houses sit far apart on large lots so there are acres and acres of forest consisting mostly of oaks and evergreens with a lot of brush filling in. All of this was festooned with snow. It was a wet snow that coated everything. Quite magical actually.
About half way through the walk, I began hearing a strange call. It was one that I was not familiar with and was changing location swiftly. I stood there in the street facing a thick patch of forest and tried to track the sound with my ears. It seemed to fade and get stronger as it changed location. The sound was kind of like what you would hear if you were slowly strangling a 40 pound dove that was trying to coo at the same time. Then suddenly, I could see them. It was a pair of very large cranes that, like most visitors to this neighborhood, appeared to be lost. They meandered this way and that, all the time calling back and forth to each other in their strange yodel.
Upon our return to the house I did a quick repair on our mailbox which took a slight hit yesterday due to the slippery roads (wasn't one of us), showered, and then sat down to google crane calls. From my best guess, what I saw was a pair of migrating whooping cranes - the largest bird in North America. I have seen sandhills around here, but never whoopers.
Now that was a birthday gift.
About half way through the walk, I began hearing a strange call. It was one that I was not familiar with and was changing location swiftly. I stood there in the street facing a thick patch of forest and tried to track the sound with my ears. It seemed to fade and get stronger as it changed location. The sound was kind of like what you would hear if you were slowly strangling a 40 pound dove that was trying to coo at the same time. Then suddenly, I could see them. It was a pair of very large cranes that, like most visitors to this neighborhood, appeared to be lost. They meandered this way and that, all the time calling back and forth to each other in their strange yodel.
Upon our return to the house I did a quick repair on our mailbox which took a slight hit yesterday due to the slippery roads (wasn't one of us), showered, and then sat down to google crane calls. From my best guess, what I saw was a pair of migrating whooping cranes - the largest bird in North America. I have seen sandhills around here, but never whoopers.
Now that was a birthday gift.
Copyright ©2003-2007 Phaedrous
posted by Phaedrous at 9:36 AM
4 Comments:
Happy Birthday fella! I have to admit it may not have been I joke... But I giggled at the pic! You look FABOO ~~ for an old guy! hehe
Good luck on the thawing and puppy prints...
[have cake!]
Happy birthday to you!
wow, now how cool was that to see the cranes! that is indeed a pretty special gift. glad you can have a sense of humor about the gift of snow and ensuing mud....must be that april first birthday blessing you cosmically with a sense of humor to go with the gags that abound all day. the look on your face is fairly priceless.
happy birthday, friend!
Happy belated birthday!
In the last couple of days, I've read through the entire archive of your blog. I'm sticking with you - you've two amazing children and your journey through life has inspired me in ways I never could have imagined would happen. I look forward to being an unobtrusive part of your life.
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