 |
| One of the ones I saved last year. No photos of this years rescue. |
Part of doing the lawn yesterday entailed cutting down half-fallen branches from the high winds we had a couple of days ago. Several people are still without power due to the high winds; I heard like 100,000 were without electricity in the Northern Chicago suburbs. After I finished the lawn and cut down the hanging branches I grabbed the saw and went to start the lawn mower. A smart man would not be holding the saw in his hand while he pulled the cord to start the mower. I, however, am not that smart man. I pulled the ripcord and ran my right thumb across the blade of the saw. I found out that saws are sharp as I tried to cut off my thumb. Cutting off the thumb would have made sense since someone that stupid is not deserving of opposable thumbs. It looked worse than it was as it bled pretty well but only looks like teeth marks this morning as I guess that is what it is. So I brought: the lawnmower, the saw and my bloody thumb around the house and was approached by our next-door neighbor with some kind of super-hero-worthy issue. I don't know if she knows about my bird-whisperer feats from last year when I saved a bird who had fell from the nest and I put it back into the nest and hand-fed it for awhile until it's mom/dad look over the duties or about the nest that fell down from my neighbor Lisa's porch light and I put the nest back up and the parent birds took over their jobs again. Well, this mission required more of my bird-wrangling skills. I walked into this one knowing there were already casualties and fatalities...
As I approached the scene I quickly deduced that this operation was different. There was already carnage that I would not be able to overcome. I assessed the situation and quickly sprung into action to try to save the one survivor. The severe winds had apparently blown the nest containing Hewey, Dewey and Louie from the tree onto the ground below. Hewey was motionless and Louie was definately a gonner since quite a few of his insides were no longer inside but were all over the sidewalk. Dewey had a chance. I grabbed Dewey, without on ounce of thought to my own safety, and put him back in his home (a mobile home right now) which was still in tact. I raised the nest, which must have seemed like a flying saucer to poor little Dewey, and placed it in the tree so it wouldn't again succumb to the high winds. The other two I buried in the circle of the cul-de-sac. The neighbor kids had a funeral for the birds after I left. I didn't stay for the funeral as i had peroxiding a thumb to attend to. Godspeed Dewey. I hope his mother or father feed him as he is very little with barely even one feather. His fate is in the hands of Mother Nature and the laws of survival now. The life of a bird seems carefree when they are grown up but the survival rate for baby birds must be really low.
So, I teased on Facebook yesterday that if I went to the doctor tell them that I had bird flu if I was unconscious. I should have immediately come into the house and washed my hands with a bleeding thumb and handling death and guts with my bare hands but instead I thought it was a good idea to rub my eye. I was kidding about the bird flu just to build suspense for today's blog - rumors of my bird flu are highly exaggerated (so far).
 |
| Why do I look like Gilligan there? |
Oh my, I sure didn't intend for that to take up so much blog today but when the fingers begin tap dancing on the keys it's best to just get out of the way so as to not inhale any of the typing smoke.
Derek Jeter of the New York Yankees joined the very elite club of professional baseball players with 3,000 hits or more in a career. The guy who got the ball, Chritian Lopez, which turned out to be a homerun, did the honorable thing and gave the ball to Jeter. From the book of no good deed goes unpunished Lopez was "thanked" by the Yankees with some pretty nice thank you gifts. Tell him what he's won Don Pardo - well MITM...he received four luxury suite tickets for each of the team’s remaining home games, including the postseason from the Yankees He also received: three bats, three balls and two jerseys all signed by Jeter. In addition, he received front-row seats for the next day's game, which the New York Times reported sell for up to $1,358.90 each. Here comes the "unpunished" part - all of these things were valued by a New York accounting firm at over $50,000 (conservatively). Now this dude, who still owes about $100,000 in student loans, may get a tax bill for these "gifts" for around $14,000. Knowing what I know of Derek Jeter the tax bill will probably be paid and I wouldn't be surprised if the student loan goes away too. We'll see. Ironic that Pete Rose is in the 3,000 hit club too when it comes to controversy surrounding money. Jeter will be in the Hall of Fame though. I am a believer that Rose should be too but that's an argument that cannot be won.
Sherwood Schwartz died yesterday. I didn't even think of that when I decided to use that photo above or write that photo caption of me looking like Gilligan. In case you don't know - Schwartz created Gilligan's Island and The Brady Bunch. He Started as a writer for radio on The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet and The Bob Hope Show and moved to television as a writer for The Red Skelton Show. He seemed like a nice man. He and Hewey died on the same day; they will both be missed. RIP!
Thanks for stopping by today. I gotta get ready for work, lucky for you, or I would probably keep blogging on 'til tomorrow morning. Have a great Humpday and I'll see you tomorrow. TTTT...MITM (out)
No comments:
Post a Comment