Living Color

First and foremost, Japan. I know that one of my Japanese friends is safe via Facebook. I am not sure about the others. I used Skype to call one of them, but only got voice mail. I don't know how long it will be before services are up and running. You never know. I hope they are okay.


The power goes out down the street and I get distressed. Despite my best preparations, I know it will never be enough to be well equipped for a catastrophe. Yes, I have a year's supply of food in my basement. Who wants to know? Plastic for shattered windows with staple gun? Check. Kerosene heater? Check. H20 and water purifers? Check. We Mormons, ya know. Still, if your house is rubble, how accessible is all of that going to be? Just sayin'.


Saturday was a small victory for me. I have been trying for a month to get my bird-lovin' man out to visit an aviary to feed some pelicans. The morning started like this:


Me: So, are we going to the aviary today?
C: Sure. I just need to get the lawnmower blades sharpened and get a run in, and then we can go.
Me: Great. I will run to the store and be back soon.


I hurried back from grocery shopping to find C just starting to tear into the lawnmower. I put the groceries away, did the dishes, and before I knew it, it was almost 11:00 AM. I peeked out the front door to find the lawn mower meticulously dismantled in the yard, the blades sitting next to the car.


Me: Are you DETAILING the lawnmower?
C: I just like getting things done.
Me: That's fine, but I don't want to hear you complain about how you never get to do anything fun.


Alas, soon we were on our way to the aviary with a quick stop by the saw sharpening shop. While waiting to feed the pelicans, C won the attentions of a Northern Flicker, whose tiny red tongue kept tasting the air while she blinked curiously at him. I noticed a Kookaburra near the front of the cage and took advantage of the photo op when a second Kookaburra arrived. Thinking this was even better, I positioned my camera and started to shoot when THIS happened:

A good old fashioned game of leapfrog. Hey, this IS a G-rated blog! PDA at it's best.


At first when the girl arrived with one small bucket and one large bucket of fish for the pelicans, I was confused that four of us would be sharing the small bucket.
 
Once I realized the fish had been sitting just long enough to smell really delicious, it all made sense. My mind kept drifting to the pair of rubber gloves I had in my car for emergencies.
My dad used to use the line, "Show me that trick again. You know, the one where you open your mouth and your face disappears?" Suddenly this didn't seem so impossible after all...



While we scrubbed in vain at the fishy smell at our hands, we met a few more residents of the aviary, including this long-lashed beauty...



...and a tiny clever almost-escapee. "Who, me?"



At last it was time to visit the conures. Sure, we own one, but she is nowhere as noisy as these little fellas. She definitely loves apple as much as they do. The conure chow was much more kind to our olfactory systems than the finely aged minnows.




We even met some new friends from South America who were NOT birds:



After feeding the birds, we decided it was time to feed ourselves. We visited a delightful French Bakery where I almost bought one of everything. The object of my desire? A REAL butter croissant. I made the mistake of buying a croissant at a grocery store this week and while it had some butter in it, it was packed with shortening. Ever bite into a croissant that tasted like pie crust? Alas, after a long search, I achieved my goal. 



I loved every minute of spending time with my bestest buddy. I almost fell over when he later (sincerely) used the word "helped" in describing my encouragement to get out of the house. This week will be great. Three days of work, and then a little break. More on that later. Go hug a pelican!