Moot Thoughts & Musings

in an attempt to move onto cheerier thoughts

On Friday my MW late afternoon had a makeup session, so we had a late afternoon seminar on Friday. Blah. I usually have to drag myself to class, but I always enjoy it. Sometimes scrambling is more the word to describe myself getting to class. The weather was beautiful on the way home, so it wasn't so bad. It's a wonderful month to live in the deep south. As soon as I got home I glanced out the window of my car door as I was opening, and right there were the parrots! Their presence is always known, squawking and protesting in the palm tree outside our house, but it's very difficult to get a good view. The moment I try to get close, off they fly. On Friday afternoon they were contentedly feeding on the grass seed on the ground oblivious to the cars passing and my peering eye. Unfortunately, the PentaxK1000 wasn't loaded or I would've gotten my dream picture of the parrots...the one I've been trying to get for years, close-up with evening sun illuminating their bright green feathers. The ol' digital, uh, didn't quite do the trick, but I tried. Not even worth posting my efforts.

After I got myself collected upon my arrival home, Chris and I hopped back in the car to go to the hospital to visit the newest addition to our congregation, a cuddly bundle of pinkness. The little girl was this family's 5th kid and her mama had had to have a Csection so was resigned to a longish hospital stay. When arrived, mama, dad, and baby were chilling in their room, and what we intended to be a short, congratulatory visit ended up being a long, pleasant visit filled with conversation. We enjoyed so much visiting with this other couple, as we hardly ever get a chance to just sit down and talk. The mom appreciated the company to while away her hospital sentence. I held the baby for at least an hour (I think we were there for 2). This was the first time I had even seen a tiny baby since we found out about our impending bundle of joy, and I was so excited! I just felt like I couldn't wait another day until Elvis comes. The reality of the situation struck me even more...the idea of Real Baby that squeaks instead of Abstract Baby (that currently kicks a lot *grin*). Chris even held the baby, and she didn't break.

On Saturday I took the Curly-Heads to the park to roller skate and feed the ducks. It was a gorgeous day. I love all the water birds around here, all different sorts of herons, egrets, cormorants, spoonbills...just chillin' in the park and making quite a racket. Audubon Park has a nice track around 2 miles in perimeter. There's a lake-ish area in half of it, and a golf course in the middle of it all. Live oaks shade the track area with their massive gnarly boughs dripping in Spanish moss. Curly-Heads aged 4 and 5 did a pretty good job on their roller-blades with their ever cheery 2 yr old sister keeping up as best she could by running and running. Their mom reported good night's sleep on all fronts later. At first feeding ducks didn't sound altogether appealing to me. I'm sort of not thrilled by the idea of being swarmed by filthy fowl, especially since once when I was a kid a duck bit me. But I decided in the end that it could be fun. And, to tell you the truth, we had to beg ducks to come over. The turtles were much more interested in our morsels (though far less photogenic). When Curly-Head age 2 was asked later what she did at the park, her response was "potty". Okay, so our final adventure was a mad dash to the potty; I guess feeding ducks wasn't all that climactic experience for her after all.