For the Birds

Abbie and I are into bird watching. It always sounded like the most boring thing in the world, but with binoculars, it really is something entirely different. Suddenly I am able to differentiate between beaks and colors of birds and markings of the breast, compared to markings of the crown. For a boring activity, I have never been so entertained.

Recently, Abbie and I were sitting one day in her backyard, on the garden swing, watching the birds and eating dinner, and a little sweet golden finch flew straight into her window!!!!

We were horrified. Here we are trying to feed and enjoy the birds and one of them suicide bombs himself into the side of the house! Fortunately, he just had a concussion and was back on his feet in no time. Well, it took long enough that we were convinced he was dead and we were permanently traumatized.

The next day after the Concussion of the Golden Finch, I had a hard day at work and decided to treat myself to a field guide of birds to cheer me up. I found a book of Utah birds and on the way back to the car, Abbie called me and said; "Hurry and get home to help me! A magpie hit the window and it went off like a bomb!"

When I arrived home, Abbie had cut up a pie tin and pulled a boondoggle kit out of the depths of her closet. Who has boondoggle? Who knows how to spell boondoggle? Who has boondoggle at the age of 28? Ragardless of the answers to these questions, Abbie had boondoggle and was stringing the cut up pieces of pie tin to the flourescent lines. I dove in and helped her. "I read this will work on the internet," she said. We spent an hour stringing pie tin and boondoggle and then took it out to string along the windows to warn the birds.

Abbie climbed up on the ladder, pounded a nail into the side of the house and strung a piece of green plastic across the windows. "Oh no!" she cried. It won;t stick on the nails! It's too slippery."

"Why don't we get some flat head nails," I asked. "I bet I could find some in the garage."

"No," she said. "Let's be creative. What can we use instead? Hmmmm... Gum! Let's use gum!"

"Are you serious?"

Apparently she was. I ran into the house to get a pack of gum. Abbie, up on the ladder, chewed her gum and after a minute, stuck it onto the nail, creating a nailhead to hold the florescent green and pink plastic strung across her windows.

In all seriousness, she continued chewing, continued sticking and continued saving the birds.