We had three jumpers in our yard yesterday. 

 

Just above my office window, on top of a security light, robins decided to set up camp to raise a family.

 

Yesterday, I go to hang clothes on the line, and low and behold, a little fuzzy headed baby is sitting in the yard.  His wing feathers are sparse so I am convinced he was a premature jumper!

 

I go to get a box and a dish for water and when I approach him, he starts hopping around the yard and mom and dad dive bomb me.

 

Okay, okay.  If I can pick him up, he needs saving.  If he is mobile, he is probably going to be okay.

 

Next thing I know, jumper no. 2 comes barreling out of the nest.

 

Shit, now I have 2 baby robins hopping around the yard.  Mom and dad are doing their best to corral the two babies out of the wide open.  The babies just got a taste for freedom, so nothing mom or dad attempts is working.  They just keep hopping around aimlessly, like chickens without heads.

 

I go to check on the last baby who is still in the nest, and sure enough, he is standing on the edge of the nest, wildly flapping his wings.  For a couple of hours he test this jumping theory…on the count of 1, 2….wait, wait.  On the count of 10….then he would settle his round little body back in the nest for a few minutes.

 

Eventually, jumper no. 3 finds his way out.  All hell has broken loose in the back yard – hopping robins are everywhere!

 

Here is jumper no. 1(in the back) and jumper no. 2.   Jumper no. 2 was pretty active and looks healthy.   But as many middle kids are afflicted with, he really was kind of plain; nothing special stood out about him.

 

Here is jumper no. 1 again.  He is the only one left in the yard today and isn’t flying too well.  He loves to hang out on the bottom fence rail pretty much all the time and waits in this corner until Mom comes to feed him.  He looks a bit scrawny so I hope he stays in the yard until he is looking a bit more healthy.

 

 

 

And jumper no. 3.  He was the first to get out of the yard, and he certainly practiced all day.  He would hop up on the deck and look at the fence, his little wings trembling and his body leaned forward for a minute or so (I think he was doing the – okay, on the count of 1, 2, wait.  On the count of 10 – thing again).  Then he would lunge full speed, wildly flapping and smack into the fence.

 

 

 While I was out taking pictures, I decided to get some shots of the new back yard. (Don't mind the weeds if you can see them, that was my project yesterday but the jumpers were a little skittish about me being around)

 

 

 

 

Amazing that this house used to be the blue string-E machin-E

I love it when my head decides to fill with thoughts or memories that seem to come out of the clear blue sky, then take me down some random path of even more thoughts and memories.

Today, I thought about the dozen or so Apach Tears I have.  When I was about 4 or 5, my mother and I started an annual ritual of driving to Arizona on my birthday to see my Great Grandparents.  Each year, we would head out and go hunting for Apache Tears in the desert.  I have no American Indian blood in my family; in fact, I am no more than 3rd generation immigrant from every traceable direction in the family.  But something about the legend drew my grandmother in from the day she stepped foot on Arizona ground....she passed that along to mom and I.

Before my Great Grandmother passed away, she handed off her share of the stones to my mother, then my mother to me.

Today, out of the blue, I had to retrieve a few of them from the dusty cauldron that holds years worth of rocks that I have collected, hold them up to the light and think about the women in my family.  In March, my grandmother passed away - my grandfather's sister and I are now the oldest women in the family, with a difference of nearly 60 years in age.  It's kind of a strange feeling.  It will only be a matter of time before I am the matriarch of our bloodline.

Anyway - for those who don't know the legend behind the Apache Tear, or even what an Apache tear is.....I found a site that details the legend.  I miss hearing my grandmother tell the story as we walked through the desert.

 

Apache Tear Drop is a form of black obsidian. It is a calming translucent stone, found in Arizona and other parts of the U.S. It is composed of feldspar, hornblende, biotite and quartz. It was formed by rhythmic crystallization that produces a separation of light and dark materials into spherical shapes, and is a form of volcanic glass.

There is a haunting legend about the Apache Tear Drop. After the Pinal Apaches had made several raids on a settlement in Arizona, the military regulars and some volunteers trailed the tracks of the stolen cattle and waited for dawn to attack the Apaches.

The Apaches, confident in the safety of their location, were completely surprised and out-numbered in the attack. Nearly 50 of the band of 75 Apaches were killed in the first volley of shots. The rest of the tribe retreated to the cliff's edge and chose death by leaping over the edge rather than die at the hands of the white men.

For years afterward those who ventured up the treacherous face of Big Pacacho in Arizona found skeletons, or could see the bleached bones wedged in the crevices of the side of the cliff.

The Apache Women and the lovers of those who had died gathered a short distance from the base of the cliff where the sands were white, and for a moon they wept for their dead. They mourned greatly, for they realized that not only had their 75 brave Apache warriors died, but with them had died the great fighting spirit of the Pinal Apaches.

Their sadness was so great, and their burden of sorrow so sincere that the Great Father imbedded into black stones the tears of the Apache Women who mourned their dead. These black obsidian stones, when held to the light, reveal the translucent tear of the Apache.

The stones are said to bring good luck to those possessing them. It is said that whoever owns an Apache Tear Drop will never have to cry again, for the Apache Women have shed their tears in place of yours.

 

But then, when do I?

My head is filled with useless, and often disturbing to the general public, pieces of information.

I have noticed lately a lot more open talk and discussion of religion and controversial topics. I wonder if the politics of today, that has spiked conversation from people who never talk or think about politics, has opened the Pandora's box. You know - never talk politics or religion, but if everyone is talking politics, let's go all the way and talk God.

I try to stay away from conversations of either (religion or politics) as I tend not to have the faith of the norm and I won't change - and I don't expect to change someone else, so what the hell is the point?

I have been tempted in the last couple of weeks to call out some of the religious right here on blogstream that like to post trash comments about other people but praise God on their own blogs....but they have their own demons (so to say) to contend with, and likely they don't have much inner peace - and I certainly don't want to be part of that. So, I just kind of stay clear of those people.

I am making collard greens for dinner (first time). It started out with my bird. African Grays notoriously do not absorb enough calcium. Nikster is on high potency food and never had a problem - but her last blood test returned low calcium. Bird's can't process dairy products (makes sense since they aren't mammals) so the next best source? Collards. And after a few Southern New Year's Day dinners that Marc has made, I have grown to love me some collards.

I had to call to ask how to deal with the greens once I got them home. I think water, pepper, smoked turkey necks and onion shouldn't be too hard to mess up.....

Speaking of the Nikster - she has been a nut job all week. Calling the dogs, making farting sounds and laughing, calling everyone in the house an asshole if they make more noise than her. And - making more noise than usual.

Nikster has been neglected (in the grand Chanda scheme of things) and is making more noise than usual, like 3-year old protest parades. I don't spend the quality time with her lately that I would like - it seems to happen every summer when I am outside or distracted more, and she is inside, being protected from west Nile disease. Realizations like this make me sure I need not breed --- "sorry kid, I got other things more interesting than you right now".

Don't ask how I forgot about my 8 year-old sister who got locked out of my apartment for 3 hours when she came to visit me in Buffalo, and she only had on pajamas in 20 degree weather. Or when I forgot to feed all 3 of my sisters for 7 hours...they asked, "when can we eat?" my thought was "why didn't you freaking feed yourselves?!?"

Yeah - I need not breed

Rob bought a Wii online last week. He called and told me to go out on the porch today and look for a package. How in the hell can people keep secrets like that? I don't buy gifts for specific occasions anymore....I buy it and I have to give it to the person as soon as I get home. That makes for a shitty Christmas Eve at the mall. Rob thinks I am just insensitive, but just immature is more likely.

I did get my grandmother's gift of cooking. She always made us a spectacular and gourmet (be sure to pronounce the "t" in her world) meal as gifts. I think I have inherited that.....good thing this house has high metabolisms.

Smoking is well, still a thing of my world after 3 weeks but only 2-3 cigs a day. I decided the best thing for me is to not feel the pressure of quitting - just let it happen. Sad but true. When I feel the pressure to quit and go through bouts of unsatisfied desires during the day, my mind justifies the "reward" cigarette. This mentality has kept me smoking all these years - and three failed attempts. So, I am trying a more zen approach.

I have 2 rewards planned after quitting - teeth whitening and joining a gym. I realize that the latter should not be a reward but an immediate to get my body feeling motivated NOT to smoke. So, after July 4th (going out town until then) I will join a gym down the street and employ a trainer for a week or two. Shit, if I can't quit after that - I say I am loser and just need to accept such. LOL

Atlanta is dry as hell, hot as hell and the traffic still sucks.

S'pose that is all I have to ramble about. Need to brush up on my Wii tennis before I go to N. Carlina next week. Kick some Wii ass (and get in shape - the last time I played Wii tennis my ass muscles hurt for 4 days).

I think I may be the only person (actively) posting here with the original "no color" layout

On several occasions I have thought about (and started) fancy-ing up my blog page, but found that there were too many damn details.

I have a huge pet peeve for the colorful blogs....not all of them, but the ones that are haphazardly put together for the sake of "eye candy". Puurrrrty. But puuurrrty doesn't mean I can read what you have written.

Fancy, italicized, fonts that make my head hurt. Links that have no color difference from the background. And my all-time favorite.... a font with so little contrast from the background, the only possibility of reading the words is to highlight the whole dang thing. Or a nice front page; but a comment page that has been given no attention and again, I can't read or link.

I don't read these blogs - they probably don't care. But I can say it sure is annoying that blogs I used to read on a regular basis have become too painful for me to return.

So my blog will remain forever void of visual effects, until I find the time to spend for a quality set up,

We actually went to see a blockbuster, Hollywood movie yesterday.

I am such a geek sometimes that I have a hard time finding any interest in fiction (books or movies). I love to soak up real information....so Rob always handles the fictional side of our activities. In other words, he picks the movies and makes recommendations of fiction books for me to read; which may I say if you enjoy Tom Robbins, "Incognito" is a brilliant read.

He surprised the crap out of me to say he wanted to see "Iron Man". Rob is more of an art film kind of guy, as am I.

The movie was good. I understand all the raves but I didn't think it was the best movie ever. But then, there we go with the fiction thing that doesn't float my boat.

What I did enjoy was a lot of Robert Downey Jr. eye candy. I have been a big fan of his for many a year - dating all the way back to "Less than Zero" and "Pretty in Pink".

Back in 1998, I dated a guy who did special effects for movies and got a gig doing the body casts for Robert Downey Jr. and Annette Benning for the movie "In Dreams" (horrible movie).

I was tempted to beg my way along for the ride to Mexico where they were filming....but how do you tell your boyfriend you just want to meet the sexiest man alive?

Which brings me to the previews.....some movie with Will Smith. He has come a long way from "Dj Jazzy Jeff and the Fresh Prince". Damn is he looking good in his (older) age.