Hummingbird…Friend or Foe?

When I wake up in the mornings, the first thing I do is make my way to look out my window. I’m still taken aback by this beautiful winter view after a rain storm; glorious snow-capped mountains reaching for the crystal blue sky, while the green sloping hills make their way up the mountain range. Coffee in hand, I make my way outside to admire and reflect within this peaceful natural environment. What the heck????  Peaceful..I’m being attacked! Ok, not so much attacked, but have you ever walked through a hummingbird feeding frenzy? Which is pretty much anytime of day. I don’t recommend it!

Being the bird person that I am, I have several feeders strategically placed in my yard to attract a variety of birds. Fact, humming birds are attracted to bright colors, hmmm, like red, so this is why you will see most of the feeders with red on them. Morning routine is to fill the feeders so that the birds can enjoy their breakfast, while I enjoy my coffee.

Ok, back to these crazy hummingbirds. First off they are very territorial, along with flying at super bird speeds and they sound like little dive bombers humming by my head as they almost take it off. Beautiful? Yes. Sadistic? Yes. They are like this huge family being called to gather around the table for the evening dinner; no I was here first, no I had this side first, no I don’t want to share with you, no I saw it first and on and on. I’m most certain they must get indigestion hovering around, waiting to pounce on the first intruder, second intruder, you get the idea. No wonder they have to eat all day long, burning up all that energy fighting with each other.  Their beautiful colors of red, pink, purple reflecting in the sunlight, their delicate slender beaks reaching into feed, the flutter of their tiny wings….nothing but a guise to cover the competition in their hearts. Rule the feeder, take no prisoners!

Well, they seem to have a system and who am I to interfere with the order of nature? I will continue to feed them and watch their daily antics. I will remain in awe and wonder of their beauty and speed, but more so how it is that they don’t smash into more stationary items at their super bird speeds.

In closing I have one more fact to share.  I have red hair and with coffee in hand I must walk through these crazy red craving, possessive, dive bombing, take no prisoners birds in order to enjoy that serene view I shared with you at the beginning of this blog. With that image, I bid you a wonderful day!

U2

Yesterday, I was fortunate enough to attend the U2 concert at the Rose Bowl.  Now that in itself is not funny, but rather a whole hell of a lot of fun. I guess the weird part for me is I attended this concert with my husband, who really has no interest in U2 and our daughter, who purchased the tickets and my new son-in-law, who was there because his wife, my daughter likes U2. Ok, so now you have the picture Mom and daughter like U2 and are excited to be on the road to rock and roll. Dad and son-in-law, along because they sort of, kind of, have too. I thought of  it as a good bonding experience for them and look already they have something in common, doing what their wives want to do. I’m so proud that I reared my daughter with such smarts. So we leave early as we don’t want to get involved with sitting on the 210 with the other 96,000 people who are going to attend this event. Well, believe it or not traffic wasn’t half bad, and when we found our parking spot in the middle of the golf course, we were happy that we had one more row of cars between us and the bar….yes, a bar in the middle of a golf course, that is now overflow parking for the Rose Bowl. It seems to make perfect sense and quite convenient to get out of the car and into the spirit of drinking if you so desired. I held back with all my restraint, as I was trying to impress upon my children that I didn’t quite need a drink as soon as I opened my car door in a make shift golf course parking lot. Thank God for my new son-in-law who quickly pointed out the second bar set up on the golf course parking lot. This one sold Bloody Marys, which everyone knows is the official Sunday drink. How could I pass that up? I couldn’t, so with $9.00 less in my husband’s pocket, off we go to buy some official merchandise, as it is called. Remember I mentioned that the traffic was light, I now know why. Everyone has been here partying as they should for a rock and roll concert. There were people picnicking, tailgating, shopping with drinks in hand, eating and purchasing official merchandise, all with a hefty price tag on it, but hey, it’s what you do now. Of course, the first 3 official merchandise booths we went to were pretty much sold out of their merchandise which at first disappointed me, but then I realized how much money I would be saving. With that in mind, I was ready to surrender to the fact that I couldn’t buy a $40.00 t-shirt, until the official merchandise vendor announced that there were lots of booths set up inside that would be well stocked with all items. She was right, inside we went to find the official merchandise booth. It was again my wonderful son-in-law who found the booth with no lines of people, even though it was right across from a booth with several lines of people waiting to buy the official merchandise. Happily, I walk away with my 3 items and now my husband’s pocket has $75.00 less in it. Yes, your right, we did need to eat so we found a stand that was happy to take more of our money and off we go to find our seats. We contemplated buying something to drink, but realized if we drank anything we would have to leave to go to the bathroom and believe it or not those lines were longer then the official merchandise lines, granted now they weren’t selling anything, but they did offer a whole lot of relief. If you were able to get to the bathroom and back to your seat was a question I wasn’t willing to risk asking by drinking. However, the group next to us enjoyed more than enough drinks for all us and even shared their recreational smoke throughout the air with all those sitting in their general vicinity. No charge! What I found most  interesting while scanning row after row is to see that the people who were at this concert to see U2 and the Black Eyed Peas, were of all ages, parents with adult children, like me….young people, families with children, old people, lots of groups of people of all ages coming together to listen to great music. And great music it was, both groups had everyone up, singing, dancing, clapping and enjoying the whole night. Music it brings the world together. Then it was back to the real world…  we found our car and had to make our way off of the makeshift parking lot on the golf course, along with all the fans; but most of them forgot the joy they were feeling in the stands and returned to their I have to get out here and I don’t care who is in my way aditude. An hour later we were on the freeway, on our way home. ..

Concerts are not what they use to be…when I was growing up, we pooled our money together for gas, piled as many people as we could into the van, there were no parents with us, we didn’t have to have a lot of money to attend and I don’t remember any official merchandise stands. Yes, we drank beer and sat on the grass and enjoyed great music. Last night I did the same thing with 96,000 other fans, standing right along side of my daughter. Was it better when I was young…in some ways, but the feeling of sharing a great music like this with your kids is one that I’m glad I was able to experience. I can hardly wait till we do it again! Although, next we have to go to a concert that my son-in-law picks and he warns me it is basically a lot of noise.  Hmmm, I wonder what the parking lot will look like and if they will be serving Bloody Marys?

 

 

the chair

So, this if this is suppose to be a laugh out loud blog, does that mean I make myself laugh out loud or am I suppose to make someone else laugh out loud? Hmmm! I will have to think that one over. Maybe it could be either? Today I made myself laugh out loud, when I opened this blog and saw the picture I used for the heading. I know what is so funny about a chair with people’s feet and legs showing? I guess it was one of those you had to be there, but the picture was taken in Indianapolis, IN this past August. I was at the DCI (Drum Corps International) finals and this chair was a prop, actually one of many, used in the show that took first place. It had been a contention with us throughout the season,especially so with our friend Steve, so when we had the opportunity to get one of these chairs we had to go for it. We then presented it to him on the street outside the hotel and we could not stop laughing, because he and several others preceded to perform some very silly acts with this chair. See I’m laughing out loud right now, but you don’t have the picture in your head like I do, so you are probably thinking…what the hell is wrong with this person. Oh well, the chair is now  in its new home and who knows how long it will be there? But, I can guarantee you this…it makes Steve laugh out loud when he sees it! Chairs to you all!

Hello world!

I’m not sure if I’m laughing out loud at the moment, since I have no idea what I’m doing with a blog….but give me another cup of coffee, a few more hours and then, just maybe I will have something to show for all my efforts. And if not, I’ll laugh out loud and start over again, later!