It's true, I am not a member of the Audobon Society, so I have no idea what birds are actually singing songs outside my open windows this morning (nor would the Audobon folk probably have much appreciation for Simon's voracious need to torture any bird he finds before he rips its heart from its chest and leaves it to rot in the midday sun while reviewing my application for membership.) All I know is that the birds outside sound lovely and "The Song of the Sparrows" seemed like a lovely title for this post. We almost didn't make it through winter, so I am celebrating that Spring may actually, finally be here!!!!!
Rainy and I celebrated Spring yesterday with a long ride on our new motorcycles, Red Phil and Elvis:
She named her bike after Phil, the Prince of Insufficient Lighting, from Dilbert, and I named my bike because it's so cool and what name is cooler than Elvis?? Also, my bike is much cooler than Rainy's--let the record note that point. Simon wanted to go on a ride, but his helmet, vest and chaps are on back order from the cat motorcycle store and he will just have to be happy with this picture of him looking cool with Elvis and leave it at that for now.
It was a great day, yesterday, and came on the heels of a REALLY great day the day before, when Rainy's sister and our niece rolled through town on the way to Birmingham. We invited our friends and goddaughter over for dinner so the children could play together and joy filled the house. It's no wonder Spring came in so beautifully the next day.
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| Rainy learning all about the Pet Shop! |
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| Julie trying to get Crazy Mike's girlfriend out of the truck... |
Tomorrow is the 2 year anniversary of my dad's death, and the thought of it hangs heavy in my heart. The warm Spring air yesterday felt just like it did on the day he died, so it was really nice to get on two wheels and let the wind blow heavy thoughts away. I miss my dad. He was my first road trip buddy and filled my head with travel dreams, and I hate it that I am fulfilling those dreams without him. As close as I can get is doing it with Rainy, who was born the day before him 40 years later, and has his same silly sense of humor and the same loyalty and big heart. That I met her only half a year before he died is not lost on me as some kind of divine intervention.
Rainy and I are very aware that us finding each other is a miracle, and we try our best to live accordingly. What this means for us is having an argument over what we're allowed to hoard in our limited closet space, like normal people, but then feeling really guilty about it later. We have been planning for awhile now to lose all of our extra weight so we can be healthy and steer clear of any sort of nursing facilities so that at the age of 105 for me and 96 for her, we can rent a plane, fill it with our current animal family and ourselves and crash into the side of a mountain so we can all go out together and have a pretty place for our exploded ashes to rest. What we are finding is that it's nice to have goals, but it's a lot harder to carry them to fruition, especially when people who make things like Cheerios try to make us feel hopeless at every turn.
This morning, Rainy juiced some vegetables and headed out the door for work, while I laid in bed, trapped under the blankets by the dogs and a couple of cats. Eventually, I freed myself from their bonds and decided to have a nutritious breakfast of Cheerios in milk with a banana. I know it's not kale juice, but it's not a sausage biscuit from McDonald's either, so there's that. However, I made the mistake of looking at the nutritional values on the side of my Cheerios, thinking I would feel a bolster of pride in my good decision. It turns out, if I eat 1 cup of Cheerios dry, I've eaten 100 calories. If I put 1/2 cup of skim milk (something Simon refers to as "white water") on my Cheerios, I've eaten 140 calories. Reasonable, right? Gaze your eyes on this:
On the left, we have the blue bowl I bought as part of a set of dinnerware 5-6 years ago. This is a soup/cereal bowl. On the right is a 1/2 cup measuring cup. There is something very twisted and wrong about the disparity of proportions of these two things. How can you feel anything but hungry and denied if you use the item on the left to contain the Cheerios, milk and banana that are allowed within the measurement of the item on the right??? So I rebelled, scoffed, and filled my bowl. And now I should run another mile today. The good news is, I'm not hungry, and I ate a banana.
It's 9:30 and the bird songs are changing to the work tunes of the woodpecker and some dispute between a couple of blue jays. Life goes on. I'm pretty sure Bruce is trying to break into the litter box, knowing that the cats had chicken treats yesterday and his rewards should be processing nicely. Better get to my day. :)
