Shift

It's a new year. Frankly, I am so sick of writing about Obama and his Team, I could spit up on my shoes. I think in 2010 I'm going to allow myself--no, encourage myself--to post about other topics, at least  sometimes. Lord knows, most of the things that I care about have NOTHING to do with The Won or his issues.

I just found a blog that grabbed my attention: it's called what is this?--"an undisciplined record of passing fancies." This blogger seems like a kindred spirit--she's the sort of person I would love to "friend" on facebook because she might actually answer me when I post: "Read anything good lately?"--unlike my actual group of facebook friends, who ignore most of what I post and make me feel as if I'm shouting down a well. Do these people not read? Whatever.

One of my new blogger-acquaintance's recent posts is about crows, which reminded me about the crows who used to gather in the giant sycamore trees in my neighborhood. One year they disappeared--just gone--I think because of some disease or other that killed them all, maybe the West Nile virus. What seemed like an annoyance before they were gone--their constant noise and calling to one another--suddenly, almost overnight, ceased--and I missed them. If you spend any time at all listening to crows, watching them, it becomes clear that these are intelligent birds. I'm sure their calls have meaning, at least to other crows, and looking back, I realize that I was very aware of the group of crows that gathered in my back yard trees. I remember most their braying, hysterical group caws whenever my Labrador (bird dog--did they know that?) would run around in the back yard.

The crows disappeared suddenly and completely one season from my neighborhood, and once I realized they were gone--made note of the silence--I missed them. But I realized another thing not long ago--they're coming back. So welcome back, Crows.

Update. Found another very cool website, and I found it reading a site totally unrelated to birds. Don't know what the bird thing is about with me today, but the synchronicity is interesting. The site: our bird feeder. And what is the guy's favorite bird? The crow. The blogger recommends Caw of the Wild: The Secret World of Crows, by Barb Kirpluk (2005). I'll add it to my list.