Friday, August 03, 2007

revisiting

Back in the day when I started this little blog I didn't know most of you... Well I still don't, and you didn't know me...

I found myself wondering the other day how many of you have read that stuff previous to the now stuff... So instead of a real honest to goodness Friday post I give you this old post that was written months ago that I suspect no one in the universe has read...

little red bird


We woke this morning to a bright crisp day with brunch on the horizon. The only reason we got out of bed when we woke up around 9 was to find out when our brunch destination opened. Mike poked his head out the window and noted out loud that the cold snap has brought out all the beautiful birds (yesterday we saw masses of finches and robins)...

"but what bird is that?" he asked.

K poked her head up in the blinds and told us it's a red one... a little red one. I said it could be a cardinal... that's the only kind of bird I'd seen that was really really red.

"I don't know it's really little"

"Maybe it's baby cardinal" I chimed in.. "but it isn't the season for baby birds"

Curious, I pulled my lazy Sunday morning self out of the bed to peek and exclaimed "Damn, I think it is a cardinal, but it is so little!!"

I ran into the living room to get a better look from our big window... I was a little concerned that it wasn't moving

"Mike, I think it is D E A D" I had to spell it, I didn't want to say dead bird in front of K.

"No it's not" he blew off my dead bird theory.

It sat there so still I was convinced it was dead, frozen in place where it landed.

"Get a picture" he said.

I went to our bedroom window and snapped a shot... then to the front window for a better angle... I swear the little guy wasn't moving at all... he had to be dead.

"I'm going out there" I said as though I were off to fight a giant beast with a bendy straw.

I threw on some pants with my tank top, pulled on my docs with no socks on and carefully quietly unlocked the dead bolt... turned the knob and pulled the door open as quietly as i could.... I stepped out the door amazed that the bird hadn't fled and snapped a picture cursing that I don't have a telephoto lens... I looked up to the window and saw Mike and K leaning against it holding their breath as I snuck up on the tiny bird in my bright pink tank and jeans... i realized it was about 25 degrees outside and a shiver came over me but I took a few more steps toward the tiny cardinal... Mike and K didn't move and inch and as I pointed the camera and began to refocus a realization hit me... The bird really wasn't moving... it was so stiff... I moved the camera to my side and took another couple of steps forward then reached out to grasp the Cardinal by it's feet, Mike and K looked on horrified as I reached the little metal clip and unhooked it from our light fixture...

it was a little stone cardinal...

Mike immediately wanted me to wash my hands fearing the filth it had accumulated on it's journey to our house. Later he went out to investigate who may have left it there (my theory being some one drunk on their way home from the bar, seemed like something I might do in that situation many years ago). His investigation lead him to the pieces of it's tale that were broken off and candy wrappers littering our front steps . "Kids" he said.

We have no clue where the little guy came from and are undecided on what to do with him but for today he sits on our light keeping watch over our little nook of the neighborhood... oh and if anyone is missing a cardinal, I may have your little red bird...






15 comments:

Jen said...

That's awesome! That's the kind of "vandalism" I can get behind. No one ever leaves birds in my yard. Just beer bottles. I need a better neighborhood.

mielikki said...

OMG that's where I left it!
kidding.
that is a strange story, but not as strange as the meat guy. . .

Corey~living and loving said...

did you ever feel like a dork taking pictures of maybe a dead bird....or a fake bird? lol
Stuff like that happens to me. I'm not saying you are a dork...I'm just wondering if you felt like one?

CamiKaos said...

Corey: Biggest dork in the world, right here... I realized it was fake while I was looking through the camera lens and felt like a freak... and Mr. Kaos and K seriously had no idea until I picked it up, it's a family of drokitude :)

Anonymous said...

Vandalism where people give you decent stuff?

'Round here we get stuff like paint ball splothes on the fence. Not something we'd want to keep.

Chirp Chirp! Happy Birdwatching!

p.s. thanks for the postcard! If I can ever get this scanner to work, I will scan and post it like you asked. That's my goal. The scanner seems to have something else in mind.

flutter said...

Ok, I kind of like that vandalism...

Bubblewench said...

um. yeah. ok. slacker. you ok?

Lindy said...

I enjoyed reading it the second time almost as much as the first. The first time I snorted water through my nose because I kinda sorta knew what was coming.

CamiKaos said...

My god Lindyloo: It was you wasn't it. You flew all the way in from the K just to stick a stone birdie on my lamp.

I knew you were trouble ;)

Lindy said...

Trouble- that's what I be! Got the post card!! You'll have to email me you address, I'm going to the southeast coast of England late next week. My first time so a perfect excuse to send post cards.

Anonymous said...

I posted last week about our EIGHTH car theft! I *LIKE* the beautiful little bird thing! I really like your blog, too! (((((HUGS))))) sandi

Anonymous said...

There is a group in Tucson called Ben's Bells that spends the year hand-making hundreds of these beautiful ceramic wind chimes. Volunteers from all over Tucson do this. Each wind chime is a mish-mash of hand made pieces fired and glazed from the imagination of whatever 10-year-old or 70-year-old put the chime together.

One night a year, these volunteers gather-up that year's harvest and wander through Tucson, leaving them in random places for unknown people with a little note attached. I received one on my bike at the University of Arizona, after a library all-nighter before a final. It is probably my favorite thing.

"Ben" was a two-year old who suddenly died on Good Friday, 2002. His family started making Ben's Bells to heal from his loss, and to spread kindness throughout the world in his memory. So, I don't know who's stone bird this was, but maybe it was an act of kindness?

CamiKaos said...

You've got me crying into my cherry coke. How beautiful Chadness.

It is those little things that people do that make such a huge difference in someones life.

Jo Beaufoix said...

That was so funny, yet very odd.
We had a neighbour who loved ceramic things in his garden.
He had gnomes.
We woke one morning to find they'd all been painted yellow in the night.

We were quite disturbed.

No postcard yet but that will be due to the postal strikes we keep having probably.

Glad Disney was good.

AngelConradie said...

mwaaaaaaaaahahahahaaaa... thats so cute and strange!