Saturday, April 19, 2014

Life at full tilt in the neighborhood

For a clear account of this morning's neighborhood doings, you would probably need a visual aid, but it went something like this:

I had previously arranged to get friend A to do a minor bit of work at the condo where Handsome Son lives, entailing much texting to establish that A could get in, that HS was organized with the new item to install. Since A rarely reads his texts, and HS' phone will receive mine but not transmit back to me, I text, he calls,  this was fraught with obstacles.

Then this morning I went to see A who is notoriously forgetful, to remind him, but at the same instant friend B arrived on the same doorstep in search of help to open her locked bathroom door.  

I left friend A to find the little tool that would unlock it, meanwhile, friend A who has lost his phone borrowed mine to make a call to friend C to ask her to get something he's forgotten on his earlier rounds.  

Friend C gets back to me in a panic since I so rarely use the phone wanting to know what was up, baffling me totally, since her name is the same as that of friend B, and a couple of other people I've been in touch with very recently. After establishing who exactly she was I explained it wasn't me calling, it was A, and they needed to reach each other.  He had not left a voicemail, gah. 

Gave her HS cell number since by this time A was over there, and they missed  each other, phoning me between attempts!  Finally A was home again briefly and I put them together by the low tech method of taking my phone, with friend C already talking on it, to A's house and saying, here, it's C and you need to talk to her!

A had to fly back here to get a missing little screw thing, and was waylaid by contractors he's been trying to get to the house for ages with an estimate on his ceiling replacement. 

So he did that while searching for the screw thing, friend B runs back to report that the tool I lent her worked and here it was back again, and I seized the day and offered her some iris divisions, which she's been wanting for ages, and we took care of that right away. Friend C now home again, shows up with almond cookies she can't manage to eat, not well enough for them, but nice for me.

Then I go to the library and HS phones to say job at condo is done, everyone happy.  Home again ready to make a pot of tea for the patio, juuuuust warm enough for that, with the almond cookies, when I heard a hollow bang in the living room.

Couldn't see any reason for it until I went to the patio and found my dear little whitethroated sparrow dead on the deck.  He had flown into the glass, too little to withstand the impact.  He's been feeding here for a couple of seasons.  





 
So I thanked him for being there, and I put him on the side table next to my chair, and  took a couple of pix to see him better.  I had never been able to handle a wild bird like this and really see the beauty of his plumage, so hard to notice in flight. He had yellow touches, and rusty tail feathers, lovely colors.


So in the midst of human wildly crisscrossing activity, with friend A helping me and HS, me helping friend B, friend C helping friend A, in an endless circle, this little guy's life ended.  He's resting now, under a handful of leaves.  He left his silhouette on the glass, and I'll leave it there for now.

5 comments:

  1. Your day sounds like many of mine seem to end up being. I feel so sorry for the wee sparrow, but God loves them too, so I know he's now singing happily in heaven.

    ReplyDelete
  2. I'm sorry about the sparrow - maybe you need to put something on the glass so the reflection of the outside world is made less clear.

    By the time I'd finished reading the first part of your post I have to confess I was almost in tears from laughing. What a wonderfully convoluted time.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Wishing you a Happy Easter from all of us in Cowtown! - Jean

    ReplyDelete
  4. I have found that very little ever goes smoothly when it comes to things being done around the house by tradesmen.

    ReplyDelete
  5. The same type of bird flew into my open cottage door edge (not the window) recently with the same ending. Looks like they may be careless fliers.

    ReplyDelete

Thanks so much for commenting. I really appreciate your taking the time, and taking part. Please read the comments and see if your question is already answered!