How Lucky Was I?

My Sweetie and I are having a good time counting the birds in our backyard for the Great Backyard Bird Count. We have always enjoyed watching them but had never stop to count them. Now we have.

As of noon on Sunday, we had three dozen house sparrows, two dozen goldfinches, two purple finches, a house finch, a half dozen juncos, a red-bellied sapsucker, a downy woodpecker, two cardinals (one male and one female), a white-breasted nuthatch, six mourning doves, and a sole robin.

We are only missing a few of the usual suspects: bluejay, hairy woodpecker, northern flicker, tufted titmouse, black-capped chickadee, red-winged blackbird, and chipping sparrow.

I was bemoaning the fact that we have had a Cooper’s hawk and a sharp-shinned hawk in the yard at various times this winter. But it didn’t appear that we would be able to add them to our lists.

Then about 1:00 on Sunday I spotted this guy sitting in front of our Christmas tree which we always put out for the birds to take cover in.
Cooper's Hawk

Oh, my! I guess we unwittingly provided a diner for the hawk. Can you see the hawk's face when the sparrow escaped? It almost looks like a cat in the branches.

There goes lunch!

This is obviously a young hawk or he has completely forgotten the bird-of-prey technique for acquiring food. There he was walking into the tree in hopes of having a house sparrow for lunch.

Now I can add Cooper's hawk to the list. Maybe the sharp-shinned will turn up tomorrow.


Click here for more information: Great Backyard Bird Count

Would a Massage Therapist Lie?

Oh, my goodness! Our Groupon coupons for massages were going to expire while we were away. I called and heard a message that she preferred communicating by email and would answer in the evening. I sent an email off. No response.

I was looking up how you handle a merchant not returning your call when I received an email from the massage therapist. She wrote “Thank you for request. Do not worry about expiration, i'll take it afterwards. Closest open appointments i have first week of February, so, please, lat (sic) me know your preferred day and time. Best Regards.”

How cool is that? Today when I thanked her in person, she said, “Why not? You paid. I paid. Makes sense.”

I asked her if she had a good response from the Groupon deal. “Very much. Lots and lots of business.”

She was massaging my back when she explained that she had discounts for professionals who bought 4 massages at a time and for clients over 65. She apologized that she could not give me one. She was taken aback when I told her that I had just celebrated my 66th birthday. In her Ukrainian-accented English, she said, “You hardly look 50.” Did I mention that I love this woman? She added that I was fit like My Sweetie so I must exercise like he does. I was sorry to disappoint her. But as usual, I pledged that I was going to do better.

She came to the US in 1995 with her now ex-husband who is an American. She seemed surprised when I told her that I admired her. Not only did she come to another country; she had to learn to live with an American husband which had to be different than living with a Ukrainian one. She looked surprised, nodded and said, “Oh, yes.”

I complimented her on her English. Surprised, she asked, “Why is my English so good?” Not only is her vocabulary extensive she uses idioms. She asked me at one point if she had used one correctly. When I repeated it, she said, “Ah.” She picked up on the different inflection I had used.

I said that I would not be as fluent in Ukrainian as she is in English. I recalled my experience as a 16-year-old exchange student in South America. Perhaps high school French was not the best preparation for living in a Spanish-speaking country but during those three months, I learned enough to carry on a conversation but only in the present tense. I can’t even imagine learning a non-Romance language.

Here she is, having arrived in the States 17 years ago and 3 years after completing a two-year program to obtain her massotherapy license, successfully operating her own business.

What a woman. And truthful, too.