Crazy Old People

Anybody that has ever been to Phoenix during the winter knows that we have a plethora of old people here. The most common encounters with them is on the road; when you are traveling along at 50 MPH and suddenly you have to come to a screeching stop.

When you live in far East Mesa (the Land of Green Rock as I like to call it) the crazy old people encounters are year round, as their lovely double-wides surround my neighborhood. On the street adjacent to ours there is a particularly extra crazy old person, I'll call him Stew.

The first time I saw Stew I had to stop and stare because it's not every day that you see a man in his 80's ridding a bike with a very large basket on the back supporting an even larger canopy. I wondered what he was doing and then carried on with what I was doing. After, many Stew sitings (in 100+ weather) I realized that he was picking trash up off the streets (with one of those trash pincher thingies). I thought to myself, "O what I nice old man, using his time to help keep our neighborhood clean."

Now that I work at Kids Corner before school I am always driving home at 8:30. This seems to be Stew's scheduled time for 'cleaning' the streets. As I approached my house the other day I saw Stew out in front of my neighbor's house. As I got closer, I realized he was digging through his black garbage can! He was pulling garbage out of the can and placing it in his basket!

I am not sure what happens to man to make him want to dig through an other mans trash, but I'm pretty sure it has something to do with age.

Dec The Halls

I have been so excited for Christmas this year and have spent the last two days making my home festive. Last Friday, and all day Saturday, (it took forever.) I made a garland to go around our family room. For having no idea what I was doing I think it turned out pretty good, if I do say so myself.

Notice that in all my excitement for Christmas I have not completed my painting that I began in October. I need to decide on a color for my plant shelves and get them done. I'm thinking maybe red.

Today Dave and I went and picked out a Christmas tree, brought it home and decorated it. I think it is so beautiful. But when comparing it to last year's Charlie Brown tree anything does.

Last year's tree sure did have a lot of character though. Dave and I thought that it was perfect for our first year of marriage. We learned from last year, that Christmas trees are expensive, so we saved a bit more, and were able to get a tree that's branches weren't quite so sparse.

Only 16 more days until Christmas!

Captian Jack Sparrow

So, the other morning began just like any other day. I was cleaning up the kitchen from breakfast and enjoying the beautiful new day with my back door wide open. As I cleared off the kitchen table I saw something out of the corner of my eye move. I turned back and looked at the ground to find a bird sitting on my kitchen floor. My first instinct was to freak out and scare it out of the house, but after a second look I realized that this wasn't just any old bird, it was a parakeet. So, instead I quickly closed the back door and called Dave to inform him of the exciting news. I then spent several panicked seconds running around my house looking for something to catch the bird that was flying from my floor, to my fridge, to my table, in. My first attempt to catch the impostor was with a laundry basket. (FYI birds can wiggle through holes that appear much smaller than their bodies.) My second attempt was with a tightly weaved basket. Success!

Now that I had caught my intruder I had no idea what to do with it, so I went and took and shower.

I began to talk myself into keeping the poor little fellow as I felt that he had chosen us and we couldn't just throw him back outside. Later that morning I found myself at WalMart, and then at PetsMart buying a bird cage (WalMart is apparently the people's 'Mart' as it had no birdcages).

When I got home, I got his cage all set up and ready for him to enjoy (I really have no idea if he is a girl of a boy but will continue to call it "him".) I was so proud of the home I had made for him, when suddenly I realized that in order to get the bird into the cage I would have to reach my hand under the basket, grab the bird, and then lift up the cage door and shove him in, all the while being pecked to death. This idea frightened me way too much until I chickened out and went next door to ask my neighbor to do it.

My neighbor and his friend came over and attempted the task I was to chicken to do (I felt like such a girl.) Of course, the second they tried to grab him he flew out from underneath the basket and all of the house. We spent the next five minutes chasing him down and finally catching him with a pillowcase. We had to stuff the pillowcase inside the cage and slow drag it out. I felt so bad for frightening the little guy and was pretty sure that he would be traumatized for life. But once he found his food I didn't feel quite so bad. The poor guy was starving! He eat for a solid 15 minutes and then fell asleep, so I really feel like I saved the poor bird.

So, that's how we came get a pet bird that we now lovingly call Jack.