Saturday, December 30, 2006

Unknown (Ha)

Unknown to me my eleven year old was paid $20 and given a small, very small, bird in a fairly large cage, both he and one of his friends, for helping a neighbor move into the house next door, a building owned by the neighbor's sister.


Everyone is asleep save me and the tiny bird. I assume the bird will get bigger. It responds to sweet talk; I think we're going to get along. I like the merry warbling. Nearby on the table is a new, small humidifier in the shape of a large frog. I guess you could say the household is going zoological.


Main Entry: zoo·log·i·cal

Function: adjective
Pronunciation: "zO-&-'lä-ji-k&l
Variants: also zoo·log·ic
/-jik/
1 : of, relating to, or occupied with zoology
2 : of, relating to, or affecting lower animals often as distinguished from humans
- zoo·log·i·cal·ly
/-ji-k(&-)le/ adverb

Would you say a cat is out? Wouldn't a cat peer at the tiny mite until it dropped from fright?


I thought I might have made up the word, but no, there it was in the AOL dictionary. People get offended when I supply dictionary samples; it's as if they thought I was being insufferably didactic, when all I'm doing is confessing my ignorance.


Although, obviously, Christmas has passed, I'm still belatedly sending presents and cards, or messages, to make up for holiday sloth. Do you figure a late Christmas present is better than none, or is forgetting inexcusable; not really forgetting , just sloth again. I sent a friend a bottle of wine and an opener to get the cork out. A fancy contraption reeking of power and wealth. His, not mine. Years ago his mother, probably breaking some kind of rule, told me soto voce that he'd bought the building he'd been living in. In a big rich city. Okay, so I sent coals to Newcastle.


Another late gift idea I will implement later today - a risky idea based on not much - is to purchase for a modest sum two contraptions, one each for the younger boys, that look a bit like small camcorders, but are actually a flashlight and a radio that runs on movement and not batteries. Each has an antenna. Dunno about yours, but my younger boys dote on flashlights and use up expensive batteries something fierce. The presents might turn out to be an economy measure.  With the exception of the bottle of wine all the late-bought presents probably came from China. Without China I might not have had any Christmas at all.


Skip the newest treatment of The Nativity. It is inept. The actor playing Mary looks like she works on an asembly line in Detroit. That young woman knows too much.


The year 2007 rushes toward us. What calamities, what joys; what, just what is headed our way?!? I'd kinda just like to stay in 2006.


Barry 


 


 

8 comments:

Anonymous said...

growing up we had a dog, a cat, a bird, some hamsters.......all at the same time.  Just make sure you keep the bird in the cage and that the door isn't too easily opened.

Kathy

Anonymous said...

h

Anonymous said...

BTW, Barry, happy new year if I don't get back in time to wish it. What kind of bird? bea

Anonymous said...

Bird info not received yet from
the gift giver. It's small, white chest
and undercarriage, light brown on top
female, super fast wings, likes to view
her makeup in a tiny mirror that came
with the cage, and responds to the
human voice. I'm guessing she likes a
whole lot being near our new humidifier.

Barry

Anonymous said...

The faster I went the behinder I got. Sooooo, Happy New Year. Your Christmas sounds as if it were, umm, interesting! My own self-absolving way to forgive my lack of Christmas cards  and late gifts, is to think I am making those I did'nt get to being given the delight of receiving something cheerful (?) to begin the New Year. After all, someone has to helps lessen post-Christmas let down. (I'm beginning to sound as smug as some of your unneeded critics). May 2007 find more ways to encourage the creativity of those boys of yours, the swimming pool gets fixed,  your wife weathers the next three months in comfort, and you keep letting us know what you think!    Kater

Anonymous said...

When my son was 11 (he is 31 now), my ex, his father, palmed off a 30 year old LARGE Blue and Gold talking Macaw, on my son (and me of course).  My son grew up and moved away. Today I have a 50 year old sarcastic, verbally abusive parrot.  Life contains many surprises.

Anonymous said...

Oh yes,  it sounds like you have a female Zebra Finch.  I have a cage full of them too.  

Anonymous said...

ill tell you something,if you sent me a late bottle of wine i wouldnt turn it down,lol,happy new year hun and not long to go before the happiest of events for you,the subtle cooing of a hungry baby at 4am...perhaps not so much subtle as deafening,so a slight underestimation but you get the drift,lol,ahhh i,however will not have that experience again,and that was not said with misty reminnissance either,more a cold dread and abject relief,all the best and i hope your good lady is well,happy new year,for it will be an eventful one xx zoe xx
http://journals.aol.co.uk/zoepaul6968/DomesticAbuse/