random.: August 2005 Archives
Throughout my life I have paid several visits to my grandparents' fantastic cabin on the river. It was on one of these visits during my freshman year of college that Hatfield landed at my feet.
My mom and I were sitting on a swing when we heard something thud on the ground below us. A tiny bird had fallen out of its nest way, way up there. Being the big-hearted animal lovers we are, we decided to take this little guy home and see if we could raise him till he was big enough to be on his own, not at all certain that he would make it. He was grey and ugly with the spiny beginnings of feathers sticking out all over his body.
Getting him to eat took a lot of trial and error. We eventually found that if we mashed up baby bird food with water and put it deep in a clenched fist he would stick his head in and eat it. He had a great appetite and for the first few weeks I was getting up every couple hours during the night to make sure his belly stayed full.
He quickly grew into a beautiful and healthy looking turtle dove and we decided it was time to let him go... but he had other ideas. It took a long time to get him to finally leave the deck and when he did he didn't go far. One day our neighbor came over with this crazy story about this weird little bird that followed him around the yard while he was mowing the lawn. Hatfield had no fear and an affinity for people and dogs so we decided it was best if we brought him back inside.
His little baby bird cage was upgraded to a much nicer one and he was given a prominent spot in the kitchen, surrounded on two sides by enormous picture windows that overlooked my parents' wooded backyard. He was happy there. Most mornings at my parents' house if it wasn't the dogs romping around, it was the noise of Hatfield cooing in the kitchen that woke you up. The yellow dog knew his name and when you said "Where's Hatfield?" he would go sniff his cage and wag his tail.
He was never very coordinated (which may have been why he ended up out of the nest and at our feet in the first place), and the longer he lived in the kitchen, the more his wings atrophied. Every once in a while, a hawk would spot him and run head on into the window trying to catch him and Hatfield would topple over off his perch. During the winter he would look out the window at the birds who were not so lucky as to have a nice warm house to stay in ... oblivious to how pampered he was. It was a good life for a bird.
He always loved me the most. When I would get close to his cage he would coo like crazy and the minute I opened the cage door he would jump up on my hand.
For seven years he has been a very real presence in my parents' house ... sitting prominently in the kitchen next to the dining room table, providing dinner music with his constant cooing. My parents returned home today to find him with his head in his water bowl ... he never was the most coordinated bird and in the end, it did him in. Its funny how we always sort of looked at him as this silly uncoordinated totally non-street smart bird that we were stuck with ... I don't know if anyone realized just how much he was a part of the family!
RIP Hatfield. You'll be missed!
Classes started again today and I can't tell you how thrilled I am to be back. And no, that wasn't sarcasm.
While I most certainly had the coolest summer ever, its nice to be back in the routine and its really nice to see everyone again. I have learned as of late that I maybe enjoy being around people more than I care to admit. The hustle and bustle of the law school today was oddly appealing.
Now that I'm in school and not training for anything I really don't know what to do with myself. My next "big" race is a long 13 months away leaving me plenty of time to do *gasp* other types of sports ... or the same type of sports but in different and less intense ways. I'm going to see how much mountain biking I can get in between now and October and maybe enter a couple fall mountain bike races or off road duathlons. We'll see.
I still haven't really written about my experiences in Europe and I'm sort of feeling out of practice at this whole blogging thing ... I'm sorry if I've been unfocused and rusty ... its almost overwhelming how many stories and revelations and experiences I have to tell!
Well, I arrived back in the Middle America last night feeling tired and very very happy to be home. I crashed into bed with the intention of sleeping till noon and then spending the day lounging around and doing laundry and watching all the stuff my Tivo has thought I would like to watch.
Its 6 a.m. in the midwest and I can't sleep. So now I am sitting here, hungry, waiting for the grocery store to open so that I can go get some food. I'm still on Austria time.
I had a blast with my family in Germany the last couple days and will tell you about it soon. It will be nice to get back to blogging as usual.
