"A poor orphan girl named Maria
was walking to market one day
and stopping, she knelt by the roadside
where a bird with a broken wing lay.

A few moments passed til she saw it,
for it's feathers were covered with sand.
But soon cleaned and wrapped it was traveling
in the warmth of Maria's small hand.

She happily gave her last peso
on a cage made of rushes and twine.
She fed it loose corn from the market
and watched it grow stronger with time.

Now the gift-giving service was coming,
and the church shone with tinsel and lights,
and all of the townsfolk brought presents,
to lay by the manger that night.

There were diamonds, and incense, and perfumes
in packages fit for a king.
But for one ragged bird in a small cage,
Maria had nothing to bring.

She waited til just before midnight,
so no one would see her go in.
And crying, she knelt by the manger,
for her gift was unworthy of him.

Then a voice spoke to her through the darkness,
"Maria, what brings you to me?
If the bird in the cage is your offering,
open the door, let me see."

Though she trembled, she did as he asked her,
and out of the cage the bird flew.
Soaring up into the rafters,
on a wing that was healed, good as new.

Just then the midnight bells rang out,
and the little bird started to sing.
A song that no words could recapture,
for it's beauty was fit for a king.

Now Maria felt blessed just to listen
to that cascade of notes sweet and long.
As her offering was lifted to heaven
by the very first Nightingale's song."

A beautiful poem, even for one that does not accept the overall intention and meaning. Happy holidays.

Little Hamsters

Today I removed the young hamsters from the main colony. My particular colony consists of 2 adult females and 1 adult male. The females are a black and a silvered black, the male is a blue fawn. The first litters were just normals, nothing fancy. However with the next set of litters I got a litter of blue fawns from the black female and a litter with an opal and 2 normals from the silvered female. I chose the best of the blue fawn female babies... nice calm demeanor, clear color, robust size... to keep to replace one of the older girls in the colony. I really would have liked to keep the one opal baby except for 2 problems, first it's a male, and second it's a runt that is slightly off in overall type. So no replacing daddy for him. I'll hold out and see if there are any better opals in subsequent litters. At least I know the dilute genes are there!

Aydi's Little Talent

Aydi is 2 years old. Her vocabulary and verbal skills are really quite impressive for a child her age. She isn't shy about talking either for the most part. This evening, while talking on the phone out front of the house, she decided to join me... in her nightgown mind you. She proceeded to push her small car (an old walking toy give to her when she was very little) out onto the walkway in front of the house. She climbed atop the car, stood feet together, lifted her hands straight up and proceeded to belt out a completely nonsensical song at the top of her lungs. She then grinned over at me and leapt off the car into the grass.

"I'm going to run away!"

This told to me today by my 2nd daughter, Ari, because she was angry with me. So I replied, "okay, why don't you go ahead and pack." in a calm and reasonable tone. She then went into her bedroom and proceeded to stuff clothing haphazardly into her backpack, her laptop tote, one of my cloth bags, and another tote. She also packed some toiletries into a shoebox and half a jar of peanut butter and a few slices of bread into a couple of paper bags. She took and stuffed a throw blanket into another bag. When she was all prepared, she headed out the door. I told her, "don't go on any busy streets" as she went out the door.

I watched her surreptitiously from the door as she walked down the road, laden with her bags and encumbrances. When she turned a corner, I decided to follow in the car, to be sure she was alright. I took my 3rd daughter, Aydi with me. We drove to the turn and I didn't see her. So around the block to her friend's house, where I spoke to his father, "Ari has decided to run away, if she tries to come by here, would you please send her along home?" He assured me that he would and I continued along the road, slightly concerned now that I didn't know where she'd gone. That was, until I caught a flash of her things in some bushes along the road to home.

Yep, my daughter ran away from home... to some bushes less than 100 yards from home! LOL I drove back home and Aydi and I walked back down to the bushes. I poked Ari, who was lying on the ground with a pair of pants over her face. She sat up and I realized she had tied the pants around her neck. When I asked her why she had done so she said the sun was hot. Aydi, having picked up a few sticks along the way, presented them to Ari. Ari began setting them up against the bush and then I helped her fold her blanket and she placed it on the sticks. Aydi then began going around collecting more sticks for Ari, who was encouraging her. I reminded Ari that she had school in the morning, to which she replied, "school?!" and I said, "yes, and dance on Tuesday." [hee hee] She then said she would bring Aydi along home in a bit if I wanted to head home, I agreed and went along. My eldest daughter, Jess was being quite nosy and laughing to herself about Ari's shenanigans, saying she wouldn't be giving her room back to Ari (yeah right).

Jess & I were sitting on the back of the van, I was talking to Jess and keeping an eye on the place where the other girls were. Then Ari started walking Aydi back home and Jess wanted to see where Ari would be 'staying' so we all walked back to the bushes. Jess was criticizing Ari's choice of locale a bit and suggested a better place. So I casually mentioned maybe I could take some of her things back to the house to store. She finally agreed and I kept suggesting things to 'store' back at the house... in case it rained. Finally I mentioned that we were going to go out shopping... would she like to come along perhaps. That's when she said, "I think I'll come on home now." and I helped her carry all her things home.

She said, "this was fun, I think I'll do it again someday. I hope Dad didn't think I was actually serious." To which I replied, "I think he did, but he'll get over it." I had known that she wasn't serious, it had been a rash statement on her part. She continued to follow through, not out of anger, but out of stubbornness because she had said she would and was determined to follow through, no matter what. I told her that next time perhaps she should wait for a warmer time of year, and maybe try doing it on a Friday or Saturday, rather than Sunday... because of school.

Rabbitry Update

In the rabbitry there are:

3 HL bucks (hmm, need to sell one... or two)
5 HL does
3 AFL bucks (need to sell one of these too)
4 AFL does
2 ML bucks (one of these will probably go)
3 ML does (one of these will probably go)
2 ES bucks (1 will go)
2 ES does
2 Rex does (both will go)
1 JW doe
3 HV bucks (up for sale)
2 HV does (up for sale)
5 MR bucks (will sell at least 1 or 2 of these)
17 (or so) MR does (a few will go)
1 BH buck
2 adult mix does (1 will go)
3 jr mix rabbits (all will go)

I think that's about it... lots needing to be culled back for the winter hold-over.

Slight addendum

Apparently, the dentist... in his attempts to extricate my tooth from it's firm foundation... damaged the corner of my mouth. I remember feeling a pinch, but didn't say anything. How was I to know that because of the numbing, that 'little pinch' turned out to have been slight damage. Nothing major, I've done worse yawning while having a cold! Still hurts though.

And lest anyone think I'm a wimp, I have delivered 3 children without anesthesia. I'm no stranger to pain. I do, however, feel I should be able to mention and/or comment on it from time to time. That doesn't make me a wimp, just an observer.

Pulling Teeth

Never listen to people that tell you that having teeth taken out is a breeze. HAH! More like a gale. They had to come out though, I've known it for many years. When my top wisdom teeth erupted to the side, I knew they'd be trouble, then when they started to fall apart I realized time was running out. Then one of them poisoned a molar next to it. So I finally broke down and made an extraction appointment.

I was terrified going in, I didn't know how it was going to go. It had been a couple decades since I'd been to see any kind of dentist. However, this one was young and understanding... a volunteer, but still knowledgeable. He listened to me tell about the 3 bad teeth that I needed taken out. He said he didn't think he could get them all at once, so which would I choose if he could only get one. I chose the molar, it was causing the most pain. After checking them for himself, he confirmed that that pair (molar and wisdom) needed to come out, and he'd try to get both that evening. He numbed up the area, then went in with some strange tool. I realized I just couldn't watch him work, I kept visualizing the worst possible scenarios, which was not helping keep me calm. The wisdom came out quite easily, I suppose it was pretty well rotten. The molar though was very difficult. He prodded, he yanked side to side. With a sickening CRUNCH it finally came free... though part of the root broke off. He went back to get that small piece then stuffed my mouth with gauze. It was done in about 30 minutes. I even took a quick look at both of them, the tiny bit that was the wisdom tooth and the massive molar, which was missing a rather large chunk.

I was sent home with instructions on care and a note on how to make an appointment for the other wisdom and to get a couple other molars repaired, as they have small cavities. I thanked them and left. In retrospect, I should have had help getting home. Not from the numbing, it was just a local, but from the adrenaline drop. I was shaking and it took a while to come down from it. I was so worn from the ordeal I went to bed early.

It hurts now though. Once the numbing wore off, it began to hurt. It still hurts. Plus I cannot chew on that side. I'm trying to be so careful, but it's strange. I feel like there's a HUGE hole, even though I know it was actually just the molar I'm missing, because the wisdom teeth never really were any use, just a nuisance from the day they came out.

The job that wasn't

I was hired after almost 3 weeks of interviews and waiting by what I consider to be a smaller company... measured, by me, by the number of associates working within the immediate area. I was the third. The immediate area was a range from West Virginia to North Carolina and many venues in between both north and east. I began work November 2nd and I worked hard at a job where the pay was reasonable, the hours and excessive toil, were not. Not for someone as old or as experienced as I. And after two and a half weeks of hell, I was released for "not meeting expectations."

Floored didn't even begin to cover my surprise. How is it to be going along, barely begun in a position, led to believe I was doing well, only to discover the opposite was true. Honestly, I felt lied to by the company, the manager, and the initial interviewer. However, there is nothing to be done. I truly don't feel much antagonism toward the company, I barely knew them. Though I had heard rumors that were not exactly complimentary.

Ah well, it was a drop in the bucket of time and won't even mar the pristine appearance of my resume. Back to the searching grind... which truth to tell, I never left.

End of Imagination

Did you ever wonder at what age imagination dies? Think back to when you were young, what age did you stop playing with toys because you could no longer picture their fantastical surroundings? For me, it was around puberty, the cusp of adulthood... around 14 or 15.

The only reason I consider this is because one person mentioned how their 17 year old child was playing with their much-younger sibling games that tend to require a great deal of imagination. I have to wonder if the older child is really playing or simply playing along. Food for thought.