I know there's a metaphor in here somewhere...

So the weather has been most Spring-like (aka completely unpredictable) and I am so very tired of wearing my winter clothes and sweaters and wool coats - enough! In this state of mind, on the way to work on a rainy gray morning, I rounded the corner to my least favorite stretch of my daily walk to school. It is a big empty lot surrounded by chain-link fence on the edge of the industrial stretch of town. People throw their garbage in/around it, including this week, a old stained couch tipped on its side. There are very few things more depressing to encounter than sodden abandoned furniture, in my opinion. I was also listening to a documentary on my iPod about the Amputee Camp in Sierra Leone and an interview with a boy whose right hand was cut off with a machete so that he couldn't write or study anymore. So gray sky + dumped ugly couch + listening to horrible human tragedy = if not sagging, than dipping spirits all around. Then I spotted the bird. In the middle of the ugly vacant lot a bird, sandpiper-like in shape with long legs and bill, was scooting around. And behind her, 3 little miniatures, 3 little chicks running to catch up. She kept them close as crows wheeled above and her mate did his best to divert them too. I stood and watched them for 20 minutes or so, ready to yell if the crows got to close. Thanks to the wonder of the internet, I've been able to identify the birds as Killdeers, a common ground nesting bird in North America. They mate for life and their chicks are "precocial"- which means "ripened beforehand"- born running and fluffy and cute, not naked and helpless like many baby birds. Their parents brood with them for 30 days or so and then they depart. They made my day. And it has barely begun.

Is anyone watching PBS's "America at the Crossroads"? The tone is less neutral than I was hoping considering the global reach of the series and they could cut down on the slo-mo shots of the Stars and Bars waving in the winds of (presumably) Freedom - but so far it's worth watching. Other things I've enjoyed watching lately - Neil Young's "Heart of Gold" concert movie because it's sweet and simple and I love Neil. Also, the NHL play-offs at various bars about town, to hopefully watch the Canucks prevail.

Things I put on hold this week at the library included The Road by Cormack McCarthy because I heard an audio excerpt and kind of wanted to slit my wrists afterwards which probably isn't everybody's way to choose a book but works for me. My Mother routinely says a book is "too depressing" or a movie sounds "too dark" to see. I simply have no comprehension of these stipulations (as well, she loves the movie The History of Violence and I am uncertain how that doesn't qualify as "too dark"). Nothing could be any darker than what's already swimming around in this little head o'mine I guess... except when little fluffy chicks appear in front of me I guess.