My Ramblings
Saturday, July 26, 2003
Around 5:30 a.m. this morning I thought I heard one of the kid's toys making noise. It sounded like a toy that had a battery going out--honestly. I woke up a bit more to realize it was coming from outside. It took about three good seconds for me to catch on--it was a rooster! It was one of my roosters!
Out of the 10 baby hen chicks I purchased in April (see front page of this site for their cute little fuzzy bodies), two turned out not to be hens. I, knowing absolutely nothing about chickens, assumed them all to be hens until about six or seven weeks into this "chicken" thing I realized two of them were getting larger combs, large waddles (for all you non-chicken enthusiasts out there, that's the flappy thing under their jowls), and seemed to be more aggressive than the rest. Now, at 12 weeks, it's quite apparent these two are not hens.
One interesting thing about a rooster's crow is that it reminds you of an adolescent boy's voice at first--all cracky and funny sounding. That's why I didn't recognize this pathetic attempt at a crow at first this morning...instead of the standard "cock-a-doodle-doo" all I heard was this raspy "cock-a-doo."
I came running down the stairs, out the door, and on the deck. I peeked around the corner to see the largest of the two roosters out in the run, standing on the feeder (the tallest thing in the coop), looking out towards the woods, screeching his "cock-a-doo" loudly.
I watched for a minute or two. At one point a hen came hobbling out of the coop (probably to tell him to shut up), but he quickly jumped off the feeder and chased her back inside. Then he hopped back up on the feeder.
When he saw me, he stopped. I didn't hear him crow again all morning.
Of course, this whole episode kept me awake for awhile this morning wondering just why roosters do this, and why the morning? Here's a short answer I got online.
My neighbors are gonna love this.
Friday, July 25, 2003
Normally when the kids run in and say they're doing some form of work, you get a sense of pride. But when they run in and say they're washing their own clothes, you get a sense of worry.
Thursday, July 24, 2003
I love anything to do with geology. Here's a really basic question/answer article I read today with some neat facts: 101 Earth Facts. Too bad I spent six years on a technical certificate and college degree on careers that have nothing to do with the earth.
Wednesday, July 23, 2003
When my son was tiny, and still woke up in the middle of the night to eat, I would watch the usual poor choice of television. One night I got caught up with the Christian Children's Fund and decided to sponser a child (you know what they say, just 82 cents a day!). Actually, I always thought it would be a neat thing to do, mostly the writing letters part, but it's always easy to justify not having the money. But, I decided to sign up, and I was able to specify that I'd like a girl (as I was hoping to find a young girl about my daughter's age that she and I could relate to in some way).
A few weeks later, we got out child's information. Her name was Luisa from Ecucador, and she was 3 years old, just like my daughter. I put her picture up on my desk and my daughter and I talked about Luisa and what her life must be like. My daughter was excited to get to draw pictures for someone other than me, and I wracked my brain trying to figure out what I could send to her that was flat.
Well it's been several years now, and I've been faithful about sending the checks every month (and the organization is really nice and doesn't bother you if you're behind a month or two. I like that part), and with minimal help from the kids (the newness wore off fast), I try to get a package off to her every couple months of something flat, like a Spanish book or hair clips. I write her a letter and send her pictures of the kids.
Luisa's mother has been very loyal about sending thank-you notes for anything we send, and updates about their family. Christian Children's Fund sends us information about once a year about Luisa's health, what she's doing in school, and so on. They tell us about the programs they have for the mothers. I even get pictures time to time; pictures of them in their very tiny, brick house, pictures of Luisa playing, and so on. She draws us colorful pictures with the colored pencils we send (they say crayons will melt in the mail long before they reach her).
I've tried to send a little extra money a few months before her birthday so the organization's workers can assist her mother in buying Luisa a gift. One year I guess my Christmas money and birthday money arrived around the same time, and they were able to buy her a new bike.
And although I had high hopes for my kids to somehow get some sort of worldly lesson about how good we have it here in America, I'm not sure if having a pen pal from Ecuador, at their young ages, has really helped. Maybe a bit. But I had plans to keep sponsoring Luisa as she grew older and encouraging my kids to do the letter writing instead.
It isn't going to happen though. The other day I got a letter from Christian Children's Fund saying that their post in Ecuador/Colombia has become too violent for the workers to stay. They're trying to get the area to become a bit more self-sufficient, so there will still be some sort of assistance for the children, but CCF will no longer be there.
What a sad thing. I was trying to think of ways that we could still communicate, but I don't think it's even going to be feasible. Many of the people there don't have addresses, and even if they did, there would be no one to translate my letters to her.
I wonder what Luisa's mom thinks, or what she tells Luisa as to why the fun programs she's been involved in, or the packages she gets from some family in America, will be ending. I wonder what kind of a world Luisa is facing day to day.
And for the record, I sponsored a child long before Schmidt did.
Monday, July 21, 2003
Well my new fridge arrived today (yippee) and, in the extremely high heat, I cleaned out the old fridge for my brother (aren't sisters a nice thing). Actually it looks so nice and clean, maybe I didn't really need another one. Oh well. I threw that plastic thingy from the bottom of the fridge inside so maybe he can figure out what it's for and how to keep it where it belongs.
I cleaned it so thoroughly, in fact, I found some gauges I had never noticed before. There are two on the inside top--one controls the themostat (with a reminder of what temperature is safest -- level 3 I guess), the other says "air balance" but nothing told me what level that should be set at. Hopefully 3 was okay. At least I never noticed any air balance problems (????).
The men that brought my new fridge, friendly little fellows, had quite a system for getting it in the house. They slung something over their shoulders, to help distribute the weight, and carried it. As they approached the front door, they mumbled back and forth, opened the fridge doors, and gracefully got it inside. Once they got to the hole in the kitchen where the old fridge had stood, they realized the new one wasn't going to fit (nobody thought to measure?). Handy Ted pulled out his nifty screwdriver to remove wall moulding, and all was well.
Well I might be starting a new job, so I'm in the process of organizing my office. I have transcription equipment somewhere in here that I'm going to need, as well as over-priced software that I never thought I'd need again. I pray they're not on 5-1/2 floppies that I've long since removed a drive for.
Sunday, July 20, 2003
I bought my first pay per view movie tonight, About Schmidt. My mom has been telling me scenes from it the last few times I visited (guess she liked it) and so that's the movie we decided to watch on this late Saturday night. The verdict? I thought it was really good (not the kind of movie you'd watch to keep yourself awake, however). My husband fell asleep. I guess that means one thumb up and one thumb down.
