It all started with a pair of red-tailed hawks doing what came naturally, only instead of settling in some sylvan Oregon country treetop, these tough little guys built their nest on the fire escape of a building in Portland. And Big Brother in the form of the WBG-Audobon webcam trained an electronic eye on them from the moment their three chicks were born.
My Oregon antique dealer friend Sue sent me the link, and invited me to watch this little family grow up, at least to the point where the chicks were ready to fly out of the nest. Right, I thought, this is interesting but checking in on them every day would be a lot like watching grass grow. I'm a busy woman, you know. So I didn't see them squabbling over a bit of food when they were fuzzy chick-like creatures.
But then a few days ago Sue let me know that the runt of the nest had died, as we suspected he might because the parents were definitely favoring his two more robust sibs. I was surprised at how sad I felt, even though the littlest hawk probably had Trichomoniasis, a bird disease common among pigeons that would have shortened his life anyway. The parents, being the practical unemotional type, promptly fed him to his nestmates.
Already almost the size of the parents, the two survivors, Sue reports, are now very busy preening their flight feathers for the big day, when they're going to get their first flying lesson. Big Brother won't be catching all their aerial antics, only their tentative takeoffs and breathless "Woo hoo, I made it!" landings, but it should still be interesting. Sue might be away from her computer on the big day, so I promised to keep an eye on them and let her know how it went. Here's the link for the live webcam feed, if you'd like to join me.
The webcam also won't be able to follow the babies when they adapt to flight, learn to hunt and survive. The first year is the hardest, according to the Audubon Society, and around 60% of red-tail fledglings don't make it.
All this brought back a song I remember my long-departed friend Kate Wolf sing years ago, and when I looked it up, there it was.
An Outing With My Lil Sister
So after the outing with my nieces, and after we ate the bionicos, and after I almost took a nap, my sister asks:
Chely: Hey Fide, do you want to go out dancing. I have free passes for the Mayan.
Me: But I didn't bring clothes to go out dancing.
Chely: You look good with what you are wearing.
Me: Huh! (pause) (*thinking* Ha, my sister speaks the truth, lol) Sure why not.
Chely: OK they are good if we get there before 11:00 p.m.
Me: Oh wow, plenty of time.
So since I am wearing the same clothes I wore all day well then basically I am ready.
Chely: Aren't you freshening up?
Me: Who? Me, naw I smell good. lol
I wait for a while and then:
Me: Chely, hurry up. It's getting late
Chely: Don't worry I am almost ready, we will make it on time.
Me: Still hurry up, it's 10;30 p.m.
And so we finally leave, and we get on the freeway, and I remembered that my sister drives like an old lady. Je, je, je, I was right because we got there at exactly 11:00 p.m. And so it's $10.00 for parking. We go inside hand the passes to the fool at the door and (you may be asking yourself why I'm calling this big subject at the door a fool) well, because he said I can't take them it's past the deadline. "But, come on it's only by two minutes" Chely said, but he just looked at her and said no it's past the deadline.
So what to do, what to do?
Me: So, what do you want to do?
Chely: Well, we are here. Let's just go in.
Me: OK
And just like that we walk to the ticket booth and literally had to cough up *cough* *cough* *cough* $40.00 bucks. The way I see it is as a $20.00 fee per minute for being late.
We go in and she gives me the tour. I had been there once before but it was such a long time ago. So it was cool to go through the whole place. The Mayan is an architectural beauty, and there has got to be some stories to that place. Ummm if you don't know what I mean, you can probably Google "The Mayan Theater" in Downtown Los Angeles.
Anyway at The Mayan they play a little bit of everything but Salsa, Merengue, and Bachata are the primary types of music there. We started dancing to some dance music and of course Chely and I can still disco, and so to this day when we dance peoples eyes just shift toward us.
We danced for a while and then we decided to go get a drink. She wanted a Long Island Ice Tea and so did I. They gave us our drinks in this small plastic glass and charged us $10:00 each. Well, so much for a free night, free passes, etc. etc. And people say there is a recession. We drank most of our drinks but we lost them when we sat them down on the stage and we went dancing. We came back to them but there were like ten more glasses around them so we didn't want to chance taking someone else's.
So we continued dancing, and dancing, and then we danced some more. Oh a brief break to go to the restroom but then we came back and danced some more.
Now, only three months ago I would not have been able to dance more that a couple songs but given the great shape I am in right now it truly felt great to be able to dance for a little over three hours straight.
All of a sudden I found myself teaching Chely how to dance Salsa. It brought back memories of years gone by, back in the disco days when I taught her how to do dance disco. Truth be told, she is now way a better dancer than I'll ever be, but never the less I could still keep up with her and that really boosted my ego. Ummm somebody recently told me that 50 is the new 40. In that case I feel like I am 30.
After closing time we enjoyed some hot dogs with chips and a drink. And it only cost abut $3.00 so far the best deal of the night. lol
And so, my little sister and I had a great night out together. We remembered old times, we created new memories, and marveled at the fact that we can have fun together. Yep, I am one lucky guy to have her as my sister. Oh and yes, when she was 13 she was a pain in the butt but then she introduced me to her friends and...
LOL -- Wouldn't you like to know. That would be an entirely different post.
When I saw this sign I got a little bit too excited, I thought for sure this is a coed restrwoom. -- Well, they lied. Tha only meant both men's and women's restrooms were usstairs. .
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