A visit with George

I try to get to the nursing home when I know "George" is doing his 'rounds".
As you can see he is a friendly pooch! It is amazing how George's visit will calm my Dad down when he has had a rough night of delusions. Animal therapy really helps!

One more thing

Oh just 'one more thing".
Funny, and oddly ironic. I had been reading the book titled,"One More Thing' by BJ Novak. (BJ Novak was a writer for the TV show "the office" and he also played "Ryan" on the show) This book is collection of his quirky short stories. One of the stories was about a young man who died. The first person he sought out in heaven was his Grandmother and wanted to visit her. But as it turned out Grandma was too busy going to concerts to all the greats that had died.
I never even gave that any thought before about what heaven would be like.
 But boy, what a slammin' concert Prince would give.
I hadn't listened to much of any kind of music in a while so I played some of my Prince CDs as I was driving around today.
I had forgotten how insanely awesome his music was. Yeah, some of the lyrics are pretty RIBALD (to say the least) but it is infectiously dance worthy as well as poetically and instrumentally genius. I couldn't help but chuckle at a vision of Tipper Gore listening to "darling Nikki" and then spitting her coffee across the room as she listened to the lyrics. This song was the catalyst for  posting "advisory' labels on CDs.
Still.
I feel a little part of me is gone. That cool 80's me. (I did have some of his newer  innovative music CDs) but I just loved that whole purple rain period.
sigh.. :-(
"delirious"....

when doves cry

I turned on the news to check the weather as I was driving down from my mother's house On April 21st, radio station WRKO announced that "Prince' (my favorite musician of ALL times) was found dead in his elevator at his home in Paisley park.
I nearly crashed my car.
All kinds of rumors are flying. One rumor in particular of a prescription drug overdose. I find that unbelievable. He was a vegan, born again Christian and didn't drink alcohol. The news did say he had been suffering from a flu at the time.
Regardless, I absolutely loved his music. He was one of very few muscians I would pay money to see in concert.
And I did.
 I would buy the premier front row seats whenever he came to town.
I remember fondly in the late 80's one concert in a small venue in Lawrence! He drove a red corvette out on stage. I was (I think) 3rd row from the stage. He came out prancing on the stage in red leather and chains (oh you saucy boy!)
What a blast!
I dragged my current husband to a concert when we were first dating. I wanted him to experience the kind of music I loved. I wore a zipper up black leather dress and spiky boots. My husband was a folk music kind of guy so this was definitely a first for him. I would sing along to the music and dance. Oh what great fun.
I went to a couple of Halloween parties dressed as Prince complete with black poufy hair, "stash, lacy blouse and purple jacket. And of course, I would play it up dancing around.
It so weird all week prior to this sad news of Prince's passing I had been humming "all the critics love you in New York".
 It is so odd that particular song just randomly popped in my head.
This was a very sad day indeed. :-(

"George"

I pretty much visit my father religiously every Wednesday mornings.
Yeah, I could go to another zumba/exercise class instead.
But I try to make sure I get to the nursing home before 10:00am to greet "George".
 I met a very nice lady who is  a volunteer from the NHSCPA at their annual la de da fund raising gala who brings therapy dogs to  local nursing homes to comfort the sick and elderly. I asked her if she could stop by my father's room to have "George" visit my father.
"George" is a black and white "mutt" rescue dog. He is very well behaved and friendly.
I've been at the nursing home in the morning where I could tell my father had a 'rough night". (I would bet the nursing staff had a rougher night dealing with him). He would be dishevelled, still in his night clothes and had that exhausted but wild look on his face. I would gently talk to him careful not to rile him up and await "George's" visit.
As soon as George came into his room this level of calm enveloped the atmosphere. What ever transpired that evening of nightmares quickly dissipated.
George sat next to him and licked his hand. He would grumble and coo to George. It was amazing how George could calm him down. He looked forward to George's weekly visit.
I would ask the volunteer lady of George's latest adventures. Each holiday she would present my father with a special greeting card with George in it. He has photos of George all over his window sill.
I look forward to see "George" myself.

2016 eleven cast 'o" characters

      
                                  "Louie" princess of wales parakeet

"Button" lutino cockatiel

                         

                                   "Teddy" the ring neck dove

                            "Craow Dum" (Booger) pigeon

                                             "Trixstah" pigeon

                              "Patches" pearl pied cockatiel

                                          "Sal" normal grey cockatiel

                                           "Charlie" pied cockatiel

                                        "Fresh Baby" lutino cockatiel

                                       "Linus" normal grey cockatiel

                                 "Eddie scizzor poop" normal grey cockatiel

                                         

Life with Trixstah & Booger

Here is "Trixstah the gangstah. He does remarkably well with his leg splints.

This is Craow Dum's cage. (I call her "Booger" most of the time) Trixstah has outgrown his cage so he will move into this cage since it is low to the ground and spacious.

  Most of the time the two brats like to just roost up here on the cabinet in their cozy hut.

 This is Trixstah's old cage. It was good while he was growing up. I had lined the cage with mesh so he wouldn't get his wings caught. It's a good cage to have for rehabilitating young and/or injured birds.

 Ta dah! Here is the brand new cage. It is actually a ferret/chinchilla cage. As you can see Booger invaded it already. It came delivered in a box with no instructions with a post saying"no tools needed..easy assembly".
Duh!You needed a hammer, pliers and phillips screw driver at least. Half the pegs were bent so you had to bang them out to fit. Needless to say every other word out of my mouth was "f*ck!". I finally finished it as Booger monitored my every move.

Here she is again in her old cage. She can't decide what cage she likes better. She pooped in both though.
I had to sweep up the debris quickly and vacuum it up. For some reason whenever the pigeon hear me sweep, no matter what part of the kitchen or bird room they HAVE TO land right in the pile and flap their wings.Needless to say, I swear, they do this on purpose, everything is scattered as if I never swept.

Yesterday, I was working on a design project using thousands of feathers. I was in the art room upstairs where I had carefully sorted and arranged the feathers by color, shape and size.
It took hours.
 I heard "plunk plunk" the sound of the pigeons climbing the stairs. Before I could get up off the floor to close the door, both of them invaded the room, landed on the feathers and flapped their wings violently scattering all of the feathers.
The room looked like I had a massive pillow fight.
Life is never dull with these two.

Patches in the local paper

There is a section in the  "Newburyport Current" newspaper that you can submit photos of your pets. I submitted this photo (above) titled 'bird is the word" and "Patches" the cockatiel made in the paper!
He is a such a handsome boy! I'm sure his partner "Charlie" was very proud. (And yes, he is gay)
I do believe he is happy with us. As I mentioned in previous posts he was relinquished to a rescue twice.I understand him and his "moods". He does have tantrums and bites so I can see how that may be a problem if you do not "get birds".He fits in perfectly with the rest of my "misfits".
Did I mention that he is a handsome boy too?