tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1414594286255980159.post1744820101093452573..comments2017-06-10T01:26:11.614-07:00Comments on patty kirk: pond-water creatures Patty Kirkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10443040733177065911noreply@blogger.comBlogger4125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1414594286255980159.post-73571200558878017092013-04-02T07:31:36.265-07:002013-04-02T07:31:36.265-07:00Yeah. And that reminds me of that poem of hers I l...Yeah. And that reminds me of that poem of hers I like about church being the outside.Patty Kirkhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10443040733177065911noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1414594286255980159.post-67707316582115432922013-03-31T04:46:29.364-07:002013-03-31T04:46:29.364-07:00Loved this post. Made me think of that Emily Dicki...Loved this post. Made me think of that Emily Dickinson line from a letter about how 'Consider the lilies' was the only Commandment she ever obeyed. <br /><br />I aim to do better at paying attention myself. alihttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15352521073567871083noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1414594286255980159.post-68579558810849555032013-03-30T08:39:17.915-07:002013-03-30T08:39:17.915-07:00How amusing that you remember those old Ask Helois...How amusing that you remember those old Ask Heloise articles. I do too. I also remember reading these absolutely horrifying "Drama in Real Life" stories in Grandma's Readers Digest. You know, guy goes camping and lies quiet while a bear eats his scalp. And a guy stopping to help at the scene of a freeway accident is sent across eight lanes of 80 mph traffic to fetch the hurt guy's leg which has been severed. (I learned, among other things, that one's leg weighs approximately 30% of one's total body weight--which, in the case of a say 200 or so lb. man would be, um, over fifty pounds.) In my favorite story, a guy is resting in one of the bunks in the pressure chamber of a submarine after a deep sea dive. He has to go to the bathroom, so he gets out of his bunk and goes, and the toilet somehow creates a suction that pulls his guts out of him. There is some information included about how freaking long your intestines are. These, in any case, he pulls out of the toilet and bunches together so he can carry them and then climbs back up to his bunk(top, of course) and goes to sleep. Afterwards, in the requisite happy ending, he is found and his guts are stuffed back inside of him and he lives happily ever after. <br />Apropos birds and cold weather, though, I have to confess to putting boiling water in my bird bath the other day. It was 17 or so out, and there were, as always in cold snaps, masses of birds around my feeder. I'm sure the water didn't stay hot for long. I watched several birds get them a drink without any apparent harm. I find it hard to believe that a bird could be stupid enough to take a bath in that cold of weather.... But maybe.<br />Anyways, the good news was that the 17 degree cold snap brought an eastern towhee to my yard: they're in my bird books as living here but I had never seen one. Sooooooo exciting.Patty Kirkhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10443040733177065911noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1414594286255980159.post-77127947899748297802013-03-30T00:01:27.752-07:002013-03-30T00:01:27.752-07:00God does indeed take care of us and birds, too. I ...God does indeed take care of us and birds, too. I look outside my house in Colorado shrouded in bitter cold and I see birds. I thought they "flew south of the winter" but apparently not. I don’t understand how they find food when it is 17 degrees outside much less keep warm but somehow they do. When I see them I get concerned and then I remember about Heloise. <br /><br />I used to read "Ask Heloise" in our local paper because I found it strangely humorous - everybody giving advice for crazy problems. Anyhow, one day, I read an article about a lady who got concerned about the birds in her yard because it was like 5 degrees outside. She ran some warm water into a bucket and filled her bird bath "to help the miserable creatures keep warm." After they were done with their makeshift bird bath Jacuzzi, much to her horror, as each one took to the air it immediately crashed down into her yard - the water freezing on their tiny bodies. She hurried to the yard and gathered them up and thawed and dried them out and then released them. She wrote her article to warn readers not to make the same mistake. I guffawed. <br /><br />Maybe this is more than a reminder that God does indeed take care of his own - birds, too (even though they typically are associated with evil in the Bible). He takes care of us. He watches over us. Maybe it is even a reminder that when we interfere with God plans it can cause unexpected problems. <br /><br />Interesting side note - when I searched Google for the Ask Heloise article I am referring to so I could quote it into this post, I didn’t find it but I did find advertisements for heated bird baths. ???<br />GerryLarryhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10568142159725743024noreply@blogger.com