Inauguration Day . . . and Larry

Yesterday I spent in front of the TV and didn’t move until they had the inaugural lunch and cameras were off. I took a shower then and came back to my couch by my window to watch. The whole day was overwhelming – something I won’t see again in my lifetime. So many people braving the freezing weather just to be there where it all happened. I thought his speech was great. It was a speech that got down to business about what we should do in the coming days. He’s not campaigning anymore - he’s the president and speaking very seriously about what has to be done now, and he did it beautifully. I watched the entire day and into the night where they danced at many balls. Barack and Michelle are both beautiful people and their daughters are gorgeous! With them it’s what you see is what you get. They are beautiful on the outside as well as on the inside. We are in for some interesting times in the coming few years.

I watched with my new friend, Larry, who was sitting on the ledge on my deck’s railing. In August of 2001, a pigeon flew into my front yard and stayed there during the day for several months. I named him Larry after Cindy’s wonderful dog of the same name. So Larry stayed with me and I bought him birdseed and fed him every day. He’d fly away at night, but always come back in the morning. He was banded, but I could never get quite close enough to read the numbers on it. I sat on the grass, close to him when 9/11 happened. I cried and he just sat and looked at me. Somehow he was comforting to me. He stayed until he found a wife or slut or whatever they find. He appeared with her, did the mating thing right in front of me and then took off, never to return again. So my new Larry appeared over a week ago. I think it’s a little wren or snowbird or something like that. He was sitting on the ledge and pecking at old cracker crumbs I had put there during the big snow but were now frozen to the ledge. When he flew off, I put out some new crumbs and he came back. Now he is here every day, all day. I give him bird seed and Orowheat Oatnut bread which is delicious. He likes it all. I have water for him which he drinks. The other day, he was pecking at a piece of bread so hard that he fell off the ledge, dragging the bread with him! I love watching him, so I sit on my couch and watch him all the time. I don’t do any housework, but I didn’t before anyway. We just had a horrible windstorm that lasted for nearly a week, so I decided I needed to do something to keep the bread crumbs from blowing off the ledge. I found an old stewed tomatoes can and pounded one side nearly flat. I put a big rock in the bottom to keep it steady in the wind. I put crumbs and bread inside the opening of the can and put it on its side on the ledge. It worked very well – the wind didn’t blow it off and Larry stuck his head inside the can for his food.

The point of the Larry story is that while I was watching the inauguration festivities all day, he was sitting not ten feet away from me on the ledge, apparently just looking in my sliding glass door. He didn’t seem to be eating, just looking. Maybe he likes TV as he does spend a lot of time just looking in. Or maybe he was into the whole Obama thing. I felt like I had company during my day as I watched it all. I’m feeling about him as I did about Larry the pigeon. That’s not a good thing as he’ll leave just as the pigeon did. But it’s comforting to have him for a while.