I wish the sky were blue — it's not. Lamps are lit (lighted??) even indoors, as the weather's so dark, wet and gloomy ... for the third day running ... and the days are running by fast. Fortunately, for my mood's sake, I remembered the coffee shop on Bellevue where the proprietress loves rainy days — where she always says, without sarcasm, "Nice day out there!" That's where I headed, with my hood up, this morning. I even remembered to ask her, "Why do you like rainy days?" She could barely contain her glee (really, it was glee): "Oh, I don't know. When we were kids my mom would give a us a bar of soap and tell us to go play in the rain!" Hmmm. That does sound like fun, I guess ... and like a resourceful mom was intent upon killing at least two birds with one stone (what a dreadful, not to mention far-fetched, expression). But that whole notion of cleansing, cleaning up, washing things away is a positive feeling. So, with that in mind, I walked home again — clutching my cup, with my hood still up — past that pointy (ouch!) fence surrounding the Elks' Lodge (one-time site of the U.S. Naval Academy) and Commodore Perry (with his stiff, hollow, pained expression, even on a bluer-sky day). I was/am quite determined to put this darkish morning in a brighter light, i.e., it's a good thing it's raining. Now how many things can I get done or cleaned-up?? I'll start with Pixie the parakeet's cage (Pixie being the only "child" at home these days, and I am not sending her out to play in the rain). I might even let Pixie stand in for a seagull this morning, as she's just so sunny with her non-stop chirping — and, yes, her color — and in the interest of killing two birds with one stone ...
But, no, that'd be lame (or worse, for the two birds) ... "for the birds" being another weirdly relevant expression. So, here's the second bird:
