Bird of the Month – December 2017
Author: gkennedy2171
Changes
Twelve years ago I sold my home in another city, packed my belongings and moved my entire life to Austin. I was happy to put everything in my rear view mirror and begin a new adventure. Everything was different….finding new doctors, checking out grocery stores, learning a complex computer system at work, establishing relationships with co-workers, and making new friends were but a few of the “new” in my life. I wasn’t young when I made this life-changing transition so each fresh challenge was stressful. While I was undergoing all of this change, I had no way of knowing if my decision would be a good one or a bad one. Only time would tell. Hindsight is always 20/20 but after twelve years now in Austin, I can unequivocally acknowledge that I overwhelmingly made the right decision. Everything about my move here has only reaffirmed my decision. But the road to happiness and a peaceful existence wasn’t without growing pains along the way.
Recently my family was tasked with making a life changing decision for a family loved one. At 85 years young, this was a huge life-altering decision. No longer able to live independently, and acknowledging the need for him to be closer to family members who could be his health care advocates, it was mutually agreed by all that a move was necessary.
The sheer logistics of a move from one city to another can be exhausting…arranging furniture movers, stopping and starting utilities, change of address notifications complicated by disorientation made worse by short-term memory issues.
The most difficult part for me was seeing my loved one through different eyes. One time strong, vibrant, extremely intelligent and competent in all situations and now diminished by the aging process to needing assistance in all areas of ADL’s. The saddest part is that he recognizes that he has some issues and is striving with grace and dignity to accept new living arrangements and changes in everything he knows.
We traveled this Thanksgiving to San Diego to visit family and for a few short days, we tried to experience a symbolic return to earlier family gatherings…the traditional meal offerings, a little sightseeing and birding at Cabrillo National Monument and Point Loma, and watching old scary movies reminiscent of our youth.
End of life decisions are so emotionally ridden and each of us will face changes as we age. Our loved one planned extremely well and is financially secure. Combined with the support of family, we are hopeful that he will be able to have the highest quality of life possible for however much time he has left in a life well-lived.
Wishing all a Happy Life!!!
What Is “Good” Art?
I have dabbled as a wanna-be artist most of my life. And most of my life I was always trying to achieve what I thought was “good” art. But just what is “good” art? How do we define it? How does it make us feel inside? What drives us to express ourselves on a piece of canvas, on paper, in altered book art, throwing pottery, building sand castles, architecture and a myriad of others mechanisms used to express an emotional feeling.
Recently I saw a FB posting of a nurse in Canada who had collected pieces of plastic from different products used to treat her patients throughout a 30 year career. Medicine vials come with pretty colored plastic flip caps, syringes with needle caps all of which are thrown away. When she started collecting those pieces of plastic that were never used on a patient, just in product delivery, she said she had no idea what she was going to do with them and throughout the years she used some of them with her children as a sorting game tool and found various uses for others. Finally after retirement she spent time putting all of those different plastic pieces into an artistic collage depicting sunshine and happiness. From trash she created a masterpiece that now hangs in a hospital in Canada and has become a tribute to all of the thousands of patients that she touched throughout her career.
For me it is paper. I collect paper. There is something about paper that entrances me. It stimulates me visually and tactilly. I love the texture, the crinkle sound, the smell. And I have a remarkably large quantity of it. I fill pages with bird sketches, old books with drawings, collages, stamps, envelopes, gathering them together into junk journals and canvas after canvas with my own humble art expressions. One whole wall in my bedroom is covered with drawings and paintings and it gives me pleasure each morning and night to see them adorning my walls. Some of these remain WIP (works in progress) and others I have pronounced finished. It is hard for me to know when one is done, but over time I have gotten better at this, realizing that when I lose interest, the piece becomes a testament to where I was in my artist journey at that moment in time.
And I love the smell of oil paints, tupernoid, linseed oil, and baby oil. I love the smooth buttery lipstick texture of oil pastels that I can move with my fingers to create an image. I love the fluidity of water colors and I love the excitement derived from the birth of an idea, sketching it, applying the paints and watching the image grow into what satisfies by eye and brain. It is a strange process and I usually am amazed that I was able to create something with these hands. I’ve learned that if I am happy with it, then that is all that matters.
I have a “painterly” style and prefer painting alla prima AKA wet-on-wet or paintings done in one or two sittings. Challenges exist when using this technique. Paints can be mixed on the palette or directly on the canvas but mixing wet into wet can produce a muddy mess if not done correctly. It is also important to work from dark to light when painting alla prima. I am however not much of a rule follower, tending to experiment and take a chance that something new may just work!
Art remains an avocation for me, an activity that promotes a sense of peace. At this time of year, my thoughts turn to Christmas cards, wrapping paper, gift giving and my studio remains stagnant awaiting my return for my next artistic expression. Oh wait…I need to make a Christmas wreath…clear the workspace, haul out the glue gun, gather supplies and I once again begin the creative journey!
Bird of the Month – November 2017
Bird of the Month – October 2017
A Tally of Things lost to Date
I want to keep track. I think it is important to know just how many things have been ripped from the fabric of America…just how many travesties have been thrust upon our Constitution, our environment and how many civil liberties are being trounced by our Liar-in-Chief.
–The Rule of Law – ignoring a judicial ruling of guilty by pardoning Sheriff Joe Arpaio
–Climate change denial – Cuts to EPA and FEMA in the wake of two devastating hurricanes and raging wildfires in the West
–Comparing the KKK, Neo Nazis and White Supremacists as being the same as protesters
–The guarantee of clean water, free of chemical dumps and clean air being threatened… reference the Arkema chemical site pouring toxic waste into the environment as just one example.
–Sanctioning and admiring autocrats with a history of murdering their opposition. Like Putin & Duterte
–The decrease in tourism in the United States – In 7 months the loss of ~37 billion in tourism dollars
–Crops rotting in the fields for lack of immigrants to harvest them
–The loss of prestige as being the indisputable leader of the free world
–The continued assault on the free media. Dividing our nation with fake news leading to a loss of confidence in our government
–The normalization and acceptance of lying and prevarication second to none in the history of our country. Estimated lies over first 227 days of presidency are 1,114.
–A different set of rules for Republicans than for Democrats – the steadfast refusal of Republicans to give Merrick Garland a hearing just because he was nominated by Obama and using a lame excuse of it being an election year. Yet they have blinders on about the ongoing criminal investigation into the Trump administration and his associates.
–Devos ending Obama’s Title IX rules for investigating college campus sexual assaults
–Direct violation of the Emolument Clause of the Constitution. – Trump and his children continue to profit and are receiving monies indirectly to bolster their own personal wealth
–Ordering a ban on transgender personnel in the military and using the excuse of it being cost prohibitive. When compared, the cost of Viagra and erectile dysfunction treatment for male military personnel is far in excess ($84 million compared to $8.4 million annually) of transgender expenses. I am also certain that there are many, many more that I have not listed here.
And personally, I have had the painful loss of a relationship with one of my sisters. All of the others only affect me indirectly…my life really isn’t impacted that much simply because I am an older white educated female with a good job, children who love me and I know they will step up to the plate and help me if needed. But the loss of a sister relationship is a gut punch. I’ve tried to mend those broken fences, but just as I pulled away after the 2016 Presidential election because of depression and my own inability to be around those who voted this horrible human being into the Presidency, I can only assume that she may be in much the same place right now as I was then. The pain is great and I hope that some day, before one of us departs this world, we can once again laugh and bathe in the camaraderie of sisterhood.
Resist!!!!
Wire Cutters and A Mule
I am a native Houstonian. Born, raised and lived there the majority of my life. I have survived hurricanes with names like Carla, Allison, and Rita plus a myriad of other storms that perhaps didn’t grow large enough to meet hurricane standards and were relegated to tropical depression status. The one thing they all have in common is the potential to affect the quality of life for the small inconsequential humans who happen to exist in their pathway. I moved to Austin about 12 years ago and my up-close-and- personal encounters with angry storms have diminished. And then came Harvey.
For four days within the confines of my safe, dry, well stocked condo, I watched the rain pound Ladybird Lake, the looming clouds scud slowly by and the persistent squalls of rain drenching Austin. I never lost power from the winds, so I watched the tragedy unfold before me through television video clips. And as I watched, I cried. I couldn’t stop crying when I witnessed the absolute destruction of a city I love and witnessed the horrible struggles of the innocent people battling to survive torrential rains and flooding. Houston has weathered many storms throughout a colorful history but never before has an American city experienced a year’s worth of rain in excess of 52 inches within a four-day period… an event that is impossible to imagine and totally beyond anyone’s expectations.
Houston will survive and rebuild stronger than before because it is a lumbering unstoppable behemoth of a city bent on surviving, but also because it must. The “Chemical Coast” that encompasses a large portion of the Texas/Louisiana coastline, provides huge amounts of petrochemicals that fuel the lives of Americans everywhere. A monster storm interrupts that well-oiled machine that churns out all sorts of products that fuel our life “needs” and it makes us aware of our dependence on many things that make our lives so comfortable. Without electricity, no air conditioning, no lights, no power for toasters, hair dryers, washing machines. Without electricity, no power to pump water through miles of pipe into our homes to deliver drinking water, water for ice making, water for bathing, flushing toilets. Without electricity, gas pumps don’t pump gas so if your car is empty, you will be walking or hitching a ride from a neighbor. Without electricity, the food inside our refrigerators and freezers spoils. And the list goes on and on. We take so many things for granted each day and one hiccup can make us aware of how quickly it can all disappear.
I know a lot of this from first-hand experience. I remember the fear my parents had when Carla swept through Houston ripping the roof shingles from our home and delivering huge quantities of water in a horizontal attack so fierce that moisture was literally driven under doors and around and through window sills. As an adult, when another “caine” burst upon Houston, our side of the street lost power for two weeks and as we struggled to deal with the heat and the humidity, all of our neighbors across the street had power. The lights from their homes each evening made our pain greater. And when Rita came knocking and a mandatory evacuation of Houston was ordered, I obediently began to travel West to escape her murderous rage. There were thousands upon thousands of us that departed Houston to evade this storm only to be bogged down in traffic, running out of gas, without food or rest on a 12-18 hour journey traversing a mere 75 miles. The evacuation was a disaster itself. People died on the roadways. It is simply impossible to evacuate millions of people from an urban area for a storm that may or may not decide to come your way. The landfall of hurricanes can be unpredictable because these giant water and wind monsters can be capricious.
Any natural disaster or, God forbid, a man-made nuclear disaster, and life as we know it can vanish in a remarkably short time. And then what? What do we absolutely NEED in order to survive? Food, water, shelter, the basics. But how do we escape the concrete jungle if the roadways are bogged down in traffic or gas is unavailable. Growing up in the Cold War era and vividly remembering the Cuban missile crisis, I recalled sage words of wisdom from my Father about how to survive a calamity. With confidence and great clarity, he said “All you need to survive is a good pair of wire cutters and a strong mule.” Something to think about in a world that is teetering on the brink of disaster on an almost daily basis.
My heart bleeds for my beloved home town. Be well Houstonians.
Bird of the Month – September 2017
The “What IF” Countdown
For the past 3-4 months I have been experiencing some heart health issues. We aren’t suppose to be aware of our heart beating, it is just supposed to happen. Our heartbeat is a part of our Autonomic Nervous System which does all sorts of things to keep us alive, none of which we have to actively think about…like breathing, digestion or a heart beating. Within a heart there is a “pacemaker” that initiates the heart beat and in turn that electrical signal travels through the heart causing a beat to occur. When the electrical system of the heart goes wonky, we can have extra beats, irregular beats, too slow beats or too fast beats. These are called arrhythmias and they make us aware of our heart beating and although they are rarely fatal, the various symptoms sure can make us uncomfortable. My symptoms had gotten increasingly worse and longer lasting which ultimately led to the placement of a Pacemaker to crack the whip and keep my heart doing its job correctly. I had a two-week period in which to think about all the “what ifs?” What if I don’t survive? Are my affairs in order? Who will clean out my cubicle at work? Who will take in my cats? Stupid worries but worries none the less. Two days before my surgery I decided that I would eat steak and ice cream…all that I wanted…because it may be my last meal. It caused me to reexamine the stress in my life, to look at my world in a more appreciative way, to reexamine relationships and to evaluate just how I would like the rest of my life to be. Self examination is hard work!
Of course I am writing this PPP (post pacemaker placement), so obviously I survived and all that worry and hard work attempting to put my life in order “just in case” was all for naught. But it really wasn’t non-productive because it did energize me to do a myriad of things that should be completed as we age if for no other reason than to help our children deal with the “what ifs”.
I am thankful that I have this new task master I’ve named “Thumper” sitting within my chest as a watchdog for the electrical system within my heart. We live in a marvelous age with medical knowledge and technology which can enable us to live long healthy lives. Have cataracts?…get new “eyeballs”(AKA lens implants), need a new hip or knee?…no problem, get a replacement. Kidneys, liver, or heart failing?….your name can be placed on a transplant list. Yes, medical knowledge has advanced at warp speed and combined with all of the new medications on the market, it is possible to keep our bodies working much longer than our pioneer forefathers would ever have imagined.
All of these advantages should not be taken for granted. They are extenders of our life. Gifts. A chance to build more memories, spend more time with family, take a long-anticipated once-in-a-lifetime trip, listen to the laugh of a baby, feel the sandpapery tongue of a cat on your skin, smell puppy breath, sip a cocktail on a beach while watching the sun sink beneath the surface, read another book by a favorite author, weep through a great movie for the hundredth time, take up a new hobby or just enjoy another trip or two around the sun.
Life is precious. Take time to enjoy every moment. And as the well-known Lee Ann Womack song expresses…”I hope you’ll never lose your sense of wonder….May you never take one single breath for granted….I hope you still feel small when you stand beside the ocean…and when you get the choice to sit it out or dance, I hope you DANCE!”
Port “A” Revisited
Even short moments sitting on a beach or exploring new birding venues can boost spirits and alleviate the summer doldrums. And what nicer way to revisit Port Aransas than with my daughter, grandsons and friends. The beauty of traveling with them now is that the burden of all the “doing” of things is not on me. Yes, I have finally arrived at that sweet moment in life when I can be totally free of responsibility and confidently place my care and well-being into the hands of loved ones. I LOVE IT!!!!
After a Saturday sitting in the canopy shade on the beach, listening to the surf, and being caressed by the ocean breeze, I set out early Sunday morning to explore some birding spots I had not seen before. First up was the Leonabelle Turnbull Birding Center located adjacent to the water sewage facility. Some might think this to be an unlikely place to encounter birds of any merit, but I was richly rewarded that morning. Walking through the gate and onto a well constructed boardwalk that snakes out over the salt marshes, I had the entire place to myself and immediately enjoyed three Magnificent Frigatebirds soaring high in the clear skies above me. Black Skimmers were flying low over the water ponds collecting breakfast, a Little Blue Heron flushed with my presence, a Common Gallinule creeped among the marshes closely followed by her baby chick, Cormorants, Black Vultures, Black-necked Stilts, Killdeer, Snowy and Great Egrets, one lonely Coot, gulls, terns, Tricolored Heron and a flock of Black-bellied Whistling Ducks made for a nice birding morning.
Next stop was Wetland Park where I was greeted by American Avocets, White Ibis, Common Sandpipers and Marbled Godwits. This stop was a spectacular one for me since I was able to identify by behavior, a Reddish Egret White Morph cavorting in the shallows. Surrounded by Great and Snowy Egrets, he was easily identified by his dancing skills.
Finally I visited Paradise Park, a very small swampish area located behind a local restaurant. A boardwalk twisted through the trees and as I strolled I spotted a GBH and then my third prize of the day, an Immature Little Blue Heron. Baffled by his white egret-looking body and light green legs, I finally realized what he was. Once again, location and behavior assisted me in the identification. Little Blues are mostly solitary and shy and even though this small pond is smack in the middle of a very urban area, it was well concealed by trees, brush, marshy reeds and brackish water.
My weekend was a great combination of family time combined with alone time. Great memories made in a close-to-home location.
Happy bird searching!!! 
ginnybirdbeakspeak 
