Although there was a moment there when Bonnie wondered if maybe she wasn’t trying to kick the baby out of the nest, but we watched her feeding both chicks throughout the day, so I don’t think she was playing favorites or anything. In fact, before I helped the baby back into the nest, Mama was sitting on the edge with her tail feathers over the chick, trying to keep it from falling any further. Or, at least that’s how it appeared. Who knows what was going on in her head.

Once I had the baby back in the nest and I had backed off, Mama calmed down pretty quickly.

The post So, I Totally Just Saved This Chicks Life appeared first on Retro Active Lifestyle.

Bonnie made gluten-free cinnamon rolls from scratch this morning. They were good, but the recipe has room for improvement. I look forward to being a taste tester.

I set up a camera to watch the hummingbird that nested in our patio cover today. She looks very proud in this pic.

I’ve never seen a bird sleeping before. She looks so peaceful.

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Be Late, Never Early

In a world with ever-decreasing quality in customer service, I really shouldn’t complain about a delivery driver jamming through his day. It wasn’t a problem, but I wonder what would have happened had I not been home or taking a shit or something.

It reminded me of the time I worked for a carpet cleaning company that scheduled me for an afternoon appointment in Pacific Palisades. Obviously, this was back when there were still houses there. Anyway, I had four hours to kill between my morning appointment and my afternoon appointment, so I kept hounding the office to get me into the job earlier. The customer, however, wouldn’t return any of our calls.

So, I showed up at the house fifteen minutes early, and I could hear someone inside playing a violin badly. I knocked on the door, but the woman continued torturing the poor cat, who died in vain to make her instrument. I knocked again, and the call to summon the desolate one came to an abrupt halt. A short, chunky woman in her 60s opened the door, and before I could say a word, she said, “Our appointment is in 15 minutes. I’ll be with you in 15 minutes,” and then she slammed the door in my face.

That was the harshest reaction I ever received for being early, but I found throughout my 16 years in the carpet cleaning business that people don’t like it when you’re early. I think because they’re expecting you to be late.

Back To My Delivery

He asked me where I wanted them and then got to work unloading four large bags filled with 900 pounds of sand and gravel each. The bags were large, but they were smaller than I had imagined they would be, which I was kind of happy about because they looked less daunting. As soon as he left, I built a ramp to negotiate the two steps up to the terraced portion of the yard where the fire pit is, and then, I got to work.

It took about two hours and fifteen minutes to move all of the gravel from my driveway to the backyard. I started to get concerned that I hadn’t ordered enough, but those worries were quickly assuaged when I started spreading it out.

After lunch, I started laying stones down. I had always intended to lay the stones on top of the blocks, so that’s how I prepped the gravel and started laying the stones, but I didn’t like it. I dug out some of the gravel and laid a piece of rock down so that it was flush with the top of the block, and I instantly knew that was the right decision. Any apprehension or indecision I felt about this project evaporated, and I started laying stones in earnest.

I worked until I ran out of daylight. I really didn’t want to stop, but I couldn’t see what I was doing, so I called it a day. Tomorrow will go quickly, I think.

In Other News…

This little guy took up residence in our patio cover. I don’t know if this is the same one that had two babies last year, or if this is one of the babies, or if she’s a whole different bird.

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