All the same, I'd rather be the crow"

Well, we won’t be leaving for Texas in time to make it to the Rio Grande valley. The medics just won’t be done with me soon enough so we had to cancel our reservations. But for now we don’t lose our deposit. We have a years grace before we lose anything. It seemed pretty nice to me. I guess RV parks like where we we’re going understand their clientele? I’m sure there are always people, like us, who have medical changes in plans and they need to make allowances for that. Good for them, good for us.

Other than that, ‘all is well’. The weather has been very nice for the last couple of weeks. It’s supposed to be 62o and sunny today. That makes our extended stay here a little more palatable but this is still not a great place to winter in an RV. We’ll be here into December but head south to California ASAP. South being the operative word. Exactly when and where remains to be seen? We’ll be watching the weather and the passes as our departure nears.

I’ve been up to my knees in leaves for the last couple of weeks. That is my primary job right now. There are lots of trees on the complex and it’s keeping me busy. I’ve been using a blower, tractor, and a big tractor tote to keep them under control. So it’s not a bunch of raking by hand. I’ve even learned to pick up a tote with the fork lift, take it to the compost pile, turn it over to dump the leaves, and pick it back up without getting off the tractor. Kat is busy in the office and Jade is enjoying the birds and squirrels. Once or twice a week we have to drive somewhere. The work is easy, mostly enjoyable, but not always understandable. We drove an injured crow 40 miles to the Audubon Society but then a couple of days ago I was watching turtles being euthanized. Oregon has a season for crows; so you can kill them but if you find an injured one, they’ll save it for you. Turtles on the other hand, are not so lucky. They were non-native and expendable. In this case a Red Eared Racer (the kind we got as kids) and a Snapping turtle. But they did get a sedative before they lost their heads. Go figure! In fairness this doesn’t happen often and the state is kind of between a rock and a hard spot. Either way they choose to react they’ll offend someone. And common sense be damned! Some of you may have heard of the “Snowball incident”. That was a deer the state was taking away from some family because you can’t maintain wild animals without a license. That has caused a stir and cost the state $40,000 in legal fees, and it ain’t over.

My procedure is over! All is apparently OK. Everything still works even if it’s a little uncomfortable at times. And time should take care of that. I must confess I was a little scared after my visit with the doctor before the procedure. This was the visit that I think covers their rear ends and tells you all the things that can go wrong. I was reminded that one in four can’t do this, one in four can’t do that, you’ll be incontinent, you’ll be impotent, one in a hundred will have a perforated what’s’ it and die, and someday we’re just going to get angry and cut somebody’s off. Well, maybe not the last, but you get my point. Then at the end he did say that one in four were kind of ‘poster patients’ and everything went just dandy. Then just before the procedure he stopped by to say he thought everything looked ‘real good’. Well, it did and I think I am one of those ‘poster patients’.

So! I have a couple of more visits and if things look good like I think they will, we ought to be able to be on our way. Maybe around the second week in December. In the meantime I’ll be battling those leaves with a break for Thanksgiving at Rick (Kat’s oldest) and Tina’s.

A CROW FUNERAL

The sound of many crows calling at once filled the air. I peeked out the window, and everywhere I could see, crows, maybe a couple hundred of them. They were on the sidewalk. They were on the power lines. They were on the logs that served as stops for parked cars, and they were in the trees. Almost hidden against one of the logs, I saw a dead crow. There were a few crows standing near the body. The noise continued for about a minute or so, when suddenly, an unseen conductor waved his baton, and the cawing stopped. The silence was equally as loud.
There was a pause.
Then, the invisible conductor again waved his baton, and there was a great and noisy flurry of feathers, as the crows took off and flew in all directions. Soon they were gone, leaving their lifeless kin to the elements. I continued my watch in silent awe, feeling that I had just witnessed something few have seen. In the various articles and books I have read about the corvids and their behavior, the authors cannot agree as to whether the Crow "Funeral" is fact or legend.
What it comes down to is, only the crows know the significance of this behavior. The term "funeral" is for us a convenience, a way to explain what appears to be the obvious. But, until a Crow-Human/Human-Crow dictionary comes out, we may never know the absolute truth. Better to observe and appreciate another highly evolved species and the rituals that keep their "society" together.