Some Random Things

I have many random things to report. So here goes:

• I am in San Francisco at the moment. Shlomo and I escaped for one last long weekend this year. It has been bittersweet. My dad is in the hospital with fluid on his heart and lungs. My parents insisted we go ahead and make the trip. It has been a great trip, but I keep worrying about my dad. I talk to my mom or brother about 15 times a day. I am going to see my dad on Tuesday.
  
• I am a bit nervous about our Segway ride in the morning. I don't know why. I have ridden them before. I guess I am just sad that I won't have Loco or Gilda with me. We all know it is my dream to ride around on a Segway with them on my shoulder.
  
• Possums, Dame Edna is one funny dude. We saw her last night. All I have to say… one funny dude.
  
• I saw the Wild Parrots of Telegraph Hill in person. It was the thing I wanted to do most on this trip. I did not know if we would see them or not. We took a cab to the top of Telegraph Hill and saw them within seconds of getting out of the car. It was so exciting for a couple of bird nerds. If you have not seen the documentary, rent it. Mark Bittner's story is so sweet and amazing. Triple love it. And, I loved it before I had parrots.
  
• We have eaten so much on this trip…Dungeness crab, sourdough bread, Peking duck…this is a great food city.
  
• If you do not know the music of Darlene Love, look her up. We saw her cabaret tonight with Melba Moore. Both were good. Darlene was fantastic.
  
• I made all A's this semester. Yay me.
  
• People are stupid. I don't know why I feel the need to share that, but I do.
  
• Shlomo can get on my nerves like stink on shit. But, for the most part, he is the sweetest person I know. He is also Dennis the Menace, but that is another post. By the way, there is enough material in any given day that I can make that post at anytime.
  
• Lots of hills in San Francisco. Lots of hills.
  
• Very sad about Eartha Kitt. We saw her on my birthday in July. She was amazing. It is a tremendous loss.
  
• I have been reading up a storm sense I finished the terror known as finals. I know…it's ironic. My break from studying is reading. I have read a couple of parrot memoirs, Carrie Fisher's memoirs, and now I am reading the sequel to Friday Night Knitting Club. I plan to follow it up with either Wuthering Heights or Passage to India. Either way, I hope to read both over my break. Since I will be on a plane three times in the next three days, I should get a lot read. If you don't have a Kindle and read a lot, get one. It makes reading while traveling so much easier. (Thanks Shlomo! It was a great anniversary present back in August.)
  
• Isn't it funny that two Jews bought a sculpture of St. Francis on our trip? It's for the back yard. It reminded us of the monk that was at the next table on our first date. And the sculpture was holding a bird. It will look so great in our backyard. What can I say? We are art fiends.
  
• Shlomo is upset that I limited his sweetness to "for the most part." Seriously. Learn to take a compliment, Shlomo.
  

I guess that is about it for the moment. I will keep you posted as to my dad's progress. I had three drinks at the cabaret, so I am a little drunk. If I have been rambling, I apologize.

How Did I Get So Old?

I have often had this picture of retirement where I would sit by the fireplace reading some great novel and considering its impacts and ramifications with the dogs at my feet. Well, today, as I write my final essays for that wonderful (and by wonderful, I mean great class—awful teacher) Greek Tragedy In Translation class I have taken this semester, I realized that I have pretty much done exactly that all day.

So far, I have examined the three Theban plays by Sophocles (Oedipus the King, Oedipus at Colonus, and Antigone) and looked at how they could possibly be viewed as a blessing rather than a tragedy. Is it me or is that totally a stupid essay question. Let's see…a man kills his father, marries his mother, discovers this fact, blinds himself, goes to exile and ruins the lives of all his children/siblings. Yep, that is definitely a blessing. Totally a blessing. Not a stretch at all to make that answer happen. Now, I am getting ready to show what Aeschylus had in mind in the Oresteia. By the way, if you know the answer to that, please post it in the comments. That would help me a great deal.

So back to the old part. Yeah. Did I mention I have classical music playing. Just a little Yo-Yo Ma or Itzhak Perlman as background noise. Seriously, I might as well be smoking a pipe. Gross. If it weren't for Gilda's occasional squawks, this dreary day would totally be peaceful. Just as I imagined my twilight years. Surely, these aren't my twilight years. I have to make it at least another forty to take care of Gilda and Loco. Shit. What if these are my twilight years and God decided not to be vengeful and give them to me to enjoy? Wow. This entry just took a morbid turn. I did not see that coming.

For the sake of sanity (or insanity as the case may be), I will assume I have not entered my twilight years. God is not that vengeful. There is no way Shlomo could handle the upkeep on our menagerie by himself. After all, I think we are just a baby goat away from having our own petting zoo.

Finallly...

In two and a half hours, I have a final in my baroque art class. I should be frantically studying. I am not for some reason. I think I might have studied out. I have plenty of time to go through my notes one more time. I should probably be nervous, but I really am not. I wrote the take-home essays. I know the slides. I have studied for the in-class essays. It is what it is at this point. I hate that saying. It is what it is. It IS a stupid saying.

Anyway, I seem to have devoted my entire weekend to the final. Well almost the entire weekend. I hesitate to tell you this, but if you are a regular reader, you know the questionable state of sanity that Shlomo and I share. There might have been a new addition to our menagerie on Saturday. She might look something like this.



Her name is Gilda (after Rita Hayworth's most famous role). That is not her, but a photo I found of the species online. She is a Solomon Eclectus. She is a bit bigger than Loco. She has her loud baby squawk at the moment (she is only three months old), but they assured us she will give that up. Like caiques, eclectus are known to be quieter parrot species. She is beautiful, but still awkward in the same way a puppy is. Loco either loves her or wants to kill her. We cannot tell. I am guessing the latter, but that should change over time.

We made a list of pros and cons to getting her. We had made a similar list for Loco. In both instances, the cons won. In both instances, we seem to have ignored the lists.

We know we are nuts. But, she is a beauty. I cannot wait for my finals to be over, so I can devote my winter break to training her and playing with Loco and helping them bond. I know you cannot force that, but I will try my darnedest.

I always swore I would not be one of those lonely old men surrounded by cats. As her lifespan is 30-50 years, I think I successfully insured that won't happen. Loco should be around another 30-40 years as well, so I guess I will be that lonely old man with his birds. Oh well, Shlomo and I already refer to ourselves as the "Birdmen of Brugghen Street."