A Conure Homeconing

"Be It Ever So Humble..."

Ahhh...That's Better.

After a three week (and a couple of days) hiatus, my T-Bird found his way back home last night. Somebody responded to my ad on Craigslist, and called me. Turns out that they live less than a block away. My bird landed on this nice lady's head Sunday night - the day he left my house. The lady recognized him as a domesticated bird, and put him in the same cage as her parakeet. Three weeks later, she called me to let me know she had found my bird.

So, just last weekend I gave up on my bird coming back. I assumed that by now he was cat food. Or perhaps he is married with children, on his way South toward Argentina where they are from. Since I could not know his fate, I may as well imagine a good outcome, right? Nonetheless, just last Sunday, I took his cage down and put it in the garage, accepting the end of my bird owner life. For the past three weeks, I actually enjoyed not having to come home and mess with him. Cleaning his cage was not very fun, and even though I enjoyed his company I didn't like being pooped on very well. "All's well," thought I. "Teddy is released to his highest good and best life."

Now he's back.

So I got his cage back out, set up his toys, food, water, etc. and I have my friend back. I'm thinking I should take him to the vet and have his wings removed. But then he wouldn't be a bird. I guess I'll just be more careful.

Bottom line is that I enjoyed the 3 week vacation, but I'm glad the little guy is back.

As for the three weeks, I sort of got the impression that the lady that found him planned on just keeping him. But he wasn't very nice to her, and nipped at her constantly. So when I went to get him, I pulled up to the house and said, "Man, I sure hope the bird you found is mine. I really miss the little turd."

The nice lady said, "At this point, you can feel free to take him even if he isn't yours."

It took him 3 days to settle down the first time I brought him to my house. Last night it took less than 20 minutes. He's back. He's home. He's happy. So am I. So is the nice lady.

The World Just Ain't Right!

"This is so incredible it deserves a blog post."

This is real. No names have been changed. Your monitor is not broken. This is not April 1. I'm not pulling any pranks.

The lowly Houston Astros are at the top of the American League West standings in Major League Baseball - by 5 games!

I wanted to hurry and take a picture of it since it cannot possible last longer than a typical fart in the wind. That's one of the cool things about baseball. At the beginning of the season anybody can be in first place.

Last year, the Astros improved their reputation dramatically by being the Second team eliminated from the playoffs instead of the first. Year before last, the were out about three games past the All Star break.

I can't imagine they'll hold on to first place very long. But they've been there for over a month.Not bad.

DISCLAIMER: I'm not an Astros fan, or a fan of any team in the AL West. I used to be a Rangers fan, but they dumped all of my favorite players and they are from Texas. I'm trying on the Dodgers fan role. After all, their AAA team is now the OKC Dodgers (who are kicking ass and taking names in the PCL). I would really like to like the Dodgers, but I feel like I'm wearing pants that just don't fit. May have to start cheering for the Royals soon.

I'll Fly Away

"My Green Cheeked Conure Flew The Coop."

One event in my life never made my blog. During my hiatus I got a new roommate. I found him wandering around PetSmart and brought him home. He isn't a Teddy Bear, He's a Teddy Bird (T-Bird for short and because it sounds more publicly acceptable). Anyway, my Green Cheeked Conure quickly became one of my best friends - and much better company than my Jack Russell Terrorist aka 'Damn Dog'.

Teddy came to my house when he was about 6 weeks old. His wings were clipped so he couldn't fly. As they grew back, he became a pretty good flyer, and I became more diligent about keeping doors and windows closed, not using ceiling fans, etc. I couldn't stand the thought of clipping his wings. First of all, his flight feathers are beautiful. Brightly colored Red, Green, Grey and Blue. Absolutely gorgeous!

Second, he's a bird and he's supposed to fly. It was cool when he flew from his cage to my shoulder and back. It seemed cruel to cut his wings and ground him. He's a bird, not a hamster.

But he got away from me last weekend when I let the dog in the house. I opened the door just a little wider because it was raining really hard when the weather guys said it would be completely dry. Out he went into the wild, stormy Blue Yonder (whatever that is). Haven't seen or heard from him since.

Part of me misses him. I also understand that he's not really equipped to be a wild bird in Oklahoma. It gets too hot, the food that he knows about doesn't grow here year round. etc. etc. I know I should have prevented his impromptu escape. He doesn't know to be afraid of cats (although Teddy is pretty much afraid of everything). And besides all of that, I miss him like crazy.

But another part of me is happy for him - maybe even a little jealous. I want to fly away like that! I want to soar through the treetops and play with the other birds. I want to leave a lot of crap behind and never look back. I can't help feeling a little proud of him for leaving the confines of his cage inside my house and embracing the wide, wonderful world.

I've had a bird before, but not like this one. I wanted to be a caretaker and enjoy him. But I never wanted to be a warden. I guess Teddy didn't want to be in a jail either.

Rethinking IT

"My Loss Is My Gain."

My IT guy flaked out last week. I think he got his feelings hurt. He decided I lost confidence in him (the IT way to say that I didn't use his services enough?), and he thought our company would be better served by looking elsewhere for IT support. Well, whether or not I had previously lost confidence in him, the events of last week guarantee that I can have no confidence at all in him in the future, so he turned out to be right - albeit somewhat prophetic.

Nonetheless, I told a couple of people that I needed a new IT support vendor, and a line formed outside my office door almost immediately. So far, I've talked with two of them in detail. And so far I like exactly two of these vendors better than my previous supplier.

IT stuff changes so fast. And I was rethinking my company's IT needs and requirements anyway. We're changing ISP's, building a new web page, rethinking phone systems and implementing some measure of disaster recovery for anything short of an asteroid hitting the earth. My old IT guy knew this was all on the agenda, but I haven't pulled the trigger yet on most of it.

In 2004, I knew the rules. I knew what best practices were for making backups. I could separate real cost/benefit equations from 'smoke and mirror' software that costs alot and doesn't work - in other words separate the Sizzle from the Steak. In the past few years, my response to my IT demise was to abandon my IT Czar role and focus on other activities. I now realize that was a mistake. I still have to authorize the expense, and I can't do that for something I don't understand.

Put all of this together and one has to feel a bit sorry for whoever I choose to fill my IT gap. These guys won't even be able to check free disk space unless I know how, why and so what.

But I'm looking forward to renewing my former expertise.