1. We had big storms last night. When I got up and checked this morning, there were 0 baby birds in the nest. Now, granted, they had most of their longer wing feathers so it's possible the parents moved them somewhere, but I suspect that's me telling myself that. (I haven't been out to check under the bush, it would break my heart too much to find dead baby birds. Because I don't think they could have survived the night on the ground if they fell out of the nest.
the one possible moment of hope is that late yesterday afternoon, it looked like only one bird was in there so maybe the parents did somehow get them moved.
Edited to add: when I took some stuff out to the mail, I checked around the base of the bush where the nest was. I couldn't see any sign of the baby birds, and I also have not heard the parents doing the "alarm call" like they were doing when the crows got the batch last year. So I am telling myself they safely moved the babies and have them hidden somewhere. (They were probably close to being able to fly, if not being able to fly well. And their eyes were open)
2. In bigger news, there was a huge earthquake in Nepal. A lot of our International students come from there. If I remember correctly, the student in my intro bio class who is from Asia is from Nepal. (I admit I tend to have a bit of a soft spot for the International students.)
They're saying close to 700 dead (and that will probably go up). I don't know what the population of Nepal is but I can imagine our local students are probably trying to get in touch with friends and family this morning. While it's always a terrible time for this kind of thing to happen, it's especially bad right now, next week is the last week of the semester and the following week is final exams. Depending on how things go, we may need to try to make alternate plans for some of the Nepalese students to finish the semester if they lost loved ones or if they have to try to take care of stuff (I can't imagine that right now going back there would serve much purpose - better to let the aid workers handle stuff for now - but depending on someone's beliefs, people may have to rush back for funerals.)
*****
There' s just the typical awful stuff going on in the news - people being awful to one another in a bunch of different ways. (I probably need to try to get the updates about Nepal online so I don't have to also listen to stuff about police-involved shootings and people doing arson and political commentators talking over each other and other things while I'm waiting for an update).
I can tell I'm tired and worn and my allergies are making me sad*. When I first got up and was flipping between the cartoon channels, one of them (Qubo, I'm guessing - I think they have a somewhat religious- and ethics-concerned leadership) showed an ad - it played Louis Armstrong singing "What a Wonderful World" and started off with shots of beautiful landscapes.
(*Histamine affects alertness and I think it affects other things. I know when my allergies are bad I'm more sad and even more prone to get weepy over stupid stuff)
And sadly, this is how cynical I've become about tv ads - I said, "Okay, when do they show the pollution and tell us how much we've screwed it up?" but they didn't - the song just kept on, the nice photos just kept on. When the song got to the part about "The colors of the rainbow/so pretty in the sky/ are also on the faces/ of people going by...." they started showing people. Happy people, loving people. Little kids hugging each other, teenagers happily fistbumping, an older couple close-dancing.
And I started bawling.
Stuff like that, when I'm in a susceptible mood, just makes me cry. I think it's because in a way, that's my image of how the world should be - people loving each other and being kind to each other, the world being beautiful. (It was a Foundation for a Better Life PSA - just designed to uplift people, I guess) And yet, all too often, it seems like what we're shown (note my "cynical" observation above) is just the opposite. Oh, I know the world is full of both good and bad, and you can't focus on just one or the other (and I admit I have a suspicion that the good slightly outweighs the bad, that there are more people out there doing loving acts that you never hear about for every person who is shown on the news for jerkish behavior towards others).
ETA: Here it is. Rewatching it made me tear up again.
So yeah. I need to do my Sunday School prep and practice and I think I need that day out. I've already given myself permission to go to Cackle and Oink for lunch (barbecue is really more salt than I should have regularly, but their ribs are so good) and maybe buy some pretty fabric when I'm out, and get my new dvd player. And get the stuff I need to make food for people I care about. (There's a lunch at church on Sunday - I'm doing a spinach salad - and lunch at school on Monday - I'm doing meatballs). And I'm reframing it not as "Gah, I have to do more cooking this weekend I might not otherwise do" but as "I get to make food for people I care about."
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