Ducklings on the bayou

I've waited 2-1/2 months for these ducklings to arrive. Once a week I walk along the bayou to see what has progressed. Two weeks ago I saw an old mallard male, the largest duck I have ever observed, with his young bride and her poor ugly duckling. Luckily, papa knew what he was doing, because young mama proved clueless in her parenting skills. Being a city gal, I have never seen ducks fly up close, because most of these city ducks have clipped wings. Not papa, he proudly spreads those wings and flies down into the water next to mother and child when they get a bit out of his comfort range.

This week I spotted another mama duck with 8 ducklings. Most were ugly ducklings, yet one fluffy yellow duckling stood out among the crew. I'm sure nature takes care of those ugly ducklings, by making them the color of the murky bayou water and giving them a respite from all the other creatures that would like a tasty morsel. Already a neighbor reports there are only 6 ducklings left. At my worksite, huge buzzards lurk near the young ducklings, waiting for some fresh meat. Here on the bayou, the neighbor suspects the large bass and other fish enjoy a rare delicacy. The neighbor reports bass, crappie, catfish, and other large species here in our little bayou and cove, although like me, he refuses to eat them because of the runoff pollution coming from our city streets.

Life in the Bayou City...beautiful in small ways!

Raining on the bayou

After weeks of no rain, it finally poured buckets on Friday night. It's great to see that after four inches of rain that our little tributary has only become murky and gained approximately one inch of new water. I was scared we would be flooding here.

We've seen a huge influx of birds this past week. Besides the crow I hear now, I've also discovered a new species of doves I've never seen before. They are not the regular mourning and Inca doves we normally have in Houston. They almost have a smokers-like hack if that can be described as a bird noise. They are beautiful and almost look like a gray blue jay.

Ms. Clare de Lune, my spicy tabby cat, is loving all of this bird watching. Birds fly through our vines and trees, while she spots blue jays, cardinals, robins, sparrows, and our Texas State bird, the mockingbird. (The mockingbird, an annoying creature, mimics all the other birds and also loves to swoop in on cats just like the bluejay does.)

Ms. Clare loves to watch the water. I think the bullfrog's mating calls freaked her out earlier this week, yet she loves to watch the tadpoles, small frogs, turtles, and fish hitting the top of the water. When she meditates the water, she could care less about the birds. Cat logic, who knows?

An oil spill in the Gulf, and looking for work again...

Life has been fairly quiet since my last post. Ms. Clare de Lune, Tiny Pup, and Johnny Cat have all acclimated to the new apartment. They like to taunt me by putting both front feet over the side of my second floor balcony and giving me a little motherly jump start.

My next challenge is finding a new job here in Houston, especially now that the company I "retired" from is spewing gallons of oil into the Gulf everyday. There goes what little retirement savings I had to begin with. I always said that if some executive didn't use it for his own good, it would certainly be exhausted somehow. Some days I hate my own keen sense of reality.

That also makes me wonder about my current place of work. Another major oil company, where I work as a contractor, yet my co-workers have the luxury of benefits, many weeks off, and huge retirement plans, in addition to huge savings plans. I have to hope that they have invested their money in other ways, too. Heaven forbid that something major happens with this oil company. They are perfect, you know, and something like this would never happen at their company. I always say, in the oil industry, it's all a matter of time before it happens to you, whether it be a refinery accident, a blow-out in deepwater, or a shipping spill in Alaska.

As I look for this next job, I'm looking at all fields of work. It would be great to obtain another job in my beloved field of work, the oil industry. Realistically, I am looking everywhere. If I can learn Process Safety Management and write about it, I can learn another trade.

Moving near the bayou

My son and I recently moved to a cool new apartment on the bayou here in West Houston. We haven't had much time yet to experience the outdoors, yet are loving being next to a small tributary on Buffalo Bayou.

I am still discovering our outdoor space. We have ducks, a lone cowbird, turtles, and too many stray cats. One cat keeps all the others indoors. He skulks about, the lone, solitary, white male. The neighbors warn me about this guy. "Oh, he's torn up my cat. Do not let your cat outside, he'll tear her apart. I never should have let my cat outdoors in the first place."

So, Ms. Clare de Lune (interpretation "bright, clear moon"), my gorgeous tabby with major attitude, longingly stares out the window at the birds from inside her perch in my room. Oh, how she would love to capture a bird. She's only 1.5 years old, yet has never caught a bird that I know of. At our old apartment, she roamed freely whenever and wherever she wanted. She stalked, ran, flushed, and taunted the birds to her heart's delight. Mostly she caught small bugs as she jumped up in the air, using her paws as catcher's mitts.

To me, Ms. Clare is my miracle kitty. I picked her up from my jobsite, where I discovered her on the very day that I got fired from my job. I had gone out at lunch time to pick up a cage and kitten chow from the Dollar General in the small town where I worked. After work, as I stumbled towards my car and her portable cage, I was crying so hard that I could barely see.

I walked into the shed where my co-workers were keeping her. The poor thing was so scared. I think she was the runt of the litter of the mama cat that they had just had fixed. She was so small. I couldn't figure out how old she was, possibly 4 - 6 weeks old, yet the other kittens were 8 weeks old and already adopted out. Maybe mama kitty had taken her in after all her other kittens had left. The place I worked was right across from a rice mill, so possibly her mother had come in from a train that stopped at the rice mill.

As I opened Ms. Clare's cage and attempted to walk to her, I fell hard (I'm great at falling down), and she lunged away from me, back into a hole in the wall. Mama kitty was scared, too. Eventually a co-worker saw me lying on the floor, crying my eyes out, and asking for her help in getting the cat. This lady could tell I was hurting, both physically and mentally, and she kindly helped me up, and picked Clare up.

Clare and I got into the car, started down Old Highway 90, and made the 30 minute trip home. The poor little kitty was so frightened from me crying all the way home. Then, she came into our old apartment and starting turning our lives around. We had not had a baby around for over 17 years. That's another story for another day...