Hello, Readers!
This week's post will start with a birthday song
for this girl!
Natalie turned 24 on Thursday.
This year's birthday was epic for our oldest child.
Her birthday fell on Black Waffle Thursday.
An autism quirk of Natalie's is she only eats certain things
for breakfast on certain days.
She only eats waffles
out of the black waffle iron on Thursdays
and no other day of the week.
She could be starving
and if it wasn't a Thursday,
she would not take a bite.
It was also happened to be a Tim McGraw tour date
in Cuyahoga Falls, Ohio.
Natalie has handled the pandemic like a trooper.
She's missed out on a lot as we kept her in fairly close quarters.
We spent the entire day of her birthday doing her favorite things.
After a morning of gifts and treats--
bacon,
a Minnie Mouse doll
and a new shade tent for her baseball chair,
we headed a couple of hours west
and stopped at her favorite stores in the Beachwood Mall.
We love Altar'd State!
The displays are so beautiful.
The clothes are a little pricey full price,
but they have a great bargain cave in the back.
I learned during a previous trip
that when the bargain cave eventually gets packed up,
all the clothing gets shipped to the Erie Gabe's!
When in doubt for a gift to buy for Natalie,
go with bath soap.
She loves scented soap!
This store is her favorite of all time--
so many things to smell!
Ellen took her in and she sniffed away
until she chose Happy Hippy.
If you want to check out a National Park,
there is one in Cuyahoga Falls,
20 minutes from the mall.
We went to see Brandywine Falls.
Ellen and Ryan had been there just a few months prior,
and they said it was an easy paved path for viewing
less than a half a mile from the parking lot.
Aren't they pretty?
Well.....
at least they are in the fall scene depicted at the Ranger Station.
The bridge just before the parking lot is being replaced.
The only other path to the falls is a 2.5 mile walk one way
on rugged terrain.
We opted to come back in the fall.
Thinking about hiking made us tired and hungry,
so we stopped for food at the Winking Lizard in Peninsula, Ohio,
about 15 minutes from the Blossom where Tim was playing.
Great food,
great margaritas,
and Jenerous treated.
Thank you!!
Tailgating is my specialty.
The crowd in Handicapped Lot B
wasn't all that wild.
Well, except for Kenyan.
I've never been to the Blossom before,
but this will not be my last time.
I loved it there!
I've seen Tim probably 10 times
in many different states and venues,
and this was my favorite of all time.
I was beautifully landscaped,
there wasn't a bad seat,
and the bathrooms were spotless!
The beverages were so great--
but more on that next week.
My Vera Bradley Clear Concert Backpack
was actually too large according to their regulations,
but they let me in anyway--
even with my camera.
I said it was an old Mom Camera
and I had no lenses--
couldn't get a decent far away shot....
but I haven't seen Tim in three years.
Natalie brought her gift from Sam.
When everyone waved their phones,
she waved Minnie.
The arena was made of beautiful wood.
Russell Dickerson was an opener.
He reminded me of the nerdy guy at a party who won't leave.
I couldn't wait to see how the arena held the lights.
They dimmed when it was Tim time.
Here was me.
And here was Tim!
The lighting was a great as the music.
I got lots of great photos,
even with the hoppers and rockers sitting
in the row in front of me.
I'll say it again--
there isn't a bad seat in this place,
and open air arena is the way to go if you are headed to any show.
Tim put on a great show as always.
He's in fabulous shape
and really gets down into the crowd.
I'm content wherever I'm sitting,
but I now am considering a splurge sometime
to get the front row.
He and his band are seasoned performers.
Judging from the crowd around me,
his fans are seasoned, too.
Not too many celebrating their 24th birthdays.
Tim forgot the words.
Twice.
Tim McGraw concerts are something I'll never tire of.
It was such a good night.
The blog title tonight is dedicated to a lyric from
Tim's song Fly Away.
Here is the video if you aren't familiar with it.
CLICK HERE for the song
Now for Act 2 of this blog--
which is truly for the birds.
Meet my friends.
They are my little front porch birdies.
Notice anything?
Look closely.
This is the momma of three of the four.
I believe this is her idiotic husband
who kept flying into my door for three weeks.
Last Saturday I found a baby bird.
Well,
to be exact,
THEY did.
It was in this patch of decorative grass underneath the window.
The dogs didn't harm it--
they were just staring at it.
It was alive, but looked to be about a week or 10 days old.
We looked and looked to try to figure out where it came from.
Eventually we made an assumption
that something must have pulled it from its nest
and it was dropped.
I've tried to save enough babies in my life
to know that setting it outside in a shoebox
wasn't going to have a positive outcome.
So while Eloise thought,
I did put it into a shoebox
with grass and human hair taken from my hairbrushes.
It kept breathing
and I kept telling it to hang on--
Eloise is a thinker.
We finally figured he stood a better chance in nature
than with me, a shoebox, and an eyedropper for food.
So Eloise did the unthinkable.
I dropped him in the robin's nest
while making the statement--
"Move over! Someone's coming to dinner."
I got so nervous I plopped him in upside down.
I had to reach in a second time and right him,
nestling him between his robin nestmates.
He looked similar to a robin,
but bigger,
so I assumed he was from a hatch a few days
prior to the front porchers.
He's the light gray, fluffy one.
Then, despite the nine million things I had to do last Saturday,
I sat there in the grass
talking to the bird momma and daddy,
who were perching on the porch railing looking perplexed.
We all have to step up in life, Momma.
Sometimes someone hands us something we didn't ask for.
And that Something entails a heck of a lot more work.
You can do this, Momma.
Save him.
Within the hour she was back on the nest,
and the male robin was bringing food.
I checked every few hours,
almost certain I'd see him pushed from the nest,
but there he remained,
making all kinds of noise.
He was bigger than his foster brothers
so he sat on top of them most of the time.
I did a lot of bird watching the next day,
and solved the mystery.
This bird was on the pointy peak of my roof--
He took what was in his beak,
the flew in the bat trap
from a decade ago.
The nest was inside there.
The little birdie must have fallen out the hole,
rolled down.
and fell off into the grass.
I love nature and respect it.
I know it is best not to interfere,
but this time I got such a strong sense to save this bird.
I think he's going to be the inspiration for my second children's book.
Here was the first one from 2014 in case you missed it.
By the way,
he flew away this morning before I got up.
He knew I had a hard time with goodbyes.
I'll see you later, Little One.
Maybe on the pages of my next novel.
Eloise
