Drift away

 Saw Tom Rush Friday.
Probably for the 30th time in his 51 years on the road.
I remember his voice on my transister radio when I was 12. 1966, The Circle Game.
Tom doesn't write many songs but once he sings one it becomes his forever.

For some time now he has been singing Mentor William's "Drift Away". One of my favorites of all times. Until Tom took it over, my favorite version was Bruce and Little Steven at the Brendan Byrne Arena August 1984. (I was there).

Now Mentor Williams and Dorian Gray are dead. Bruce and Steven are just fine. Tom and I are old.

And Tom sings this, alone with his guitar, and it is a spare and lovely meditation on aging and the approach of death. And gratitude. And the endless power of music.

www.incorporatemyuterus.com

file:///Users/susankeady/Desktop/incorporate-cert99-1.pdf

incorporate your uterus

I love Florida. Last week State Rep Scott Randolph said, "If my wife incorporated her uterus, you would all say hands off". Meaning that Florida Republicans do not want to regulate any business but have all sorts of plans for regulating uteri.

So Rep Scott was reprimanded for this statement and told not to mention body parts on the floor of the house. Children might be listening. Democrats are wearing these buttons.

My uterus is long gone, but I am going straight to the ACLU page, www.incorporatemyueterus.com to incorporate it anyway.

wild parrots of St Petersburg

One of the many nice features of my new neighborhood is a huge flock of wild quaker parrots. They hang out at the Publix and sometimes fill the sky with green and noise as the whole flock soars at once. Often a bird or two is on the telephone wire, checking out the view and commenting on stuff.

These little guys are so common here that the logo for the annual First Night party features one of the quakers instead of the official city bird the pelican. (I love pelicans too).

But of course the finest companion animal in the world is a captive bred hand fed quaker parrot. Like my baby here Nikki Two, or as she prefers to call herself NikkiBIRD (her accent on bird).

I worry about the ethics of keeping pets anyway. Unlike dogs and cats, parrots are wild animals. That is part of their considerable charm. Is it right to live with one of these opinionated, talkative darlings and let them bond with a human? I'm not really sure.

But this is NikkiBird responding to the call of her feral counterpart. Her cage is open but she is not going out.

Berry tells great stories about the escaped pet quaker who found him on the Pinellas Trail one day. Landed on his shoulder murmering "hello" and refused to be chased away.Berry had to take him home and buy him a cage and food and toys and another quaker and so on. Captured by a bird.

All Alaska television

Just about the time I traveled 5,000 miles to Florida, Alaska hit television. All the time. Loggers, fishers, cops, wildlife cops, gold miners, and bush pilots. Sarah Palin's reality show. I confess I've watched most of them. A surreal experience.

I watch these amazing scenes. People I know, places I've been. Almost too lovely to be real, but I have been there.

I like living in Florida

I've spent all my life in cold climates. Now every afternoon I sit in a wicker rocker on my patio and study the weather page of the St Petersburg Times. Check the weekly forecast first. Mostly sunny most days. And the tide table. High at 7:02 pm today.

Then I go through the US forecast for hight and low temps at cities I have lived in.

Concord NH 26/6

Anchorage 22/-1

Fairbanks 4/-38

New York 38/32

They don't list Rochester so I look at Buffalo (28/24) and Syracuse (24/21). Seasonal.

A quick look at the national weather map - which does not include Alaska - then over to the seawall to watch the pelicans.

parrothead looks at 60

Here's Nikki Two, my second quaker parrot. Just a baby, doing well with step up and snuggling.

Today we watched Jimmy Buffett's benefit concert for the Gulf Coast. "Changes in Latitude" still my theme song after all these years. I had a gin and tonic, and Nikki Two had a slice of key lime with an umbrella in it.

If I had wanted to worry about oil spills I would have stayed in Alaska.

I have been obsessively visiting the beach after work, looking for oil. Never saw any. We're good.

Ava, age three, has been very worried. 'There's a hole in the ocean and the oil is coming out". I hope she feels better now.

Meanwhile, I have a new baby bird. He/or/she is learning to "step up", to stay on the play gym rather than fluttering down on the dogs and risking death by startling them, to cuddle and give kisses without biting.

We will soon move on to talking, potty training, playing hide'n'seek, and singing important Jimmy lines like "cheeseburger in paradise".