Sunday, August 17, 2008

Buffy's Not Alone (My pigeon saga)




I have a love-hate relationship with pigeons, depends on which part of my life I am speaking about, I should really call it a love-tolerate-hate relationship.




The Love (1) - As a child, my brothers all older than i am loved to take care of pigeons, they were homing pigeons i suppose and they would actually race them, not sure how that was arranged, you know if they would have the sky markers for the 100m or whatever because i was about six or seven years old at the height of the pigeon racing era of my brothers. I loved them because they were contained, and actually I thought them to cute, and the excitement felt by my brothers and their friends over their pigeons was definitely contagious.






The Love (2) As an adult already married and a mom of one (Isaiah) my father developed Alzheimer's, he was a businessman all his life and always on the go, but with the onset of Alzheimer's he stayed at home with my mom who took excellent care of him. there were about three or four pigeons that would sit on the electricity line outside my parents' home and my dad would throw his leftovers for them. Well apparently pigeons can smell a meal ticket a mile away, because the numbers grew and soon it was no longer leftovers my parents were actually preparing rice to throw at the pigeons on a daily basis!! the number of pigeons that would show up for lunch went from three or four, to twenty to well over a hundred! It was truly an amazing sight to see my dad feeding the pigeons then, because the Alzheimer's was progressing and he was beginning to forget the names of some of his 12 children, but he always remembered to feed those birds every day. School children gathered from the neighbourhood primary (elementary) school excitedly on their lunch break to observe the daily gathering of the pigeons. It gave my dad so much joy to see the kids enjoy the 'show'.




The Tolerance - I was very close to my due date of my pregnancy with Isaiah, apparently I have a very comfy uterus because my due date came and went and Isaiah did not budge! So I again visited the hospital this time with bag and baggage as we say in Trini, with out even a hint of pain and declared I was not leaving until the kid is out because i was fed up of being pregnant! Heck i was two weeks over my due date!! So the doctor on duty decided to give me a bed and I can wait for my contractions there, I was just happy not to go back home again still pregnant. So my bed was close to the window and I was on the 6th floor or so and i could see the roofs of other hospital buildings around, of course all old government buildings in the Caribbean has pigeons in the roofs and the buildings i could see were no exception. The one night of observation and waiting for contractions turned to two and stretched eventually to 12! by the third day I was bored out of my skull and before i knew it i was staring at the pigeons and became really fascinated with them. I started naming them, there was Marty, and Beatrice, they were married and had two kids. Another pigeon couple was Delores and Peter, they were newlyweds and lived downstairs of Marty and Beatrice, I had sooo much fun after that because they became a soap opera for me, complete with conversations, depending on how they flew away from the building I would know if they flew away in anger or just to go to the supermarket.




When my sisters visited me I told them about the pigeons and the drama in their lives, but somehow they just did not get it. In fact they looked kind of worried. But those pigeons got me through a super long pregnancy and 12 boooring days waiting for the pain of contractions which never came but that's a whole other blog.






The hate - Well no major hate story but lets face it. they are rats with wings!!

20 comments:

Lisa said...

Im not a huge fan of any bird to be honest. My hubbys grandfather had a garage/car port that become overrun with pigeons. I actually enjoyed sitting on the back porch watching the pigoens. When the sun hit them just right they were an iridescent green/pink/blue. They were noisy and messy, but very pretty.

I LOVE the new background by the way. :)

Buffie said...

ROFL!!!! Only you could make a soap opera out of those stupid pigeons!!! Ok, I know, I'm still bitter about 'em! That's a sweet story about your dad though...

Anonymous said...

worried and with good reason, get some books a tv even a radio, well next time, and yes i remember those pigeons though with time i may forget
damnemptynester

Raxx - A day in the life said...

Thanks Lisa, I call the changes to my blog the 'two click change' one click for the background and one for the template!

LOL!! Buffie, the pigeons came in handy to keep me sane or send me conveniently insane!

So glad I could document the story of my dad and the pigeons!

Justine said...

Awesome post, girl! I don't mind pigeons at all, but then again, I don't have any in my yard, so I have nothing to complain about. I love the graphics you found for the post too, especially the pigeon races!

Now what the HELL kind of doctor did you have that let you go a month after your due-date? That's just sick and sadistic treatment! And how on earth did the hospital allow you to stay there, just laying in the bed every day with nothing going on? And shit, I wouldn't want to see that hospital bill!

Justine :o )

artis1111 said...

My hubby loves them. I saw one in Vieques waiting for the fery that ust had one leg. I went to get a picture and give it food. It got scared and tryed to get away. POOOOr birdie...Love the new look of the blog. Kathy

Lisa (aka) French said...

Are you back??? Nice to see you posting even if it is about those shit hawks (lol) French;)

Raxx - A day in the life said...

Justine your comments ALWAYS crack me up!!

Kathy, was the pigeon waiting for the one legged ferry! LOL!!

Frenchie not even buffie would call them that!LOL!!

Anonymous said...

Hey Girl, Im at work.... on my way out to a meting... will comment when I return.

Donna

Anonymous said...

yes one good thing about blogging is you get to document your life,and you had to be a real nerd to write in a diary, i had almost forgotten about those pigeons i guess you are officially the keeper of the memories
damnemptynester

Anonymous said...

Hold up now.... how did you know when the Pigeons were angry? And What store did they shop at? (LOL) That was hilarious! You must have been bored. My Sister's and I used to look at people, and based on how they looked, we would give them names... Like one tall, thin lurky looking man.. (real nerdy) we named him George. George was single, no kids, an avid reader with a very full library card.. LOL. Oh yeah, he was allergic to shell fish.. etc.. we used to do that for hours.

I enjoyed your blog! :) Sorry it took me so long to comment... working sucks... (LOL)

xoxoxox
((((((HUGS))))))
Missed you much!
Donna

Raxx - A day in the life said...

emptynester feel free to publish your memories as they come to you.........

((((Donna!))) Glad you enjoyed my blog today! I'm a regular again in blogland, so i'll be seeing you guys a lot now!

nikkicrumpet said...

I love the pigeon story!! Too funny that you turned it into it's own story!

Thanks for the kind comments on my latest post....and I'd be honored to have you add me!

Bridget said...

It's so good to have you back girl! I came by this morning but I didn't have time to finish reading your entire story. That was really cute. I loved that those darn pigeons kept you entertained while you were stuck in the hospital. Kinda of a love hate relationship.
TTYS, Bridget

niartist said...

Hey Raxx! Thanks for stopping by my blog - good to meet you! I have a friend who married a man from Trinidad, Anthony Edmund. I don't know if you know him or not. Anyway, wouldn't that be cool!? Ok, so love your blog, so glad to hear you'll be a regular, and I'm certainly going to add you to the list of "blogs to check daily!" Hope you have a great day!

Penny said...

I love birdwatching and have several feeders and a couple of bird baths in the backyard.
Love your new background!
Hugs,
Penny

Anonymous said...

Hey Rachel, just dropping in to say Hello. "Hello" I hope all is well today! What are you up to today? Are you working?

Donna

Anonymous said...

Thing is with pigeons is that there are lots of different types, some of which like my Fatty who visits me every day get to be part of the family.

Now the ones that dive bomb you in market places are more like rats - but don't you just feel sorry for the ones with no tail feathers, or the crooked legged one that limps?

I guess they are just like us - come in alll shapes, sizes, colours and attitudes!

Love your new layout, very stylish.

BTW - Forty is how we spell it in the UK.

Lisa said...

Im assuming WW was Wordless Wednesday??

It is put on by www.5minutesformom.com. It is basically just what it says Wordless Wednesday, although I often leave an explanation of the pic.

Just post a picture on Wednesdays :)

SG said...

LMAO at the Hate! You are hysterical.

Aw that's so funny you made it into a soap opera! Amazing what pregnancy can do to you!

That was such a sweet story about your dad! Was that really him in the picture? I clicked on it to enlarge it but nothing happened.

Thanks for sharing! I enjoyed your stories. So glad to see you're back!