I've got the strangest story! Many WEEKS back, Doug and I woke up on Saturday morning to the strangest sound. We discovered a bird pecking and flying into our dining room window. This is no ordinary bird - it is a huge robin. HUGE. He's either on steroids or is just quite buff from his daily exercise routine of flying into windows.
The first day we saw this odd behavior, we weren't too concerned, because we thought that bird would be dead at the end of the day because of its futile, exhausting behavior. Well, not so! This bird is still hanging around almost 4 weeks later. No kidding. He likes to start at about 6:45 am and likes to end at sundown. I think more than enjoying pecking and flying into the window, he enjoys pottying all over Audrey's slide/play gym. It's the world's most clossal, stinky mess.
His routine consists of sitting on the slide, which is right in front of the dining room window, and staring at the window until he just can't help but fly into it and peck. Then back up on the slide, and into the window. Over and over and over- all day- everyday.
We couldn't figure out what possibly was possessing him (could be a her, we don't know!) to engage in this annoying activity. The first few days, we laughed at it, Audrey got a kick out of watching it, and Sadie loved barking at it. Audrey gave the bird a name - "Lousy Lou"! I know, kinda cute. However, weeks later, it isn't so funny anymore. Sadie doesn't bark. Audrey has even given up her perpetual questioning of why the bird was flying into the window. And Doug and I are a bit tired of be woken up early, cleaning the mess all over the window, and hosing down Audrey's slide.
We thought at first he saw the reflection of the trees in the window so we kept trying to play with the lighting and curtains in the dining room. Then we actually tried hiding in the curtains with a crazy loud horn hoping to scare him away. Yeah, we felt pretty grown up with that activity! I think it just scared more poop out of him! Then he decided some of our other windows were pretty entertaining too. My dad said robins are territorial and so the bird is trying to scare away that other bird - you know the one, the menacing bird reflection! Dad recommended we could try to buy some big owl figurine to scare the robin. But, I wasn't going to go through that much trouble for a bird. Let me tell you, weeks of this has made me want to buy 20 owls!
In case you're wondering how my dad knows about robins.....well, you just gotta know my dad. I remember as a kid thinking my dad was certainly the smartest man in the world. But I also remember wondering if all kids thought their dad was the smartest man ever because they just have such adoring eyes. Well, at 29 years old, I can still say my dad is the smartest guy, hands down. He jokes that he has a microchip of useless knowledge in his head. All of us kids joke about his thirst for knowledge that surely can be quenched in any Consumer Reports magazine. All data findings that magazine has put out in the last 20 years has been permanently filed away in my father's head. And, the wonderful world wide web also plays a huge role in satiating his deep desire for instant answers to any question!
It's a blessing and a curse for my mother, I think. We can't even get through a simple movie without my dad jumping up to run to the computer to look up some fact, statistic, date, actor etc. He's just incredible. I think his knowledge is a crutch for us kids, you know? I mean, really, we can't build anything, invest in anything, or buy anything without calling dad first. Rest assured in no time, dad can send us a super groovy, yet complicated, drawing or email charting all info regarding our situation and dad's recommendation. We should never kid with him; without him, we'd all have made many a foolish decision! Doug and I say that anything in our house that doesn't work right, was something that we purchased of our own accord.
Ok, so I digress. The bird! The bird even likes the side mirror of Doug's car. Or I suppose it is more that he hates it. Go figure, that crazy bird keeps following himself to every window and mirror! Anyway..... we are all trying to be patient. And we've even admired this bird's persistence. He's got more stick-to-it-iveness than I have in many ways. Doug says this bird is a good sermon illustration just waiting to happen. Granted, his actions are absolutely futile and tiring, but he keeps on. Maybe we are more like the goofy bird than we think. We can work pretty hard at some things in our lives when we want to - even if they are futile things that only wear us out. And when when it comes to working super hard at holiness, we tire and give up so easily.