A Tale of an Old Man -- and Two Young Chicks

In Early August 2012; At Grumpy's Castle --

It might be expected that, after losing one's partner, companion and wife of over 63 years, that an Old Man would seek company to share his lonely life. But what Grumpy undertook may be considered by some to be beyond the pale [Irrevocably unacceptable or unreasonable: e.g., behavior that was quite beyond the pale.]: Two (2) young chicks!!

Cheep (front) and Cheeper (rear)

Now lest any of you females in the Z-clan begin to get any of the wrong idea(s), let me see if this photograph of these two young charmers can clear things up a bit.

As a pair, these two [whom I have, for obvious reasons, named "Cheep" and "Cheeper"] have been perfect companions -- for each other. I could leave them outside in the front yard and go back every fifteen or twenty minutes, and find them partially-hidden back under the plants next to the house. When I called them [by "clucking" like a mother hen] they would "cheep" back to me and move a little bit so I could detect them by their motion. If I kept "clucking", they would come to me and would allow me to pick them up to take them into the house and put them in their box [for the night, or to take with me in the car].

When I was invited to go up to Granite Falls Friday afternoon to enjoy a family "Camp-out" with Grandchildren and Great Grandchildren, I took Cheep and Cheeper with me. They were perfectly happy when released from their box and left to roam free; after all, the Red Rocket was there, a familiar sight, under which for them to hide and to find shade during the heat of the day. When night fell, I simply called them to me, placed them back in their box and placed it in the car.

Poor little Cheep [Andalusian] the day before she disappeared.

On Sunday, when I went to visit Demetria and not wanting to leave them in the car in the shadeless parking lot, I thought to leave them in my front yard where everything was familiar and where they had been happy before -- as a pair. Sadly when I returned, only Cheeper's plaintive cry could be heard in response to my call; Cheep was nowhere to be found -- not a sound or even a sign. I agonized over what could have happened -- and still do not know for sure.

Cheeper -- My friend for life!

Subsequent to the disappearance of Cheep, her buddy Cheeper has become inconsolably attached to me. She even prefers my company to eating and drinking. And I have become more attached to her, and more protective of her than I ever thought possible. She still has to stay in her box -- alone -- at night so we can both get some sleep. But I go out in the front yard occasionally to stand next to her so she will eat and drink water. Otherwise she either roosts on the ledge of the storm-screen door, or she flies up to roost on top of the tool shed or on the utility trailer. [When she starts roosting on top of the Rocket, I will have to find another solution!]

Fishing in Florida; A Story of Miss-Casts

A Retrospective on Certain Fishing in Florida --
On one of the sight-seeing tours Son Ward took us on, we chanced upon a lazy stream. No stream in Florida is in a hurry. The land is so flat that Grumpy believes they flow upstream or downstream depending on the tidal effect of the Sun and Moon! But the allure of this particular stream was that it "might" hold an Alligator or three!

Anyway, this stream was spanned by a concrete bridge with excellent viewing of a good span of water wherein might lurk the wily Alligator. So we stopped and got out to look over the situation. Grumpy peered intently into the smooth, brownish water emanating in both directions from under the bridge, hoping to spy a big 'Gator; meanwhile, Son Ward spied the strange assortment of fishing lures dangling from the power line spanning the stream above.

This cropped image highlights the several lures left stranded there by no-doubt several frustrated fisherman! One can only imagine the color(s) of the air that must have further polluted this quiet place when the fisherman-owners of these lures first realized the "lure" that this overhead wire held for their fishing lures.

Our First Day in Maryland with Ward the Not-as-Old

The Grand Mother and Grumpy journeyed via a Delta Airlines Boeing 757. Grumpy's proudest moment at Boeing occurred two years before he retired, having lead the development and final design of the first All-Electronic Propulsion Control System (EPCS) used on a production airplane. But, other than flight test airplanes, he had never before flown on a scheduled commercial airplane with "his" system (Delta was the premier airline buying their first 50 757's with this system).

We changed planes at JFK in New York City, catching a small Canadair twin jet from there down to Reagan International in Washington DC. That's when the "fun" began: our baggage was not on this last flight. After determing that the next flight (in two hours) would "bring our baggage", we went several miles outside the DC area, stopping at a "Jimmy Mac's Roadhouse" style restaurant for a very fine meal with Ward & Peggie, Joe and the Grand Mother & Grumpy.

Upon returning to Reagan by a roundabout way (Joe, on his GPS calling out the turns -- sometimes "a little too late") we found one of the two pieces of our baggage. It did not include our clothes and other valuable stuff that Grand Mother and Grumpy desperately needed for our comforts. We reported our lost baggage to Delta, with the hope that the other bag would be delivered sometime during the night after the midnight flight in from JFK.

A call the next morning revealed that our lost piece of luggage was at Reagan; Ward and Grumpy took off in his Jeep Rubicon for the airport. Unfortunately, this piece of luggage was actually two parts which Grumpy had taped together for ease of carrying into SeaTac. The Delta personnel at checkin had insisted that they be considered one piece with one luggage tag and that they be put in a big plastic bag, which I did. At Reagan, the big bag (with our clothes) was not in the plastic bag and the smaller green bag with Grumpy and Grand Mother's other important things, was not to be seen.

Time will tell whether this smaller green bag is ever found and if it ever gets back into Grumpy's hands. More later.