Susceptible

Life, I am told,
Is just life
Living its life.
So the fact
That it makes me
Want to laugh
And want to cry
Must be just me
Susceptible to life.
Or so I tell myself.
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Echoes: Words and pictures
Expressing words and pictures
Like Jay Birds

Free Thinking - Paid Parking

Fleeing the Past - But not leaning into the Future.
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Echoes: Collage and Cliches by Jay Bird.

This Gusher May Be Gushing For A Long Time

The Ixtoc I oil well blew out in 1979 and took almost 10 months to cap, and it was only in 160 feet of water.

Rachel Maddow has a recap of the news from 1979. Hauntingly and sadly familiar. It sounds like we really don't have any better methods now than we had then.

We may be in for a very long, slow motion disaster in the Gulf of Mexico.

Spud Boy Looking for Real Tomato

Evelyn makes great quiche!
It's egg pie, but I guess that doesn't sound as culinary.
Very Yummy!

Look! No Cat! No Cradle!

"Tiger got to hunt, bird got to fly;
Man got to sit and wonder 'why, why, why?'
Tiger got to sleep, bird got to land;
Man got to tell himself he understand."

---Kurt Vonnegut, Cat's Cradle.

Attachment

From the iPhone.

Live Forever?

Live Forever? Love Forever?
I know which one I would choose.
There are cracks in everything
That is how the light gets in.
When your heart is broken
It is finally open.
But what is forever?
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Echoes: Collage and prose by Jay Bird.
Fly Free on Fragile Wings.

Superior 4 Color Process

Hand printing requires good technique and strokes.
The strokes need to be consistent.
In the case of automatic printing,
monitor the squeegee pressure and use a triple durometer

Slothiness...

http://vimeo.com/11712103

Nothing like a baby sloth.

Watch the video.

A Collage or two Because I can

A couple of collages, just because I can.

Make of them what you will.

I am a fan of learning to land,
On beautiful things.
Enjoy your weekend.

--Jay Bird...

My daughter went to Nasa

And all I got was the ability to calculate orbits!

Siona went to the Kennedy Space Center in Florida and brought me a new astronaut and a cool bumper sticker. Now I just need a car to put it on.

I Learned A Lot in the Last Week or So...

Everything can turn upside down in a few minutes
That impermanence thing the Buddha talked about…real.
We have plans, but other things happen instead.
When you are in trouble, people will help you, if you have people who will help you.
Doctors are so busy, they don’t listen to you.
Nurses are the ones who do the “caring” part of healthcare.
So have a good nurse and be your own doctor.
Learn lots of useful things when you are young enough to remember them.
Later when you lose your mind and your short-term memory, the only useful things you will have to call on are the ones you learned when you were young.
Short-term memory is the part that tells you that you have taken your pills already or that your wife left for the store just 10 minutes ago.
Yellow pads are a poor substitute for short-term memory but they are better than nothing.
Canes are actually quite useful when you have bad balance.
Carbon Monoxide binds with blood cells the same way Oxygen does.
But when your blood is bound with CO, you can’t get O2. Who knew?
If your skin is yellow, the doctors won’t believe you when you tell them you have CO Poisoning.
Your car can be tested for leaks, pass, and still kill you because you drive in your car longer than any mechanic will.
Fresh Air is one of the sweetest things on earth.
But the best thing is people who love you as much as you love them!
Life is a weird, wonderful, incomprehensible miracle.
I am very glad to still be a small part of that miracle.
Even if I need a cane and a yellow pad to get through the day (for now).
I feel stronger everyday. And my girls (Evelyn, Chani, and Siona) take great care of me.
There are doves, goldfinches, humming birds, and dozens of birds that do not care that I do not know there names out side. They just care that I fill up the feeders with thistle and sunflower seeds and sticky red water.
This Jay Bird feels as if he is the big slow member of their energetic flock. But I am learning to fly again from them.

Thanks to the Nurses, the friends, my nurses friends, and everyone who has helped in the last couple of weeks. I love you Evelyn—you keep me going.
Thanks to the Bodhisattvas who taught me how to breath and not lose my mind when I was younger, so I could remember how when I most needed it.
Thanks to the world for holding me up.
Thanks to the Sun for shining on me.
Peace.

A Long Week Away....

Well, I have been absent the Blog for a week.
But I have learned a lot about Carbon Monoxide Poisoning.
1. You can’t see it or smell it.
2. It can kill you.
3. Did I mention you can’t see it or smell it?

My car apparently has a CO problem.
I drove it; it pumped Carbon Monoxide into my lungs.
I lost feeling in my lips and almost passed out.
My wife took me to the ER. They said I had CO Poisoning.
Several days of illness and short-term memory loss later and I am starting to feel better.
I won’t be driving for a while. Loss of balance.
I won’t be fixing my roof. See the above.
And staring at a computer screen all day is kind of hard to do.
But rest assured that I will be making a full recovery.
And I hope to be back online soon on a regular basis.
Thanks to my girls who take good care of me.
And to all my friends who have been concerned.
Fresh Air and spring time is the best medicine.

Oh, and get a CO Detector for your house.
It might save your life sometime.

Peace.
Jay

Feeder of the Pack

Current events make me sad
But I don't want to bark like a psychotic dog
I have work to do
Family to take care of
A roof that needs mending
Bird seed to put out
The doves are fat
The red-wing blackbirds are dancing
Can eggs be far behind?

This is not a spill.

Lets quit calling the BP oil disaster in the Gulf of Mexico a "spill".

It's an unchecked gush of crude oil from beneath the bottom of the ocean into the water — and no one can say for sure when it will finally stop.

Unfortunately, we can say that we will be dealing with the effects of this gusher for decades to come. Exxon Valdez was a spill, and that area has not recovered 21 years later.

Unfortunately, we can guess that BP will do it's corporate best to reduce liability and externalize cost. At this point in the Exxon Valdez timeline, Exxon was saying that they would do what ever it took to take care of this problem. Sounds a lot like what BP is saying about their accident. Even as they rush around the Gulf Coast offering people $5,000 if they waive their rights to any future legal action or compensation.

How is that "free market" solution to the gusher working for you?

Happy birthday Siona

Siona turned 20 this weekend.
So we threw a party.
Wow! My baby is all grown up.

From the iPhone.