Beagles and Bluebirds

This is a picture of our back yard.

See the gazebo back there in our neighbor's yard? This morning, Vicky came rushing out into the kitchen: "David, come quick!" she said.

I rushed back to the bedroom with her and she pointed out the window with a big secret smile on her face. Look out there at the gazebo!

I looked. There were three deer trying to squeeze their way under the gazebo, for some unfathomable reason. Beautiful day with the sun shining down, and they're trying to get into the shade.

I'm glad I've got the wife who, when she sees such a thing, doesn't just say, 'Huh,' to herself and go on with her day. I'm glad I've got the wife that thinks it's a big deal, enough to call people over to see: "Can you believe it? Deer under the gazebo! And look at all the bluebirds flying around the yard. Things are really hopping out there!"

As I was writing this, she tiptoed back into the kitchen, put her finger to her lips and said, "David, come -- hurry!"

This time she laughed under her breath as she pointed up at the rain gutter. I looked, and there was a bluebird tail poking into view. The rest of the bird was obscured by the gutter, which the bluebird was very diligently trying to clean out. Leaves and dried pine needles were flying off the edge of the gutter with abandon. I said, "Good little bird. Just keep moving around the house. That way I won't have to get up there and clean the gutters myself."

Vicky smiled again and posed with balled up fists and flexed arms: "They're just such husky birds. No flitting about for them."

The other day I was walking home from the bus and passed a house with two beagles in the backyard. They saw me and started setting it up, one in particular was howling to break your heart. I wished so badly that Vicky was there with me at that moment. Because then I would have been able to look over at her and see her face beaming with pleasure as she watched those two little dogs.

In parting, may I offer a two-second video I took Wednesday night when she came back from chemo: