Birdhouse Insurance

Being retired is one of those things in life that everyone will eventually experience. Some just can’t seem to shed the decades of hard work and continue to work at some meaningless job for the rest of their lives. That is up to them of course and “meaningless” is my term, not theirs. When I say “meaningless” I guess I am referring to continuing to pursue the corporate dream.

We all need to do something that gives meaning to our existence, but it is my belief that after a lifetime of chasing an elusive dream, there comes a time when less is indeed more. When you are in the midst of raising a family or building a career, you just don’t have time to spend doing those things that give you only personal satisfaction. It can be anything really, from doing volunteer work, helping out the kids or just trying to spread happiness and joy where ever you go. I kind of like the last one, but unfortunately that will be determined only at my funeral.

A benefit to being retired is that you can still do all of those things you did while you were working, but now you can take a little longer and complain about the younger generation while you are doing it. Today I found myself staring out of the bedroom window at the back yard. I originally looked out to see just what I need to do out there before winter rears its ugly head. There is the gardening to clean up and those tomato wire support things need to be put somewhere, it wouldn’t hurt to restack the wood pile and if I feel really energetic I could rebuild the sagging gate.

I then started to look at the bird house that I put up in the spring. It looks to have weathered the summer pretty well, but perhaps I should just do a little home improvement. It was a big success as far as bird houses can be successful. Birds made a nest in it and raised some little birds which is really all that it was supposed to do. Last week I emptied the house out in preparation for who ever decides to set up house keeping in it next spring. I was surprised by how much straw and other assorted crap they use to make the nest. When I emptied the nest out front, there were three unhatched eggs. What do you do with three unhatched eggs? Well, if you are me then you put them in an old glass ash tray and leave them on your work bench.

 

I think I will bring them in tomorrow and see if I can do pysanka with them. They are pretty small and mottled, but it could be interesting. I was thinking this while looking out the window and I noticed a couple of birds sitting on the bird house. One went in and then came out and the other went in. This went on for a few minutes and a couple of other birds came over and checked the house out. I’d like to think they were looking at real estate with next spring in mind. I don’t think that was it though.

What I think is that they came home after being away for what ever reason, and found that their home had been gutted! The first few times they went in and out of the house was not unlike what you or I would do if we came home and there was nothing left. Next, they called the neighbours to try and find out if they had seen anything. Like most neighbours they would say they hadn’t seen a thing. I could swear that the birds looked violated just sitting there on the top of the house. They turned their heads and looked towards my window and I leaned back into the shadows, after all, you can’t be too careful.

 

I turned away from the window and fought off a little feeling of guilt. Maybe I was a little early in cleaning out the nest, but they looked like a pretty sensible bird couple and probably had Birdhouse insurance. I wonder how much Birdhouse insurance costs and where would the birds get the money? Hmmm…maybe I should Google that.