A Day In The Park

 I came back to Seattle the end f last December because one of my daughters was having trouble. It’s hard to believe I’ve been here for almost a year.

Since I’ve been here I’ve seen most of my kids and my granddaughter’s mom. Seattle has never registered to me as home. I lived here for sixteen years because this is where my kids grew up.

My kids like it here. Well, they’re really not kids anymore. Their ages range between twenty and thirty years old. Since I have family here I’m seriously thinking about living here. Maybe not in Seattle, but somewhere in the county or around Puget Sound.

I told my family in Modesto I’ll be home for Christmas so that’s my plan for the holidays. That seems more like home than Seattle. Small farm towns are more my speed. Farmer’s fields and orchards make better scenery than city. But it’s good to be near my kids.

I was going to stretch out this morning but my leg was sore. It’s like that when old injuries act up. I decided to sleep in and get a late start instead. If my friend from Alaska saw me he would have called me a lazy ass again.

It was a busy day for me yesterday. After eating lunch at my son’s food truck, there were a lot of errands to run. My son has his cousins working for him, I don’t see him there. I’m glad his mom’s side of the family gets along with me. I’m also glad he’s doing good and has people working for him.

I got up early and stretched out this morning. The old physical therapy exercises I was shown are the only thing that help with the pain when my injuries act up. The pain meds. are useless after a while. They got thrown out.

Sometimes some track and field exercises get thrown into the routine when I stretch out. They seem to help too.

There were people working at the Convention Center this morning. It must be a busy time for them. There were also some guys jogging who passed through the park.

The weather is changing in Seattle. There are clouds rolling in and it’s also colder here. The nice weather might hang around for a little while, but anyone who’s lived here knows there’s a reason people call this area “The Water Shed.” The nice weather won’t last.

Yesterday I was at a city park in the Capital Hill district of Seattle. There were a group of crows using a bird bath.

Ten years ago I was on a side job helping a guy paint his house. I was up on a ladder and a crow that was nesting in a tree in one of the yards nearby started attacking me. It almost knocked me off the ladder I was working on. I was about to kill the bird when I saw she was protecting her nest.

So instead I climbed down the ladder and thought for a few minutes. The bird just glared at me from the nest. Then I had an idea! I made a few bird calls and climbed one step. I kept making bird calls and climbing until I got to the top of the ladder.

The crow flew to the roof of the house I was painting and stood two or three feet away from me, still glaring at me. I picked up the paint brush, put it in the can and started painting. Whenever I moved I also made a few bird calls.

At some point the crow must have realized I was up there because I was doing something and wasn’t there to bother her chicks because it didn’t attack me again. It just stood there on the roof a few feet away watching my every move.

That bird could have easily taken out one of my eyes. The only reason it didn’t was because I was making a few bird calls and trying to communicate with it. She might have also been wondering what I was doing up there.

For a few years before I left Seattle the crows would see me and make bird calls. They would also fly past me and let their wings brush me when they flew by. It was a game for them. They had let me into their world.

When I was looking at this small flock at the bird bath I thought to myself, ‘That was ten years ago, these birds don’t know me.’

They flew off and I walked away.

Two or three of them flew by and brushed me with their wings and were making bird calls. I smiled, the crows were playing with me.

Written by Mark Blevins

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About Me:

I was a Construction Worker and Commercial Fisherman. An injury on a fishing boat in Alaska forced me into early retirement. Now I’m a Writer and Blogger. Having to start over forced me to realize people are more than their job title.

Contact me at 1mark.blevins1@gmail.com