Mrs. Paco and I were walking to the mailbox kiosk this morning - you know, to pick up our typical delivery of advertisements from funeral homes, assisted living facilities and AARP - when we spotted this large fellow perched on a fence outside the tennis courts...
Now, that's a hawk that I believe is capable of catching and eating rabbits, so I hope he (or she, as the case may be) will do his (or perhaps, her) duty.
28 years ago when I bought my property, every lot had the same street address, although the road came up the hill, hit a T intersection going east/west, and then had another T east of there. Everything was "Timber Tides." A few years later the state or country or whatever said we needed to give different names to the two branch roads. Apparently it was to clarify emergency dispatch.
ReplyDeleteI was overseas at the time, but lucky for me the people up here on my road chose "Hawks View." That was far preferable to the next candidate, "Wild Flower." Yuck. How about "Strawberry Shortcake" or "Care Bears?" Yuckitty yuck yuck.
Anyway, it's good because there are actual honest-to-Gawd hawks flying around up here. So it's way better than all those developments with stupid names like "Smuggler's Rusty Cutlass Cove" or "Fox Run Hollow Deercrest Estates" or all those cutesy developments with "Pointe" in the name. The one thing i have never figured out though, is if the name means one may view hawks from here, or because of the elevation we have a hawk's eye view of things. It isn't a question that has lost me any sleep though.
Yeah, "Stephen Skubina of the Wild Flower Skubinas" doesn't really have the right ring to it.
ReplyDeleteI used to get a kick out of the names builders gave their new developments many years ago in North Carolina, particularly those that included golf courses. There was a trend in Scottish-sounding names, things like Glen of the Loch or Highland Heather or similar absurdities.
My favorite was Kangaroo Court.
ReplyDeleteGooday Paco
ReplyDeleteFunny mentioned the funeral home ads. I've been volunteering at Meal on Wheels for the last few years since I retired.
I'm 66 and considered one of the young volunteers.
Just after I read your story I got an email inviting me to a thank you lunch at a fancy restaurant at a beachside suburb. That sounds nice I think to myself then I read that it is sponsored by a funeral house and we are to travel on a bus with funeral advertising all over it.
Nah. Talk about targeted advertising.
Mick: Got an invitation to a lunch sponsored by a local funeral home a while back, where I could learn about what you might call my final options. Decided to give it a miss. We are looking at buying a box at the church's columbarium. It holds two urns. A fairly expensive little piece of real estate, but much cheaper than coffins and hearses and such. I hear tell that there's an outfit that will load your ashes into shotgun shells, and your loved ones can literally blow you to kingdom come. Can't go that route, unfortunately; the Catholic church is now ok with cremation, but you have to be stored in sacred ground, and your ashes can't be spread about.
ReplyDeleteHopefully not for many years to come Paco. We have already told our kids to throw our ashes on our favourite beach and take any expenses out of the inheritance.
ReplyDeleteWe H’s have a prepaid cremation plan with the local funeral home so that when we kick off there shouldn’t be any expenses for the kids. There won’t be a funeral for either of us and I told my daughter to spread my ashes off a footbridge in a nearby state park river gorge (beautiful place). When nobody’s looking of course because I’m sure the state bluenoses would object. But there will be money for a helluva goodbye party.
ReplyDeleteRebeccaH
DeleteNice photo, Paco! Hopefully the hawk gobbles some of the rabbits. We have a plethora of the buggers at our gun range, but as hunting is not allowed, they really procreate. I was mowing one part of the range, and I kept on chasing rabbits through the grass. I didn't run any over (what a mess that would be!), but I thought about it. So we have plenty of hawks, coyotes, and bull snakes, thanks to the plentiful food supply.
ReplyDelete(There's a wolf pack as well, but they prefer the elk and deer. Not to mention, they kinda know they aren't welcome, even if they are a protected species, thus stay away from the impact berms. The badgers are a different matter, of course.)
Another (possibly serious) option for cremation ashes is to put them in hour glasses. I'm not so sure about that myself, but if you keep the glasses small, you have many to pass around the family. Or maybe put out in a yard sale ......
I'm pretty sure if my ashes were handed out to the boys, they would be out hawking 'em as the last, precious remains of Joan of Arc.
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