Sounds

Do you like sounds? As a professional parrot, I’m quite interested in them. Even though I mention sounds quite frequently in this blog, I thought it would be fun to devote an entire blog post to them since there are always so many interesting ones around. For example, right now I can hear the refrigerator humming and the occasional car whooshing by down on the road. Just a few minutes ago, I was listening to one of my favorite morning sounds—the coffeepot gurgling as it brews fresh coffee. There’s just something so wonderful and watery about that sound that is so attractive to me. Then there are all the different beeps—the microwave oven, the bread machine, the telephone being dialed. I also enjoy the sounds my person makes when she drinks and chews. Of course, I can’t understand why she has to be such a noisy eater and drinker. We parrots eat and drink very quietly. But whatever the reason, the sounds are fun and I make them right along with her. But my favoritest sound of all is the sound of my person getting up in the morning. It is a quiet and gentle sound but portends so much—the cover will come off my cage, my person will be there and, most of all, there will be fresh walnuts in my dish.
(9/26/11)

Poor Furnace

So the furnace finally came back from vacation, but almost as soon as it got back it started feeling sick. It gave out a few rumbles and whirrs and then lay down and took a nap. My person had to call the furnace doctor. Now, I’m happy to report, the furnace is a feeling a lot better. I wonder how it spent its vacation. It must have been partying hard the whole time, or something, to come back feeling so sick. But it’s not telling. It just hums and whirrs and says it’s too busy heating the house to have time to tell me about it.

Good-bye to Summer

The weather has been quite chilly these past couple of days, so I guess summer is on it’s way out. It’s quite cold in the house, especially at night, but I haven’t heard even one rumble out of the furnace yet. It must still be away on vacation. It sure takes a long summer vacation. I’ll be happy when it comes back, but in the meantime I’ve got my nice fluffy down jacket to keep me warm. So I don’t mind if the furnace stays away for a while longer. My person, on the other hand, doesn’t have her own down jacket. She has to use sweaters and blankets to stay warm. Huh. I’m sure glad I’m a fluffy downy parrot.

Flood/Treats

My person and I were very fortunate during hurricane Irene. There was flood water almost all around us, but since we live on a hill, the flood didn’t come anywhere near my cage or my person’s house. I am a little sad, though, because the garden did get flooded and the sunflowers were soaked in mud. My person says it isn’t possible to clean them well enough for me to eat. A whole summer of growing sunflowers wasted! Except for the few my person harvested before the flood, I guess I’ll be eating store-bought treats this winter. On the other hand, I have discovered a new treat from the garden. The other day, my person harvested a lot of hazelnuts, which weren’t hurt by the flood. I sat on her shoulder and watched with interest as she took the nuts out of their shells. The pile of shelled nuts in the bowl grew bigger and bigger. Finally I decided it was time check them out, so I crawled down my person’s arm and waddled over to the bowl and picked up a little white round nut. Right away I realized that it tasted nothing at all like a walnut, so I dropped it and climbed back up to my person’s shoulder. But my person kept paying attention to those nuts, so I thought there must be something in them and that I should give them another try. So I climbed back down to the bowl and picked up another nut and rolled it around and around in my beak. Then I took a bite out of it. It really wasn’t so bad. So I dropped it, picked up another, bit it and dropped it. It tasty rather yummy. So I went on picking up nuts, biting, dropping, until my person got mad at me for taking bites out of all the nuts and put me back in my cage. Well. Just because a parrot doesn’t eat the same way a person a does! We never eat the whole of anything, but just take a bite, drop it, and move on to the next thing. It’s the parrot way. Anyhow, those hazelnuts tasted good and I can’t wait until my person harvests more.

Seedy

Here’s something I don’t get about people: They talk about the word “seedy” as if it meant something bad. To my way of thinking, there’s nothing better than finding a nice seedy berry in your food dish in the morning. In fact, one thing that makes summer so great is that there are lovely seedy berries in my food dish every day. I’m glad that at least MY person doesn’t have any prejudices against seediness.

Water Bottle

So the other day I was hanging out in my cage without anything particular to do, and feeling a bit peeved because my person was wandering around the house doing all sorts of fun-sounding things but not paying any attention to ME at all. So I was thinking about what I could do about that when my eye fell on my water bottle. OK, so I know I’m not the first parrot to think of this, but that doesn’t make it any less of a good idea. So I just kind of moseyed over to that side of the cage and gave that bottle a good heft with my beak and, just as I thought, it went clattering to the floor. And on top of that, it broke! What fun! Naturally that brought my person running into the room. She picked up the pieces of the broken bottle, but there the fun ended. She just threw the pieces in the trash and went back about her business. Bo-o-o-r-r-r-ing! But then a little while later she showed up with a new water bottle and started attaching it to my cage. This was a very different water bottle in every way-shape, color, everything was different. As a professional parrot, I can’t let any strange thing get near me without checking it out first for predatory potential. So I spent some time attacking the new water bottle. But then I realized that it was really a rather nice thing after all and that in fact I like it very much. I like it so much that I spend a good part of the day sitting lovingly next to it. Of course, I don’t want to let anybody or anything near it, so naturally I have to attack my person every morning when she tries to fill it with fresh water. “If you keep biting me,” she says, “you won’t get fresh water.” She totally doesn’t get it. It’s not about fresh water, it’s about protecting my territory rights. Sheesh! People can be so dumb sometimes.

House Painting

Last winter it was remodeling, and now it’s house painting. At least the house painters leave all their scary, predatory-looking equipment outside. But they sure do make noise. Sometimes I’m sitting quietly in my cage just minding my own business (preening, chewing up popsicle sticks, holding my toothbrush, you know, parrot stuff) when I start hearing these strange noises—banging, scraping, swishing, clanging. And then sometimes a face will suddenly appear in the window. You better believe I start squawking when that happens. My person says they’re just painters scraping the old paint off the window frames or applying the new paint, but I don’t know, it sure seems like predatory behavior to me. I don’t know why my person is always letting all these predators hang around the house. It sure keeps me busy trying to protect us.