Summer Day Off

And this is when my Summer Days Off become more hectic than actually going to work.

First, a double appointment at the vet for Kiwi the Grey and her foster brother, Sigmund.  Both are in excellent health.  A lady in the waiting room, who had adopted from the Refuge, told me that Kiwi is just beautiful.  Do you know what I said?

"Well, thank you.  She certainly thinks so."

Her feathers are near perfect.  She is flighted and takes good care of them.  She also grooms her beak and nails, so the vet tech didn't have to take out the Dremel drill.  She is very vain.  And apparently, very hormonal.  This is the time of year when she thinks about laying eggs and the doctor confirmed that her vent is dilated.  Ugh.

Kiwi is normally a very sweet girl.  Mischievous, but sweet.  When she lays eggs, she becomes a holy terror.  I shall remind you with a picture from two years ago:

She is charging the camera for daring to invade the space.  She would have killed, I am certain.

Sigmund, of course, is a chronic feather picker.  I saw his file - he has been a chronic feather picker for at least six years.  Now he has feathers growing in.  Feathers!  The doctor's notes said, "Keep up the excellent care."  Double underlined!

So I brought them home, fed them and headed out for a quick lap around Lake Glenview before a lunch meeting for the Used Book Store.  I may have mentioned that the new library is nearly finished.  They expect to shut down operations in mid-August for the move - re-openeing in mid-September.  Our little core group was looking at blueprints and debating the set up.  I was advocating simplicity.  I just don't think all of our volunteers are interested in resorting and shelving and knowing the difference between espionage/thriller/whodunnits in the Mystery section.  But I don't really care.  The thing I am willing to fight about:

"I want an entirely separate section for Political Commentary.  No more Michael Moore and Rush Limbaugh shall pollute the History section!"

There is another debate about whether to shelve trade paperbacks in the same space as the hardcovers.  I would put them together.  As a consumer, I like them together.  Not willing to argue about that, either.  We went on like this for two hours and solved...not much.  But it is finally starting to feel real.  We are going to get there!

After the meeting, I went to Costco.  I have been putting off a trip for weeks because I refuse to go on the weekend.  Yesterday I learned that I also can't go on a Friday.  No kidding.  It is as bad as Saturday.  The produce looked great, though.

That night, I was in the family room with the birds and my mother went to the kitchen to do dishes for the third time that night.  Kiwi jumped from the perch, flew straight to her shoulder and bit her ear.  Badly.

Apparently, Kiwi's cranky hormonal fits have something to do with the kitchen sink.  Thus ended my fabulous day off.