Marshmallow Update For January, 2015

Every time I have sat down at my desk and tried to update this defiant little blog I've stopped and walked away. This has been going on for a long time. I see no end in sight, but will attempt to fight off the apathy.

Just an update on the Marshmallows over the past year, during which this blog has suffered. All of these happened or are ongoing. Some for actually longer than a year. Here we go:

• My friend "Rob", who was taken off of life support and miraculously lived through the ordeal decided to start a new life by leaving his wife of 30 years and family. No divorce, just left. Currently running about the world, spending money and not dealing with real life. I've cut him out of my life.
• One of my best companions, Shadow Marshmallow, died. His brother, who happens to be the face of this blog, is still with us and doing fine.
• My mother-in-law began the slow, terrible decline into senility and is currently continuing to fail in mind and body.
• My father-in-law is slowly dying of esophageal cancer.
• I'm going into surgery for removal of the medial meniscus ligament in my left knee tomorrow.
• The above will only happen if:
• I can shake my cold in the next 18 hours
• I don't catch the flu from Lady Marshmallow
• the predicted snowstorm doesn't close the surgery center

Just a sampling. 

Now, this is nothing, really. It's what we call "Life". This happens to everyone across the world every day. No pity is being asked for. But what I realize is that if I don't have an outlet for the normal stresses of everyday life, things feel much worse. That's where I go wrong.

So, that's where I need to make sure that I don't let the apathy monsters get me. When I DO finally sit down and begin to type, I need to keep going. Which means for anyone still left reading these missives, you will be tortured with sloppy, unstructured writing. It may ramble. It may not come full circle and end properly. But the words will be here.

So do me a favor. If you read this, please comment. And I mean it when I say I want no pity, because you all deal with this stuff too, yet manage to keep writing. So even if your comment is simply, "Hey! I read your blog.", that'll work for me.

In the meantime, the good news is that Wolfgang Amadeus Marshmallow is crushing it at college and is most of the way through his junior year already. The pianos there are exploding with the sound of his playing, and we are loving it. As for the other Marshmallows, they're all just fine too. And that's the good part of life, isn't it?

Having a Super Time

With all the holiday goings-on, hustle and bustle, work, family, etc. I've just remembered something. I have a blog! And I'm not dead yet. So I must blog!

Here you go: Blog.

There. Happy? Good. Here's some more, just in case that wasn't enough.

Found a new app that is sucking my free time away like crazy. It's called "Super", and it's the creation of Biz Stone, who also helped create things such as Twitter, Xanga, Jelly (which has also been sucking my free time away), and a few other little doohickeys.

I encourage you to try Super if you: love to waste time a lot, love to be creative in short spurts, and want your blog to become neglected. It's done wonders for my blog, as you can see.

Other than that, I plan to firmly resolve to write more, beginning January 1, 2015. I plan to break that resolution on January 2, 2015. But don't be glum. I will re-resolve all year long, and there's no stopping me once I re-resolve.

Have a Super day!

How I See Autumn

Snapshot from my front yard. Gotta love this time of year.

Eagles of Autumn

Once again, I get an opportunity to see and photograph Bald Eagles near my home. They really are amazing birds. No matter how often I see them I'm always taken aback by their size and their beauty.

First outing at the Conowingo Dam, on the Susquehanna River was pretty light on birds, but still worth it. I'll share a few of the better shots here.

On another note, I realize it's been a long time since my last blog post. Someone I used to blog about a bit was one of the Marshmallows, Wolfgang Amadeus Marshmallow. Lady Marshmallow and I got to spend some time with him last month and attend his Junior Year Recital. Special moment. Very much so. I wish I had a link to the recording, but no dice. He played Rachmaninoff, Mozart, and Chopin. Heaven!

As I gather my thoughts and try to pull out of a year's worth of lack of caring for writing, I'll post more. So much went on, but so little desire to write about any of it. No excuse, but there it is.

Enjoy the eagles!

And Then There Were Three...

Got a real surprise from the Cooper's Hawks the other day. I discovered they will eat one another. As in cannibalism. Sitting out on my deck last week, I heard a cacophony like you wouldn't believe. Knowing the hawks had killed something and were eating it, I grabbed camera and video camera and ran to film the action. I was five minutes into shooting when I realized the dinner wasn't some small, seed-eating bird.

I imagine the conversation went something like this:

MORRIS: "I'm starving."

PHIL: "Me too. What's there to eat around here?"

BERT: "Nothing. We ate all the sparrows."

PHIL: "You ate all the sparrows, you pig!"

MONA: "He ate all the birds. Now there are no more birds."

MORRIS: "Well, there are a few birds, actually" (gives a quick look to Mona and Bert)

MONA (catching on right away): "Say, Phil, you feeling alright? You look a little bit tired."

(Bert, Mona, and Morris begin to skulk towards Phil)

PHIL: "Yeah, I've got this wing that isn't feeling too strong right now, and I really...(suddenly it clicks with Phil)...NO! I feel great. Strong as an ox! Really. Why are you guys looking at me that way? Hey! Move back!"

I think this is about when I heard the commotion. And the result is below. Watch the very brief video only if you like your nature documentaries raw. I have about three minutes of video, but this gives you the basic idea. And yes, the other birds did fight over the dinner bird.