Tuesday, November 22, 2005

Early morning blues

The alarm caught me off guard at 6:15. It had hardly begun announcing it's presence before I landed a left hook that silenced it for at least another 24 hours. The curtains were closed but I knew it was still dark so I nestled back into my warm pillow for another 15 minutes of rest. It was an uneasy rest though, I imagined pigeons feeding by the river waiting for my arrival and their siren calls finally wrestled me from bed.
It was still dark and in the back of my head I knew there wouldn't be any pigeons out just yet so I took my time gathering my gear and preparing Spark's rations for the day. When I walked out the door the shadows were just beginning to slink back into their crevices. My breath appeared in short puffs as I walked through the parking lot of the race track next to my apartment and headed toward the river. I mistook a couple of crows rummaging through the trash in the distance for pigeons for a split second but Spark didn't even take a second glance. She weighed 206g but I'd woken her up too and she was content to sit fluffed up on my fist for the time being.
I walked the usual length of the river and just as I thought, the pigeons were smarter than to be out this early. Spark looked interested in a small flock of sparrows but lost her enthusiasm when I gently tossed her toward them. Two more of these lack luster attempts and a glance at my watch sent me packing for home. As we approached the race track parking lot again, a lone pigeon hailed us from behind a trash bin. Spark slicked down and launched but with only slightly more enthusiasm than she had with the sparrows. We had one more chance at four pigeons in the parking lot but Spark just wasn't in the mood today so resigned to my fate, I plodded home. There's always tomorrow.

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