Out My Office Window 2
I’m watching some kind of hawk soaring outside my window gracefully catching updrafts and angling himself into the wind that is blowing just strong enough to keep the (I’m guessing) 30 foot American flag across the river mostly unfurled like you might see in some patriotic video. Are there any of us who haven’t dreamed of the sites that that bird has it flies over head? But then it occurs to me that, from my 10th floor perch (which is actually a fair bit higher as the land slopes away from my building), I have a similar view and perhaps a better one as I’m not distracted by a constant hunt for some unsuspecting squirrel or snake.
Below the Bradford Pear trees so popular around here are in full blossom with their tiny white flowers which make each branch appeared to be covered in snow (and thanks to the bizarreness of Virginia weather, this “spring snow” got a taste of real snow in a short flurry just this morning). The same temperatures that have birthed the blossoming trees have also offered a blossoming of activity in the skate park a few streets over. I’m no skateboarder, yet there’s something refreshing about getting to peek in on a group who can find such enjoyment out of what is ultimately a cement hole in the ground. Between them and the river an old building is being torn down. As the demolition equipment crumbles away the brick walls, I’m getting an excellent view of the skeleton of concrete columns that hold the whole structure up, at least until such point as the walls are gone and the workers turn their attention to these newly exposed bare bones. The river is doing battle with a lone kayaker who is desperately paddling against the current. He’s winning, but then the river isn’t really trying. It’s just lazily trekking across the state where it will expand from the couple of hundred feet in width that is outside my window to over 5 miles across as it passes through my hometown before dumping into the bay. Turning to the left, I can the purple and blue silhouettes of the mountains looming into the clouds and today being obscured somewhat by a haze that I’m sure is rain though the clouds over head are white and fluffy and allowing fair amounts of blue sky to peak through.
Maybe that bird doesn’t have so much on me after all. Unlike that bird, my point of view doesn’t change, but when I decide to look away from the computer screen in front of me, I do see a view not all that dissimilar to that of the bird’s and sometimes, if I allow myself to be opened up to it, I can appreciate just how beautiful and good it all is before returning my gaze to my computer screen fully refreshed. I’m not so sure the bird allows itself that time, and it’s a shame.
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March 28th, 2008
Funny story. (At least for me, the girlfriend was horrified.) We walked out of her apt one day, and not two seconds later a hawk swooped straight down from some tree branch and pounced on some sort of rodent (mouse, mole, bunny) with his talons and was on the ground killing his prey.
Luckily his handiwork was hidden by some tall grass, but you could sure hear the grass rustling. I was fascinated, the girlfriend was, like I said, horrified, and walked briskly to the car to go.
March 28th, 2008
Funny story aside, I commented before expanding the post, and didn’t see the whole thing.
A nice little vignette.