Noisy Planet

Seven a.m., when Fio takes Sonya Dog into the backyard every morning, is a very noisy time out in the boondocks. The air is full of high-pitched chirps, tweets, pipings, rattles, coos. and crows, an orchestra of soprano instruments.

Lower the pitch a couple of octaves and Fiorella would be hearing dinosaurs. The din must have been deafening. Fio wonders--has the planet ever been silent? Maybe Earth's vocalizations are what distinguish us from the rest of the universe.

Tit for Tat

Fiorella recently read that dinosaurs, specifically those nasty Raptors, used to toss down small mammals for nutritional variety way back when.

Which makes her feel like she's getting her own back whenever she orders chicken wings at the Col. Sanders drive-through.

Ode to T-Rex

I'm questioning,
O Tyrant King,
If it was worth
Your winged rebirth
To search the skies
When your future lies
In red-striped buckets
And frozen pot pies?

Bye, Bye, Birdie

Almost every day I hear the thunk of a bird hitting one of our windows. Often I peer outside and spot the injured avian, out cold on the concrete floor of our back porch. I keep the dog inside for a while, and half an hour later, the bird is gone--I assume to fly another day.

Maybe the birds are addled by their own reflections in the sunlit glass. Or maybe it's the same bird each time, its brain turned to mashed potatoes by serial concussions. Or maybe it's just stupidity--after all, they are relatives of T-rex.

Which gives you another theory as to the reason dinosaurs disappeared off the face of the earth.

Early Bird Specials

Do you ever think of dinosaurs when:

1) You hear a canary sing or a parrot talk?

2) You watch rival hummingbirds duke it out over the sugar water feeder?

3) You scramble eggs for breakfast, or dye them for Easter?

4) You pick up supper at Col. Sander's drive-thru?

5) You fill up your tank with gas?

And do you ever wonder what the future of homo sapiens will be?