All those cameras and sensors, and this person still couldn't park straight outside of the school. She hardly left any space on the footpath where kids have to walk, so I guess if one happened to scrape their bag down the side, it would be her own fault. Sometimes I wonder how far people's driving skills have fallen, if those sensors were taken away. Or how much attention they are actually paying when doing things, if the sensors failed. I suspect that many people over the last decade or two have become so reliant on a beep to tell them where the front or back of their car is, that if that beep didn't come, they wouldn't realise until they hit something.
I am a bit sad tonight.
For the last few weeks and for the second year in a row, a pigeon has been nesting in an apple tree that sits outside of our lounge window, and we have enjoyed watching the story unfold. However, today a crow spied the nesting female and called its friends and started trying to get to it through the branches. I went outside a couple times to shoo it away, but when I got back from getting Smallsteps from school, the inevitable had happened and the nest was empty, with a few pigeon feathers on the ground.
Smallsteps was very upset.
I assumed that the pigeon would have tried to defend the eggs and the three or four crows (a technical "murder" of crows) being much larger would have killed her. When Smallsteps and I were eating a bit later, the father pigeon landed on the tree and we watched it as it stared forlornly at the empty nest that had raised their previous clutch. After a minute or two, it flew away and landed atop a light pole, and then was joined a moment later by the smaller mother pigeon. So she wasn't killed after all. And while happy she survived, Smallsteps realised that they won't be back again next year.
Yes, they are just pigeons and it is a "circle of life" situation, but still, it saddens me also. The garden should be filled with life during the spring, not death. Maybe it is a bad omen for us, not that I believe in those - though I must have smashed a lot of mirrors, walked under many ladders, and had several black cats cross my path.
I think that in many developed countries it is a privilege to not be surrounded with death all of the time and in many ways it makes us soft. Yet at the same time, in many other countries life seems to be incredibly cheap, and the lives of animals valueless, which means that crime and animal cruelty seem to be daily living. I don't understand people who are intentionally cruel to animals for pleasure or profit.
But yes, much like the many crashes that would happen if all the driving aids were taken off cars, the lack of exposure to the realities of life makes us soft and more sensitive when reality bites. Life is filled with death, it is unavoidable, but this doesn't mean we have to be so comfortable with death that we no longer value life. I don't think we should be so desensitized to reality that we no longer feel it, no longer appreciate it, no longer notice the beauty in the world. But, I also don't think we should be so surrounded by comfort and supports that we are no longer capable of dealing with the situations life throws at us.
The pigeon couple have lived to see another day and perhaps, they will live long enough to have another go and bringing life into the world, even if it might not be at our place. Though, pigeons can remember faces and can tell the difference between hostile and friendly people for years, so maybe they will come back and I can try to find a way to protect them a bit more from the murdering crows.
The crows are of course just being crows, and I am just being me.
Taraz
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Living in cities keeps us apart from nature taking away the experience of life.
It is sad to live the experience of watching how some animals kill others to eat and survive but this is just what they have always been doing and experiencing it, we see the reality and learn to live with it, avoiding it, makes us way more vulnerable.
I remember watching my grandma clean a chicken after coming from the market when I was a child. You would purchase the whole animal, and take home to clean and cook. You could see the head, the legs, some feathers and all the body. Today, when you ask kids to paint a chicken, most of them draw a supermarket plastic tray full of tights as they have never seen one in real life.
Every confort we add to our life, brings us time, but steals knowledge, creativity and self suficiency. It is good to keep some of those hablities with us in the event we ever need to use them.
And they have to do it. I think it is also sad that so many animals now live off our trash.
I have heard that a lot of kids in the US can't identify different vegetables by looks.
I like this sentence a lot. And then, what do most people do with the "extra" time?
My truck has a backup camera, but it has been scratched up since I bought the vehicle used, so it's not very reliable anyway. I tend to just use my mirrors. My wife's car on the other hand has about a million cameras and they do come in handy if you are paying attention. I would have been busting out my air rifle and dropping some crows over here in the US!
I looked into it right after - they are protected here....
Really? Well, it's only illegal if you get caught...
BEEP.
funny.. i don't drive now due to my bad eyesight, but when I did, I never had any of those driving aids. a backup cam would have been nice.
Life is filled with death -- that's deep.
What happened to your eyes? Was it an accident or old age?
I have never used one, though I agree. It would be handy on occasion.
besides old age and not so great vision.. i have double vision so bad that prism glasses would not even help. :(
Got a feeling they parked that way because they wanted to. Some people just don't give a shit anymore. THey will have a total disregard for others. It is like they are programmed that way. KInd of like the crows. It is just the way they are.
I think she would say the same, though I reckon it comes down to skill :D
Right on.
Cool story, we don't have pigeons, but we do have a lot of colibri birds (humming birds) flying around our backyard. We like observing them and they really enjoy collecting polen from our Gladiolus flowers.
Man! I wish we had humming birds in our garden! They are awesome - though there are none in Finland (or Europe) natively at least.
If I'm in a crotchety enough mood I will point out to someone that says something like "it's just an animal" that they're the same.
Poor pigeons, do they use nesting boxes? Maybe you and smallsteps could put one together that the crows can't fit into for if they come back?
but yes otherwise the crows are being crows and you're being you and that's fine
I don't have any sensors on my car. I've driven the in-laws' car which has sensors and a reverse camera and I kind of ignored them x_x
the reverse camera didn't help me when I "needed" it anyway as it was dark so all it was picking up was black and the reverse sensor was apparently broken at the time so I just did things the old fashioned way and still somehow didn't crash into the wall I parked in front of, I hated driving that thing oh my gosh
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Yeah, I guess they could, but it has to be large enough for the pigeon, which makes it large enough for the squirrels!
I hate driving anyone else's car, no matter what it is. I always worry about doing something to it, or something happening.
If you can spread chilli flakes around the area (or find some way to paste it on around the opening of the birdhouse) that might deter squirrels (most mammals don't like capsaicin but birds don't mind it), I've only had to deter dogs from digging around fruit trees and not had to try to deal with things in trees though!
I don't like driving other people's cars too but it's usually not a problem if it's a small car up to the size of my car. The outlaws' car however was huge and I hate big cars x_x
Nature can teach us about resilience and loss, even in small moments like that. I think it is important to find that balance between comfort and awareness of life's realities.
Yeah, I think it is important to see these kinds of things as a kid and discuss them and think about the ramifications.
Life is Life no matter if it's about Bird or a human, both try to live in peaceful environment and both want luxury lifestyle for their Children.
Not sure if all humans want to live in peace, considering their behaviours.
Good Point. Look at current situation and Trump, he isn't letting people live in peaceful environment.
Car sensor ate indeed important. They can detect Cars behind you when parking. Preventing collisions. Without parking sensors. Drivers rely on intuition. My car doesn't have sensors, so when I reserve. I sometimes get out of the car to check if the distance is safe. Thank you.
No! They rely on their skills. If you are only using intuition to drive, you shouldn't be driving. :D
The key moves back slowly, maximum use of the rearview mirror. Observe the left and right mirrors. The door handle as a safe distance marker. That's my opinion. My opinion. Thank you.
It's really shows how life and nature can be both beautiful and painful at the same time.
My heart aches hearing the story of the pigeon family. I’m so relieved to hear that the mother pigeon survived. Even if it's the "circle of life," facing loss is never easy. I believe the pigeons will remember your kindness and find their way back to you. I hope you have a peaceful night.
I heard someone make a comment on cars and safety by flipping the question on its head: suppose every car were fitted with an 8"(20cm) spike in the center of the steering wheel? If there were a needle-sharp reminder that you would immediately die if you were dumb, or failed to notice other people around you being dumb, you would be a better driver.
Instead, today's auto manufacturers insulated you from reality as much as possible. Adaptive cruise control, lane keeping assists, and the like allow drivers to feel secure in taking attention off the road. Beyond that, newer cars demand you take your eyes off the road to operate a tablet to manage everything instead of just pushing a button or turning a knob by feel. And instead of standard, easily-understood controls that have been basically the same since Hitler's corpse was still warm, they seem to be trying to make everything more pointlessly complex.
Culture coddles the incompetent, and everyone else bears the cost.