Birdwatchers -- Heaven Help Us All

     Birdwatchers are the same all over the world. The sooner we all recognize that, the better off we'll be.

 Example: a guy up by Seattle ran his car into a utility pole. His excuse was that he was in hot pursuit of an owl. Anyone who finds that odd hasn’t done much bird watching or been around birdwatchers. It’s just typical birdwatcher behavior.

Another example:  I remember driving a vanload of birdwatchers across some wetlands in Southeast Texas. It was a two-lane road, and since it was Texas, the speed limit was 70 MPH. Sharing the road with us and the rest of the normal vehicular traffic were numerous oil tankers, coming and going from the refineries on the coast. They made sure their speed did not fall below least the suggested 70 MPH.

Now in the van with me were family members: a brother and sister with their spouses, one nephew and his son, and my wife. We were looking for birds, which were plentiful along the highway.

Someone would yell out, “Stop! Stop!” Of course, I was expected to stop the van, back up the van while hopefully staying on the narrow shoulder, then move the van forward or where ever we needed to be so they could see what they thought they’d seen.

In the meantime, I had traffic, including the aforementioned tankers, loaded with high-octane death, whizzing past the van about ten inches from my door handle, at, of course, the required 70 MPH, while the rest of my carload is blissfully looking at the birds.

The interesting thing was that even though we were creating a traffic hazard, and being a danger to ourselves and other drivers, no one honked at us, no one gave us the finger, and no one yelled at us. Why? Because in that part of Texas, they’re used to birdwatchers and their unusual antics.

So, some poor guy, looking at an owl, drives into a pole. Big deal! 

In New Jersey, a school bus aide was caught stealing lunch money and lunches from 3–5 year-old kids. (She’s not doing it any more, probably because there are no kids where she’s at.) Now if you or I decided on a life of crime, what thought process would we go through? One: we’d go where the money was, right? Two: we would do something where we had a good chance of not getting caught. Not that I’ve given this a lot of thought, mind you.

    But lunch money and lunches from 3–5 year-olds? Beside the fact that this despicable woman was picking on young kids, someone who thinks that small should be locked up.