Parrot Nation

Yes, 500 posts. Not bad. It’s actually 501 if you count the original, “Hello World” post put up automatically by WordPress. But I don’t count that one because I didn’t write it.

So where have we been? What have we accomplished in the almost five years and 500 posts. Well, let’s see. I’ve been to a lot of places and wrote posts from all over the Americas. I’ve posted from Ecuador, the Caribbean Islands, Kanab, Utah, Cincinnati, Ohio and Chicago. I’ve written on airplanes, in airports,crew vans, in hotel rooms, in bed, on the front porch and in jump seats. And as the world spun and time went on, I continued to blog. I had some occasional fits and starts as is to be expected when you keep something up for almost five years. But all of this time, I never thought about stopping. Not really. Occasionally I got frustrated with it and had to walk away from it for a while, but I never really thought about stopping entirely.

Highs and Lows 

I’ve had some giddy times. There was a moment a few years ago when I first began writing about my way of feeding birds when I thought, You know, this might catch on! Maybe this is my way of serving the bird world.  And that’s how the Chop Concept gained traction.

I’ve always thought most of us who end up on earth want to make  a difference in the world: Do something that leaves our mark. Changes a life, Even for a moment. I keep hoping to do that every day. Maybe one day I’ll succeed.

Writing about Best Friends was a joy. Plain and simple.

I’ve heard pilots remark that they want to go through their career and upon the announcement of their retirement, everyone looks at each other and says, “Who’s that? I don’t remember him.” I can almost believe that. Airline Pilots are a different breed and I’ve never pretended to understand them. But I can almost wrap my head around this because if you make it through a career such as theirs and nobody remembers you, it means nothing out of the ordinary really happened, which all of us in the business pray for every day.

You know it’s been a good day when you can’t remember where you’ve been. And yes, this is a perfectly normal thing after 20 plus years. You’re standing  in the crew line at Immigration and the pilot in front of you says, “Where’d you come in from?” And you literally have to stop and think about it. That’s a good day.

Looking at the Past

On the other hand, there were the tough times. Having to write about a couple of tragedies, such as the Troy, Ohio situation broke my heart. I got a phone call that this situation had happened and the person on the other end of the line told me about it and that they wanted me to write about it. I politely declined. I told them I didn’t write about stuff like that at my blog. “Well, I’m pulling a favor.  This is important and you need to report it. If you don’t, all kinds of stuff that isn’t true is going to start rolling out and somebody needs to be accurate.” They gave me the background of the case sent me the photos and told me when they wanted me to pull the trigger on the post. I hated doing it, but at least it was an accurate account.

 Hopes for the Future

Hope? Lots of it. I am for the most part an optimist. My goal is a little different than most. What I am hoping to do is to keep the well-cared for and happy birds in the homes they have. The longer they stay in these homes, the less load there will be on the adoption organizations. And there is the ever present hope to get birds off of an all-seed diet. A simple wish, but far tougher than it sounds. And my biggest hope is to remain useful and for this blog to remain relevant and continue serving the needs of the Parrot Nation.

Thank you all for supporting it.