gar. not garr. not gary. not goo. gar.

Lane noticed a pair of mourning doves in our backyard this past week. They were sitting in the same tree for over an hour, puffed and cuddled up. "How cute!" I thought, "They think it's spring, and they're in love!".

Today, as I was washing the dishes and looking out at the tree, I noticed the same doves again. "Oh, they're sooo sweet!" I thought again to myself, so I texted Lane to let him know they were still around, and proceeded to take pictures of them through various windows in the house.

view from the kitchen

view from the sun room

After watching them for a while, I started to worry. Suddenly I was positive that

These doves were seriously injured.
These doves were not prepared for winter. Maybe because they were somehow mentally not all there.
These doves, either because of their injuries or because of their limited mental capacity, were abandoned by their flock.
These doves were in love (you could tell by the cuddling... though that may have been because of the cold).
These doves were going to freeze to death.
These doves had probably mated.
The female was probably pregnant.
They were unable to find food. (a) because they were too busy cuddling for warmth - have YOU ever tried to find food while cuddling for warmth? Believe me, it's quite difficult. Lane can tell you; I've tried. We live in a place with WINTER. and (b) because doves who are not mentally all there probably also do not know how to find food in freezing conditions.
They and their potential young would starve if not helped immediately. If they did manage to survive, their young would be developmentally impaired because of lack of nutrition during pregnancy. In other words, they needed assistance with prenatal care.

Filled with these horrifying realizations, and with no Lane to talk me out of it, I armed myself with oyster crackers, garlic bread (these were seriously the only ready carb-ish things I could find in our house), and my irrational fears, and went to give them some gar-vernment assistance.

They didn't appreciate it. As soon as I opened the screen door, one of them started to make alarmed noises. Me, in my infinite avian wisdom, thought telling them, "No no! It's okay! I'm here to help!" would calm them down. It didn't. The one making the noises of alarm immediately flew off. "Well that's rude," I thought to myself, "How could you just abandon your..." and then the other one flew off in the other direction.

This was VERY upsetting. In the hope that they would return, I deposited my salty offering on the ground by their tree and went back inside the house. I've been periodically going back out to the kitchen to see if they've returned yet. They haven't.

Dejected, I looked up mourning doves on wikipedia, and learned the following:

"Even in Canada some mourning doves overwinter". Oops. Maybe I shouldn't have assumed these birds were injured or not very bright.
"Outside the breeding season, Mourning Doves roost communally" Oops. so maybe they weren't abandoned? Just breeding? Because it's almost spring?
"Mourning Doves eat almost exclusively seeds, which make up more than 99% of their diet" Oops. So they wouldn't have eaten the crackers and bread I gave to them anyway?
"The Mourning Dove is monogamous and forms strong pair bonds" Oops. What if they weren't able to find each other again after I scared them off?! Are they going to be lonely forever?
"Pairs typically reconvene in the same area the following breeding season, and sometimes may remain together throughout the winter. However, lone doves will find new partners if necessary." Oh.
"This species' call is a distinctive, plaintive cooOOoo-woo-woo-woooo, uttered by males to attract a mate, and may be mistaken for the call of an owl at first" Oops. so that wasn't an owl we were hearing.

So yes. Everything probably would have been much better had I consulted wikipedia first. The end.

Oh wait!!!!! The most important news of all!

Look at my uncle's new baby girl! Isn't she adorable?!?!?!?!

look at her nose! look at her fingers! ahhhhH! I could die from cuteness overload!

i LOVE her.

last night, i had a dreamt it was snowing and the roads were all covered in ice. i woke up this morning and it was snowing. maybe i'm clairovoyant... or maybe i live in central new york.

thankfully, the weather hasn't been as bad this year as it is typically. still, i think it's pretty awful. it's gloomy and cold and wet (yet my skin is super dry - what's up with that?) and the drivers here make me angry.

anyway, i don't know when or where or how this happened, but somehow this blog has essentially become a poorly updated blog about the weather. i try to keep lane and my married couple/joint stories on our other blog, but for some reason, all of my entertaining stories now seem to be a joint effort on the part of both me and lane - so there's nothing for the blog! blessing of marriage or curse of dependency? i don't know. all i know is that i need to be less lame.

yeah... there's really nothing else to say... sorry? in the meantime, you can check out our other blog - it gets updated more often, though not as often as it should.