Not four, not 20...

Well, with the holiday season drawing to a close, I can finally unpack the suitcases and unwind a little as I procrastinate the next changing of the guard in home decor from Christmas to snowmen. It is also time to reflect on the new year beginning. I am going to save myself the trouble of stocking my refrigerator with rabbit food and growing sore with any unrealistic exercise regime. Instead, I think my big resolution will just be to try harder, and maybe more often, to not to be a completely unpleasant person.

I can already tell that the year has promise just from the captivating news stories. The reports I currently have my eye on involve birds falling from the sky...dead, as opposed to just tired. Apparently just before midnight, just minutes before the new year, these blackbirds started falling from the sky over Arkansas. Over four thousand were found. I don't know anything about the population density of the particular area of Arkansas this mass death occurred over, but can you imagine? I saw Alfred Hitchcocks fabulous work, The Birds, and I can assure you that falling dead birds would not give me more peace than live birds with good aim, as the falling dead bird has no last minute pull up or swerve. Four hundred birds would be a mess, as would forty, if they fell close enough together. The area containing the thousands was only a square mile, and the dropping took place in less than one hour. Ew!

What kind of omen did those people think had come when birds, yes BIRDS, started falling down...out of the night sky? One of the theories is that the flock (?) may have been frighted by the sound of fireworks, and in their mass panic began flying into each other and other objects. Forget the firework shrapnel, get an umbrella to keep the birds off your head. Yikes! The birds have showed signs of trauma with blood clots and internal bleeding in the tests, but reports were uncertain as to whether that was from the fall to earth or cause for the fall (perhaps both).

I did try to ignore the story at first, like most of the other CNN stories on my homepage, not letting myself fully grasp the notion. However, when a second state was highlighted as having more bad bird news, I couldn't look away. Now Louisiana really shouldn't complain, as there were only five hundred dead birds littering yards there (not FIVE THOUSAND...sorry, still can't process). Kentucky is reporting "numerous" dead birds. One scientist said the events were "unusual, but not unprecedented". However, he did not provide, or the reported omitted any other precedents that may have already been set.

I suppose I could bend my rules a bit about setting resolutions that may only get followed until mid-February, and resolve to change my homepage and not get sucked in to crazy news stories...um, Happy New Year!