An out of the blue surprise!

It was off to the VIS for me today on a glorious sunny Saturday at Anahuac.  I got the free coffee we supply for visitors perking, and opened up shop.  I usually don’t have much of anybody visit the first few hours, so I was caught off guard when people began to show up around 8:30.  It turns out that today was a local volunteer work day on the refuge sponsored by the Friends of Anahuac Refuge (FOAR).  The ‘Friends’ also provide the nature store that is located inside the VIS.  They would be cleaning up a row of live oak trees that mostly survived the hurricane. 

 

Today’s clean up was lead by Stephanie and Tammy, two refuge staff members.  As Stephanie arrived she delivered a piece of mail to me.  I knew my brother, Carl, was sending something to me, but I just assumed it was probably some more articles or small items that were left from my mother.

Boy, was I wrong!  In the envelope was a calendar made by Carl.  How did he know I needed a calendar?  In my old rig, I had one of those dry erase type calendars where you write in each month with a marker.  When I got this rig, I had no wall space available to put it up, and I haven’t found a calendar for this year that I can put on my refrigerator.  I really missed having one because I like to write reminders on it each month about birthdays, bill due dates, and stuff like Emma’s heartworm tablets and flea treatment.

The real surprise was that Carl had taken the time to go through my blog from the last year or so and incorporated a different photo each month of one of my bird pictures. (except December, which has my ‘boobs hanging low’  :))  He also included all the dates for the birthdays of my kids and grandkids!  How thoughtful that was for an aging grandma?  :)  He also asked me to update him if he missed any dates.  Does that mean he might make another calendar for me next year??  Cool beans!  If so, I’m thinking of adding the flea dates, heartworm dates, and charge card paying dates.  Reminders are always helpful.

 

Everyone that was in the VIS when I opened up the envelope wanted to see it, and they all thought it was a marvelous gift.  I had to chuckle about the Bird Lady of Blog Land title on each page!  I think it was RICK that gave me that moniker.  I’ll try to live up to that title.  :)  Thanks, Carl, you really made my day!

As this white-faced ibis tucks his beak under his wing for a little siesta, I’m thinking I’ll be doing the same in a little while.

 

Thanks for stopping by…. talk to you later,  Judy