Robin Chicks Growing So Fast!

Lately I’ve been writing about birds, and I’m very ok with that! Birds have been around for… what, like at least a decade right? But only recently have I been interested in them. It mostly came from when I started taking pictures of birds at a Florida beach. Check out a few photos of eagles, cormorants, woodpeckers, and more in either of these posts…

Land of the free, nothing but bald eagle photos

Birds of Paradise

More bird photos here, too!

Back here in Tennessee, though, it’s only been a few days since these robins hatched and their skin is already darkening. It amazes me how quickly they are looking more and more like the birds they will become. So if you’ve been following along, you know there were four eggs in the nest in front of my house, three eggs which have hatched and a lone blue egg still resting in the nest. My guess is it won’t hatch, sadly, but what happens to it remains to be seen. Sad news aside, here are a few recent pics, including the first photos of mom and dad! They were hovering (like any good protective parent?) above me right before they dive bombed me for interrupting their lives… again.

Is it just me or are they growing rapidly? Do you think the last egg will hatch? Let me know in the comments.

-Out of the Wilderness

Robin Eggs – Three Hatched, One To Go…

A quick update on the robin eggs in my front yard that I’ve been posting about… In the beginning there were four eggs. It was a fun surprise to discover the nest when I was mowing and ever since then, I’ve been peeking in to check the progress. The mom is quick to flutter away when I get close which gives me a chance to see the eggs, or as I recently updated, the two newborns. Well, it’s time for another update!

The two little hatchlings had to make room for a third because, yes, now three of the four eggs have hatched!

At this stage it’s difficult to discern one from the other because they’re basically hairless, and flop over wherever they are until they get some muscles. But as far as I can tell, they’re doing fine.

They are still waiting on their last little brother or sister to come along and then the family will be complete. I’ll be sure to post updates once that happens, hopefully in the next few days!

I love this last picture where one of the birds is resting on the unhatched blue egg. It’s like they just wanted to keep it warm until it cracks.

Thanks for stopping by!

-Out of the Wilderness

Good things come to those who wait

I’ve been working on a list of common places I pick up from as an Uber Eats delivery driver and it’s nearly complete. Over the course of a few days I jotted down the restaurant names as I was reminded of them. One evening, while I was in a restaurant waiting to pick up an order, I was thinking more about which restaurants to put on this list.

There were a few other people waiting as well. As I waited, a staff person directed me to sit at a table. I reluctantly obliged, hoping I wasn’t there much longer but sitting just seemed to confirm I wasn’t going anywhere soon. A woman who was also waiting sat at the same table and we started talking about good restaurants in Nashville.

I told her about the list I was making and she seemed interested, even offering some of her own favorites, most of which I hadn’t heard of because I publicly acknowledge I don’t eat out often at all. Basically all I know are the restaurants I pick up from, hence the list pretty much being strictly places that deliver through Uber Eats.

So long story short, I appreciated our conversation and as many of you know if you read past blogs, I’m 42 years old and not married. Want to know a least favorite quality of mine? Here is one: Thinking of good things to say 10 minutes afterwards!

Her order came out and that was that. Our conversation ended but had I had any social skills at all I would’ve offered to meet up with her at one of the restaurants we talked about. That would have been the smooth, if not simply logical, thing to do. Of course, I didn’t think of that idea until she was long gone.

I wish I would’ve thought more about how to continue the conversation because I enjoyed talking with her… and those eyes. Goodness gracious. Maybe we’ll cross paths again, maybe not, but at least there are a couple lessons I learned from this:

  1. Good things come to those who wait. Had I been in and out, a quick pick up at the restaurant, I would have never met the woman. Even just a 10 minute conversation brightened my spirit, so for that I’m thankful.
  2. Remember next time to ask the woman on a dang date! The worst that could happen is I keep not dating her.

Thanks for checking out my post. If there’s an opportunity to put these two lessons into practice again, I’ll be sure to write about it. Until then, be patient, be brave, and take chances!

-Out of the Wilderness

Robin eggs hatch, pictures of the newborns!

While there have been geese laying eggs, and those eggs hatching, a robin up and laid some eggs in my front yard! I posted about the first time I discovered them, check here for that, but there is an update: TWO OF THE EGGS HATCHED! So cool! I captured a few photos of the helpless little things, and now mom (and me) are waiting patiently for the other two to make their debut.

Here are the recent photos with the two new ones…

Updates coming, I hope! Thanks for stopping by…

-Out of the Wilderness

Jersey Mike’s Turkey Resume Dream Job Commercial Has A Fatal Error

Something about this ad really rubbed me the wrong way when I saw it for the first time. And every time since. To preface this, I like the Jersey Mike’s company. I have nothing against sliced meat. But take a look at this ad and scroll down for what stuck out to me when I watched…

I have a history of thinking about things a little too much, but am I wrong that this particular line in the voiceover is mind-boggling?

“Turkey already has its dream job at Jersey Mike’s.”

OK, not mind-boggling… it’s just plain ignorant. Or maybe they assume the American public is ignorant? Jersey Mike’s is suggesting that a gobble-gobble turkey– a live animal– has a “dream job” to be raised on a farm (probably in not the best conditions, too), killed, sliced into lunch meat, and eaten? Somehow I think if a turkey could speak, it might object to this assumption.

This is me reading too far into it, I know. But there are a lot of good commercials out there (thinking about you Kohl’s!), and in the limitless world of creative writing I’m surprised this is the script they went with. Overall the ad isn’t bad, but it’s climactic moment–the hook, if you will– is a false statement that takes the commercial down into the failure zone.

Have you seen the ad on TV? What was your first reaction?

Thanks for stopping by!

-Out of the Wilderness