THESE HANDS

[bloodyrosemccoy]

Dang, my hands are getting a bit ripped up lately. It's a sign of a lot of entertaining myself, though.

Causes of hand-rip-uppery:

-CAUSE #1: This here bird. Lucy's friendly and cheerful and loves hanging out with me, but sometimes she does take bites out of my fingers. I've managed to convince her not to do it as much, but she still does in certain situations.

The annoying thing is that the best way to break them of the habit is to not snatch your fingers away, because that's what the bird wants. Instead you're supposed to hold your finger there or even push into it, which will throw the bird off-balance both physically and mentally. And that takes some damn willpower when that hooked bill is pinching with nutcracking force.

But we're having a good time other than that. I have also taught her not to be afraid of cardboard paper towel rolls because they contain treats. And she had a nice bath in a dish last weekend, but since then she's been less interested in the bath dish but keeps bathing in her water dish. So she's keeping clean.

She likes NPR. She will be an erudite bird.


-CAUSE #2: Been cooking a lot. I'm eating quite well (Lucy likes lasagna, too), and most of the dishes I've made are pretty good. However, we will not speak of the attempt to make corn dogs ever again. Turns out hot oil is hot.


-CAUSE #3: Kittens who still don't know how to retract their claws. I probably won't even feel completely at ease having a bird and I'm going to bring a pair of tiny kitties into my life. I am an idiot.

But we did have a nice day where the neighbors took the kittens out so they could romp on the lawn. Which was rather hilarious when our party attracted a whole bunch of neighbor kids. The poor kittens had started out exploring the concept of grass, but ended up exploring the concept of getting constantly picked up and juggled by six kids aged 4-11.


-CAUSE #4: Trimming grapevines. We shoulda done this months ago, but there was this whole MOVING thing going on. So I had to do it myself, though one of Dad's former patients, who works at a vineyard, came to show me how. (He got a pretty alarmed look on his face when he saw the 45-degree angle at which the vines are set up. Life on a mountainside has its disadvantages. But I enjoyed the trimming--it's kind of meditative.

Also, it turns out I am a wizard. I trimmed half of them, and then later that day it suddenly got cold and snowed. A few days later, it was springy again! So I trimmed the rest, and then THREE FUCKING FEET of snow promptly crashed into my house.

So apparently I have the power to summon snowstorms by trimming grapevines. Sure, it's very specific, but still. I AM ELSA. BOW DOWN BEFORE ME!


-CAUSE #5: Eczema.

No, seriously, that's it. Eczema is a plague upon me. Such is my life.


In conclusion, yes, I am having a good time, except for the eczema. All I have to do is buy some Band-Aids.

Comments

[marsdejahthoris.livejournal.com]

Eczema SUCKS. Especially if you get it on your eyelids.

[padparadscha.livejournal.com]

OH GOD

[marsdejahthoris.livejournal.com]

Yeah. Luckily that was short-lived and has not yet recurred. Bleh.

[dinogrrl.livejournal.com]

Have you trimmed the kittens' nails? Claw politeness is definitely something kittens have to learn, but in the mean time if they don't have the evil little hooks, you'll save yourself and your things being shredded. >>

[padparadscha.livejournal.com]

They still live with the neighbors. But they don't actually have enough force to shred things at this point. They mostly just poke the skin.

[raynos.livejournal.com]

Totally agreed on the annoying eczema, but I'm sure discovering your powaas over snow totally makes up for it.

[padparadscha.livejournal.com]

The irony is that winter weather appears to exacerbate the eczema. MY POWERS ARE A BLESSING AND A CURSE

[westrider.livejournal.com]

I went through a similar process with Eo and The Biting. Turns out that when I started just going along with it, she got bored of it, and now usually only does it if I initiate rasslin or when she's licking me, but that's different, I think it's sort of like how she chews sometimes when she's grooming herself, and it doesn't hurt.

[padparadscha.livejournal.com]

Yeah, there's gnawing, but that's different. And Fern takes snaps at me when she's Done With Petting, but those are just to let me know she's done, and she never actually connects. (Oddly, I got more tooth contact from the rabbit in the past. Little nips are how rabbits tell you to stop doing whatever is annoying them.)

Parrots do use their beaks to explore things, or to climb, but again, that's different from the serious BITES. She's learning, though.

She does chew holes in my shirts if I don't put something else there for her to chew, though. I think I'm stuck with that behavior. Chewing is just a parrot thing.

[westrider.livejournal.com]

Yeah, that's sort of what I'm talking about. Eo used to do serious Biting, that deserved the capitalization. But eventually, once I stopped flinching away from it and starting the chase, she got bored of it, and doesn't do it much anymore.