When Birds Attack Cars
Yesterday, while driving on a normal road, in broad daylight, about 45mph, with my wife and daughter in the car -- a pigeon just flew right into my windshield (pow!), rolled over the roof, fell on the ground, and then bounced up and flew away quickly -- it was kind of like a Jackie Chan movie (I was waiting for the pigeon to give me a "thumbs up" sign from the rear view mirror.)
My daughter:"Oh no!! Birdie! Daddy!! Birdie!!"
Me: "See - that's what happens when pigeons do drugs.... Stay away from drugs!!"
(yes, I know Posh Spice has nothing to do with this, I just can't help but feel patriotic)
Chalk Art On the Sidewalk And Driveway.When I was a kid, my dad use to bring chalk home from his job and leave it in a small box by his car keys (he worked for a trucking company – a teamster - always complaining about something, as teamsters usually do.) I loved that basic white plain chalk; I would take it and draw all over our driveway (and neighbors driveways, sidewalks, on the street...) top views of “fancy” streets, houses, KITT, people walking dogs, dog poop, construction areas, even sinkholes with aliens and Manimal. Then I would ride with my big wheel along with the other kids through this ‘totally awesome’ town -- that's until somebody watered their driveway or lawn.
Fast forward to last week – we’re driving through no-man land and we stopped at a Wal-Mart for, like soap or something weird like that, and on the center aisle they had big buckets of sidewalk chalk for some crazy-low price of like $4.88 (with a smiley face near it.) “Sidewalk Chalk”? What a novel idea. And for $4.88? (How's is that even possible? Oh yeah, orphan labor in China...) Not only did they have that, but they also had paint sprayers, brushes, and rakes. When did all this happen?
Now my driveway looks like the Sistine Chapel (well not really) except with toddler marks all over it, mixed in with some random drawings by the neighborhood kids who walk on over and ask if they can “help”. Which I let them, of course. But they just can’t “help” on “my” area of the driveway – (Manimal needs to live in peace.)
Medical And Nursing Boards Vs. Midwives In L.A.On a serious note, I get a lot of inquiries (and searches) about a post I did nearly 2 years ago when my daughter was born about people interested in natural water births, nurse Midwives, and Doulas. My wife did a completely natural water birth in a tub - with only me, our Midwife, and a Doula present. The whole experience and the care my wife got was absolutely amazing, extremely safe, and way beyond what any traditional doctor provides. And this place is by far the best birthing center here in Southern California (it looks like a B&B.) I’m bringing all this up because our Midwife, Marcia McCulley, was recently arrested at gunpoint at her practice, in front of her patients, because the physicians at the local hospital (Seventh-Day Adventist in Simi Valley) want to prevent a women’s choice in their OB care, reproductive issues, and above all honoring parents birth plans and wishes.
The physicians made claims with the medical and nursing board to revoke her license, which costs them nothing to do, but cost a Midwife - with a small practice - a fortune in legal fees. Whatever your position on birth, women should be able to choose - even if it means having a baby in a hospital, home, or birthing center.
For those interested there is a Midwife Defense Fund here in Southern California.
If you would like to make a tax deductible donation to the defense charity:
The Midwife Defense Fund
Attn: Mary Price P.O. Box 940682 Simi Valley, CA 93094-0682
(PS- I'll find out soon if they use Paypal)
For those here in SoCal, there’s going to be a charity auction event in August and I’ll be donating a whole lot of artwork. I’ll have more information on that in a couple of weeks.
23 comments:
1st: nice, um, pigeons
2nd: don't forget that it never rains here, I still have merry x-mas chalk pictures on my sidewalk
3rd: that is pure crap, our insurance dollars at work. what happened to the right to chose?
How hard is it to set up an on line pay system so people can donate over the internet? With Blogher coming up it seems that story could get a lot of support.
That midwife story is HORRIBLE and gets my panties in a bunch. I grew up in Camarillo (left about 13 years ago) so its pretty close to home. BOOO the local hospital
What a load of crap. We'll be looking for a midwife for a home birth in the next year or so, and it's sad to see that our already meager options have been reduced.
Meanwhile, it would be interesting to see what the C-section rate is over at 7th Day Adventist. I'll set the over/under at 35%.
That is a ridiculous third story. Aren't the doctors getting enough money? She should counter-sue for interference with business practice...I think that's a legitimate claim in California.
As for that first story, I think the bird would bounce off Posh too.
I used midwives for the birth of both of my daughters. Now it looks like our local hospital is trying to run the only clinic in our area offering midwives out of business.
http://www.statesmanjournal.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070518/NEWS/705180328/1001
What is going on?
on point number 1 - i rolled over a squirrel on my bike once. Seriously. He got up and ran away. I think he probably had internal injuries, though.
on point number 3 -I wished I could have done the midwife thing, in water, and all that, but I lived in Bakersfield at the time. You live in CA. You feel my pain. And those folks in Simi? Bonkers! so sorry to hear that.
And, I've tagged you for a meme.
That's horrible! Yes, a woman should have the right to choose where and how she wants to give birth. Jebus, I can't believe we're still having this discussion!!
And? That picture of Posh scares me. A lot.
Well, I could only imagine how your wife and daughter reacted to your drug addict birdie :)
As to the midwife defense, gee I thought this is America?!
Oh, you want to talk party-time adventure craziness? Try getting dive-bombed by an angry pigeon on a motorcycle. I think he thought I was trying to steal his girl or something. Hit me once and came back for more. Ah, good times! Good times...
My daughter:"Oh no!! Birdie! Daddy!! Birdie!!"
Me: "See - that's what happens when pigeons do drugs.... Stay away from drugs!!"
That needs to go in a scrapbook of "wise(crack)" sayings for your daughter.
Arwen -they're working on it. And they're trying to set up an online auction too. I'll post when I hear more..
darren - LOL! I'm sure the pigeon would be very distracted.
laughing mommy - that's a frightening story. I hope this isn't a trend.
The Real Mother Hen - my wife kind of put her hands in her head. She does that a lot.
Dude, I had a robin dive-bomb my car the other day as I was going about 70. PLUNK!
Side-walk chalk rocks! My girls spend hours in the driveway making designs. They so want the rakes and all that stuff. Have you tried the sidewalk paint? It is goopy and goes on like paint, but dries as chalk.
I really wanted a water birth but none of the hospitals around here did them. I did however, have a really awesome traditional OB. I wish your mid wife luck!
I can only apologize for my fellow Brit, Posh Spice. And the Spice Girls getting back together, for that matter. And a lot of other stuff, but that's for over a beer...
Whirlwind - I'm going out and buying that chalk paint...like now.
Stay at home dad - Maybe posh is running out of cash. She can't spend her hubs 250-million fast enough.
1: Pigeon Posh? Yeah, she has little chicken legs.
2: Our chalk bucket has lasted quite a long time. Definitely worth the $4.88.
3: When I drove to Starbucks I thought the line of people outside the ice cream store was waiting for a free cone. Only later did I realize it was an AT&T store and they were waiting for one of those phones. I just don't get it.
My Parents-in-law once got out of their car after a trip anmd found a full bir wing embedded in the hinge of their door. They hadn't even noticed hitting it. Bet the bird did.
And as to the midwives - here we have licensed ones and they have hospital privileges in many places. My hospital's birthing centre has whirlpools in many rooms, though I'm not sure if they do water births or not. Home birth is a not-uncommon option, too. Yeah, I think women should be able to choose, as long as there is some kind of regulating going on simply for the issue of people getting cared fro by people who know what they're doing and follow some guidelines about safe practices. And I think midwives totally do that. (Of course, I have one of the very few family doctors who still do births, and she's been my doctor since I was 5, so I went with her because I luuurve her.)
Midwives get held at gunpoint over there? Has the world gone mad? I am a midwife and we are treated with respect over here by families and obstetricians and other health care professionals! We are only doing our job after all, like anyone else...Please do let me know if they accept paypal...shocked beyond further words...
The midwife case is right up there with the hospital my sister went to to have her second child. My sister could only find one doctor on her insurance plan, that doctor was affiliated with a St. Josephs, which refused to do a tubal ligation at my sister's request because of the Catholic affiliation(my niece was her second, my nephew her first and my sister was already in her mid-30's).
What is up with people and their Nazi-like determination to control other womens' birth processes?
I've seen a documentary about how midwives aren't so common in the USA as in Britain.
Here, everyone gets a midwife and you only see a doctor if there are complications expected or if something happens during the birth.
I had my two in a birthing pool in the local hospital, with only the community midwife attending, plus a trainee midwife who wanted to see a birthing pool in action.
It's terrible to hear the attitude to midwives there.
DJ Kirkby - I'll post more once I hear. But they are setting up some kind of Paypal or similar system.
junebee - Yikes!! I didn't know they can refuse to do that. How frightening.
beta mum - In some areas that is starting to happen. Here in L.A. with hospitals sporting really high C-section rates, it's become more of a oddity to want a midwife assisted birth.
The sad part is, most people we know schedule their C-section as if were a going to see a movie. But that's their choice. Although, that should infringe on those who wish to use a midwife.
Hospitals and doctors out here automatically default to a C-section birth as the norm.
I can't believe that happens right here in our country - makes me feel awful.
I'm glad your wife got to have the birth she wanted, and there were no complications. Let's hope it stays that way for many, many women.
Carrie
Interesting story, Creative-Type. My wife had a similar birth here in Denver. I would say "we" had a similar birth, but let's be honest, my "heavy lifting" was just saying things like, "Remember your breathing, honey!" and "Do you want the water to be warmer?"
It's really too bad that things are making those kinds of births impossible in some parts of the country. It just doesn't make any sense to me.
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