The report is that more than a thousand (one station is reporting 3,000) blackbirds fell out of the sky to their deaths on New Year's Eve. Environmental agencies were canvassing the Windwood neighborhood of Beebe all Saturday and Sunday cleaning up the mess. Yet, no one knows what caused the birds to just plummet to their demise. Theories have run the gamut from the end of the world to cloud to cloud lightening, to a future earthquake. Is anyone else sighing and shaking their heads right about now?
This is not a new thing. It's happened many times before in history. The most accepted theory thus far (we won't have reports back on whether the birds were poisoned for a few days, but that is believed to be quite unlikely) is that the fireworks from New Year's celebrations startled and confused the birds either into flying too high up where they may have been hit by cloud to cloud lightening or that the confusion caused them to think they were flying upwards when actually they were flying straight into the earth below them.
Either way it is creepy and not something that happens everyday. We actually have a HUGE blackbird population here in town. They are a nuisance on one hand and very cool to see every year on the other hand. The fact that there were about a thousand dead fish about a hundred miles from here also caused a stir in the news. Especially since it happened close to the time the birds died. The news is reporting that the fish died of disease.
Just a few minutes ago a good friend of mine, Lee McLane (who owns and operates The Beebe News here in town) was interviewed by phone by a radio station in Melbourne, Australia. I guess thousands of birds just falling out of the sky is unusual enough to make a lot of people go...Hmmm.
On another note, a couple of my other friends had quite an unusual New Year's day themselves. Imagine you are spending Christmas and New Year's vacationing in Hawaii....I could stop right there and be in paradise. Literally. You are luxuriating on a sunny warm beach when suddenly there is great commotion all around you. You look up to see gobs and gobs of security flooding the beach, and the sitting President of the United States comes with his family to the beach to spend the day.
That is exactly what happened to my friends, Sandy and Wayne Branson. Even if you don't agree with his policies (which neither I nor them do actually) it is still very thrilling to meet the President. President Obama graciously posed for lots of photos with them and their family. Sandy said it was thrilling...but she just wished they weren't in their bathing suits at the time. I am left to wonder if the security detail were wearing black suits with dark sunglasses. Maybe I will ask her.
Lee is running the photo in this week's paper, so I will wait to ask if I can post the pic until they get back from vacation.
In my own news, I am currently directing the Cabot Community Theatre's production of Little Women in Cabot, Arkansas. It is my first attempt to direct, but as I see things slowly coming together, I am getting more and more excited. I didn't know it was possible to feel stark terror and giddy excitement all at the same time.
I hope if you live in the Cabot, Arkansas area that you will come out to the show and give me and the theater as much support as possible. Go to www.cabotcommunitytheatre.org for show dates and prices. :-)
The other big thing in my life right now is some ideas I have for getting my book written and up on Kindle...etc...by the end of May.
There will be more to come on that later. Until then, HAPPY NEW YEAR!! 2011 will have ups and downs...laughter and tragedy...I encourage you all to give yourself and your year to Jesus and see what He can do with it.
Later!
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