Four plus months later, my feeder is still full. There's birds everywhere, but for some reason they don't go to the feeder. I keep a large tray of water below the feeder, which the birds drink from, but they don't seem to have any interest in the seed hanging directly over their head. I've tried everything; I placed a small plastic table out in the yard close to the trees, filled the top with bird seed, and still nothing. Two very fat squirrels were the only visitors to my table, so I put the table back in my porch and gave up.
You can imagine when I looked out this morning to see about 50-60 robins around the house, with a blue jay and a cardinal also present, but not one bird near the feeder, I began to get a little ticked off. I went out to the feeder, opened it and spread about half of the seed on the ground around the tray of water so the robins would eat it. I looked out 10 minutes later expecting to see the birds enjoying the "Deluxe Songbird Mix." What I saw instead was a (you guessed it) fat squirrel having a hell of a time eating all the good stuff while the robins hopped around in the grass. Do any of you know what the market is for a "Never Been Used" bird feeder? Craigslist maybe?
Let's talk about Super Bowl Sunday. Millions of people will sit in front of TV's across the world and breathlessly await the outcome of the contest. Some will really get excited, and others will just take a mild interest, but you can take it to the bank; they won't miss a minute of the commercials (you probably thought I was talking about the game, didn't you?). They'll sit there just like you and me and score the commercials one by one until the end of the game. Whether the score is 52-0 or 17-13, it won't matter to most of us; the water cooler talk of the day on Monday will be about the best ads.
Let's face it; there's a reason why ticket sales for the secondary suppliers have been really slow, and in many cases, have gone down considerably as the day draws closer. How many of the millions of us on the East Coast (where much of the market is) want to go to a Super Bowl game in New Jersey? In February? Especially when the two teams involved are West Coast teams (I know Denver isn't on the coast, but you get the drift). I spoke to someone in New Jersey yesterday and she proudly proclaimed that it might be around forty degrees on Sunday. That should change the minds of those casual fans who really wanted to go someplace warm to watch the game. Throw off your layers of clothes, football fans; it's going to be forty!
As to the game, I'm picking the Broncos, not so much because I like them, but out of respect to Peyton Manning. I'm a Patriots/Tom Brady fan, and I know they just knocked us out in the Conference Championship, but Peyton Manning is the ultimate class guy. When you look at the way he handles himself each and every time he's in front of a camera and microphone, you can't help but give him his due. He had an incredible year and deserves the MVP; good luck to him and his fellow Broncos teammates! And, Pete Carroll, you need to teach some of your players to grow up to be just as professional as Mr. Manning. Sports would be better for it!
BTW, does anyone know the line on Volkswagen vs. Go Daddy?
Mark T. Bradbury, Author
Literary Associate of Little Pond Publishing
Digital Publisher | eBooks | Marketing
