Birds & Bees & Life & Death

I took down the hummingbird feeders yesterday, washed them thoroughly, made a new batch of nectar, and rehung them. Still no birds. I'm starting to take this personally. And no orioles yet at the oriole feeder, though to be fair, it's still waiting to be rehung. I doubt that they are going to come into the house to find it :) Since I don't have any new HB pics, here's one from last year.

I found out today that the son of a former coworker of mine passed away on Thursday. He'd been diagnosed just over a year ago with a glioblastoma, which is a very nasty brain tumor. He'd had surgery and chemo and those helped, but didn't eliminate the tumor. And he's been through a couple experimental protocols. Things were looking pretty good, all things considered...he was planning to compete in a triathlon today, his birthday, but was hospitalized earlier this week. Just today I found out that he passed. It's incomprehensible to me. He was a person who really lived his life, and by the way, was only about 33. He started out as an art major (when I first met him he was in college) and worked making jewelry at several Madison area stores. Every year he did the AIDS rides, with his mom going along on the support crew. He's been in the Peace Corps for the past several years, and in fact, was med-evac'd out of Swaziland last year when the tumor was found. Gerry is going to miss him so much - she was a single mom for all Derek's life, and they were so close. Moms do not expect, nor do they want, to outlive their kids. Kids of mine...consider yourselves hugged.

And I lied about the bees...I have nothing to say about them. Oh, I bought honey last weekend. And "The Secret Life of Bees" is an excellent book. There.