Chasing the Green Sun

Paul and I are opposites in many ways. For one thing, he thinks in graphics while I, in words. He is a very determined guy, seldom giving up on his hopes and dreams, while I am easily distracted, giving in to setbacks.

Saturdays previously, January 4, 2025, Paul and I went to the Lake Moran Beach for the sunset. Perhaps it was because of the New Year, there were clusters of visitors at our usual perch. A lady squeezed in between Paul and another man with a serious camera. Just as the sun started to dip into the horizon, I heard her asking Paul if he had ever seen a green flash at sunset. Paul shook his head and told her that he had only seen a green cast in the sky after the sunset in his hometown Ohio back in the late 60's.

"No, no," the lady explain. The green she referred to was a flash of green right as the sun dropped under the horizon. In her lifetime, she witnessed twice, once in Santa Cruz and another in Oregon. Paul found her experience interesting, even though he had never heard of it. He was unusually quiet on our way back to the Pleasure Point and Hook. The fascinating story apparently was rooted in his head. 

The very next day, Sunday the 5th, we went to Seacliff State Beach for a late stroll and managed to see another sunset. All of a sudden, Paul excitedly told me that he had seen the green flash. As the sun began to make the final slip below the horizon and disappeared into the ocean, he began to back off on his telephoto and used a slightly wider shot. Just as the sun was about to disappear altogether, he saw some green beginning to appear. He kept shooting until the green grew to a large emerald green bright flash in the previous sunspot for a second or two. With a dim blue buff, all was gone. 

Right next to him, I managed to miss the rare green opportunity, due to a untimely distraction to practice panorama shots. Paul contributed this moment to his dumb luck, but I am more inclined to think of it as being a sharpened goal for a new discovery right after his conversation with the lady the day before on the Moran Beach. "Fortune favors the prepared," as the old saying goes. It has been proven that it is extremely rare to witness the green flash, it is rarer to have caught it on the camera!

According to Paul, "The Green Flash is a phenomenon that sometimes occurs just after sunset or right before sunrise. It happens when the sun is almost entirely below the horizon, and for a brief moment, the upper rim of the sun appears green. This is caused by the refraction of sunlight through the Earth's atmosphere, which disperses the light and makes the green part of the spectrum visible. As the sun sets, the sunlight refracts from red, orange, yellow and then to green, progressing through the "ROYGBIV" colors. It is extremely rare and usually only lasts a couple of seconds. Here, in the last frame you can also dimly see a bit of blue spectrum."

The following is a video produced by Paul Titangos from his series of photos.

Photography by Paul Titangos, January 5, 2025, Seascape State Beach, Santa Cruz County.

Ye Zhou, a Quiet but Prolific Writer Friend

Last week, I was notified via WeChat friends that my former colleague Ye Xinyao, also known as 叶周 (Ye Zhou) in the Chinese literary circle, died of a heart attack on November 28, 2024 in Anhui Province, China. He was 66. 

Through social media, I read that shortly after his retirement, Ye returned to Shanghai, China in early November, to reunite with his former colleagues and friends. He then went on to Anhui to visit the hometown of his father who had killed himself by jumping from a high-rise building on August 2, 1966. As Vice President of the Shanghai Arts and Writers Union, and deputy head of  the Shanghai Film Studio, Ye Yiqun (叶以群) was driven to suicide by unbearable political persecutions and pressures in the turbulent Cultural Revolution. Little did one anticipate, a father's birthplace became a son's final resting place.

Upon my graduation from Fudan University in 1982, I started to work for the editorial departments of film journals under the joint auspice of Shanghai Arts and Writers, and Shanghai Film Bureau. Under the same roof, there were two separate periodicals, Dianying Xinzuo (New Screenplays for Chinese films), and Screen International. A year after me, Ye joined us. He was an editor for the former, while I was for the latter. From then to the end of 1988 when I left the department for Santa Cruz, California, I always remembered him as a quiet but upright colleague. I more or less contributed his reserved personality to the shadow of his father's premature death.

Soon after starting my Certificate program in Theater Arts at University of California, Santa Cruz (UCSC), I was told that Ye came to the States as well. He entered the Film and TV Department at San Francisco State University (SFSU). After the completion of my program at UCSC, I was accepted by the same department in the spring of 1990. Ye and I helped each other by sharing writing materials, and exchanging ideas and experience. As the months went by, I found it harder and harder to commute from Palo Alto to San Francisco. I decided to discontinue my study at SFSU, but to concentrate on working and saving for my library program in the fall at Berkeley. 

Once in the Great Bay Area, Ye and I should be closer distance-wise from San Francisco to Berkeley either by BART or car. As Ye was extremely reticent by nature, I knew preciously little about his personal life, or professional work. Moreover, I was insanely busy pursuing my library degrees, research work, and eventually job-hunting. I learned indirectly that his wife came to join him. They soon had a daughter, Andrea. Together they now lived in an apartment in Burlingame. He found a job at a local TV station after his graduation. 

In June 1996, I left Berkeley for Santa Cruz to join Paul. Towards the end of that year, Ye called me. He and his family had some time to share, and planned to have a holiday season in Santa Cruz. As we had accepted Lew's invitation to spend our Christmas and New Year in Puerto Vallarta, the proposed reunion did not pan out. As usual, I kept in touch with Ye and his family by sending Christmas cards. One day out of the blue, Ye's wife told me by phone that Ye was leaving for China, but she and her daughter decided to stay, now that she was a qualified accountant and felt comfortable living in this country. Since the call, the whole family had disappeared from our life until I saw his group photos last September when Mr. Fan and his wife visited him and another former colleague of ours in Los Angeles. Personally, I always felt responsible for not being able to get together that eventful 1996 Christmas. Things might have turned out differently if our schedules did not collide, and two families had met. 

Following his passing, Chinese media on both side of the Pacific have explored his life. He turned out to be a prolific writer, critic, and TV producer. His literary career peaked since 2017, leaving behind an impressive legacy of published fiction, nonfiction, collections of essays and articles, and media productions curated partly by OCLC, an international bibliographic utility. He was equally well-known among Chinese writers in Southern California and China by holding the title of Honorary President of Chinese Writers Association of America (CWAA) in Los Angeles.

Ye, quiet but with an inner volcano for literary creations, will be missed. He lived a short but prolific life.

BIBLIOGRAPHY BY YE ZHOU

Fiction (长篇小说)

《旧金山的雾》(2022)

《美国爱情》

《丁香公寓》(2014)

Nonfiction (长篇非虚构)

《世纪波澜中的文化记忆》

Essays (散文集)

《文脉传承的践行者 : 叶以群百年诞辰纪念文集》(2011)

《地老天荒》(2013)

《巴黎盛宴 : 城市历史中的爱情》(2015)

《伸展的文学地图》(2020)

Alverda Left Her Heart at Davenport

Yesterday afternoon, a call came in, while I was writing a memorial piece for my former colleague Ye. It was from Luisa, Alverda Orlando's twin daughter. My heart instinctively sank on hearing her voice. I was going to swing by Alverda's apartment to deliver some chocolate, on my way to Ann's home to return her shirt. As there were lots of errands to take care of before Nick arrived, I had to stay home.

Alverda Orlando passed peacefully away at 4:00 am, December 14, 2024 at Brookdale Nursing Home located at #100 Lockwood Lane. The cause of death is pneumonia complications. She was 94.

I knew Alverda when I started to work as an extra help librarian for Santa Clara County Libraries (SCCL) in May 1996. I was relocating from Berkeley to Santa Cruz. Since the opportunity for a full-time position was scarce then, I applied to both SCCL and San Jose State University for temporary and part time jobs. Alverda, retired from Santa Cruz Public Libraries (SCPL), was one of the four fellow trainees at Cupertino Library of SCCL. Upon the completion of two weeks' training, we could be qualified to start our service for elected branch libraries. 

One day after the training in the parking lot of Cupertino, Paul asked Alverda if she could give me a ride to Santa Cruz the next day, for I had not driven solo over Highway 17. Alverda readily agreed. That was the beginning of our nearly three decades' friendship. In the ensuing months and years, we carpooled over the hill whenever we could until I started my employment with DIALOG Corp. in July 1997. 

During those unstable but carefree years, our friendship flourished beyond carpooling. I learned tremendously from her, such as her professional reference skills in a public library setting, her research on Davenport and north coast areas, many colorful anecdotes in and outside SCPL, and her keen interest in library history. She was a rare specimen among public librarians, well-read and well-published. She researched, wrote and published well into her nineties, winning many prestige awards and grants, such as the Distinguished Historian of 2001 by History Forum of MAH, 2007 and 2017 Dolkas-Mertz Award, and the 2011 James Dolkas Memorial Fund.

Alverda was warm and generous to a fault. In 2000, she took in Nick to live with her for more than three weeks, when Paul and I visited my sick father in Shanghai, China. Since I started to work for SCPL, She, Nick, and I met regularly for our Friday dinner. After Nick left for college, she suggested that we add Donna and later Pam to our dinner table. Our Friday monthly dinners lasted until Covid-19. Over those dinners, we exchanged our ideas and achievements. With her wealth of experience and knowledge, we three learned and were benefited accordingly. Alverda has forever been our calming and solid rock anchoring our respective lives and challenges. She always has had advice for every occasion. "Anyway," she would start. 

Together with Davenport, we will miss you, Alverda!

Overtaxing USPS: a Comedy of Errors

In an attempt to economize shipping cost, I accidentally managed to overtax the fragile workload of US Post Office (USPS) by combining three transactions into one, totaling a package weight to 24 pounds. 

In November 4, 2024, I wrote to the Editor of the California State Library Foundation (CSLF) to purchase 50 copies of Bulletin that serialized my article on Laura Steffens Suggett in issues 141-144. She graciously accepted my request and delegated the task to her copy editor who finalized a phone order on November 7. I was excited and expecting the package to sit on our doorstep in the issuing days, just like any packages or boxes from Amazon or Costco. 

For some mysterious reason, the expected package after two weeks never showed up. On November 18, I wrote to the copy editor to ascertain if there was any error in our address. He confirmed that the shipping address was all in order, and advised me to contact our local USPS. Per his advice, Paul immediately checked our local office. It turned out USPS was unable to trace a package, if there was no tracking number. Apparently his mail room did not add any tracking number even when the value of package exceeded $400. Worse still, a return address was omitted in the process, so the lost package could not be returned when it failed to be delivered.  In addition, we asked our mailman for help. He has been actively looking for the package on his local route, with no results. 

On November 22, I wrote to the Editor about the troubling shipment. She replied with apologies on December 2, as soon as the holiday closure was over and CSLF was in operation. The very next day, a fresh shipment with the same content was dispatched with a tracking number and insurance for a value of $410. I received a confirmation email the same day, promising the new package would arrive by 9:00 pm on Friday, September 6, but our door step remained empty. The same night I created an online account with USPS. It repeated the same message about 9:00 pm Friday being the delivery time. 

The next day, Paul saw our mailman's substitute and inquired about the second shipment. The substitute mailman kindly provided him with a direct phone number for the regional supervisor. After many phone attempts, Paul was finally able to discuss the issue with the supervisor after 6:00 pm. It seemed that Amazon shipments were USPS priority items. Since our shipment was unusually heavy with 24 pounds, it was apparently considered the lowest among the priority list. Fortunately it was insured and tracked, and would be processed eventually. Thank you, the CSLF Editor, for your wise insight and foresight, or it would have meet the same fate as the first missing package.

The expected shipment that should appear today has been erroneously routed from San Jose to Wyoming, Michigan by a mere act of misscanning. Homer's Odyssey is continuing. Hopefully, the journey will not take as long as Odysseus did.

Trough more than a month long delivery time for a media matter package from Sacramento to Santa Cruz, I have learned my lesson: the weight matters with USPS. Don't ever try to be outsmart the unwritten rule by consolidating transactions, especially during the holiday season. No one wants to break their backs by lifting any weighty objects.  

Egret Ballerina Soaring to the Sky

Ever since the result of Election 2024 was announced on November 6, the whole country has been thrown into a hurricane. People are either exhilarated to high heaven, or diven down to a bottomless black hole. In the between space, very few people can remain long. Paul is one of the few, with his egret ballerina winning this week's Photo Contest in Good Times. The ballerina, along with his series of bird photography, has reflected his equilibrium of mind and soul, "I have done my civic duty to cast my vote, and now I am living my own life."

Paul's soaring ballerina captures the recent anchovy rush in the Monterey Bay, which has been attracting numerous cormorants, egrets, herons, pelicans, seagulls, as well as families of sea lions, and individual harbor seals and sea otters. The feeding frenzy has delighted aquatic fowl and marine mammals alike, but has also kept city and marine workers busy, trying to be the cleaning agent between nature and living beings on the bay.

Congratulations, Paul! Your new work has been well received in FB.

A Sad Farewell to Masako

Through my former classmate Cyrus, I learned about the unexpected passing of Masako Kasai on September 26, 2024. Instantly I felt a profound sadness. Luckily, Debbie came to visit Paul and me in Santa Cruz that Sunday, September 29. We were joined by more friends during 2024 Open Studio pre-exhibit hosted by Santa Cruz Art League. All these gatherings provided us with much needed reminiscent opportunities. 

Masako was one of our original study group members at Berkeley. Never working in a library prior to 1990, I was floundering after missing nearly a month's time when the Library School started its session. It was the study group that rescued me from deep trouble, thanks to a long tradition of Berkeley campus to encourage students to free form their study groups, so as to help each other. Before long, I was in a group consisting of  Cyrus, Laura and Masako. Both Cyrus and Masako had been cataloging for years for GTU (Graduate Theologian Union) and East Asian Library at Berkeley. I benefitted tremendously from their expertise and handheld patience. In preparation of our Pacific Rim Library project for Buckland's Library Management class, our group was augmented with two more members, Elizabeth and Debbie. 

Masako at Koyasan Saizen-in Temple, 2019

Courtesy of https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10217188302314187&set=t.100000792644087&type=3

After a full and intensive academic year, most of us graduated with our Masters degree. Elizabeth moved from San Francisco to a small town in California while Laura went to work for Library of Congress. Debbie stayed on to finish a couple of more classes, whereas I continued with the Graduate Certificate program in the face of a statewide hiring freeze. However we had weekends and holidays to ourselves. We four permanent members would choose a fresh restaurant for our Friday night dinner each week. Very soon, we tasted nearly all the eateries in Oakland, Berkeley, Albany and El Cerrito. Whenever we made a poor choice, we would excessively express our disappointment. Only Masako could laugh it off lightly. Unlike the harried usual me, Masako always remained her calm and elegant self. She told me that she and her husband immigrated from Japan in the early eighties. They had two daughters.

In the mid nineties, Masako moved with her husband from San Rafael to a castle-like building perched high in Napa County. While beautiful and secluded, the new residence became a challenge for professional careers other than the wine business. Masako quit her Berkeley position to work for a law firm in the City by long daily commute. But the law firm job did not last too long. A few years later, it started to lay off its employees, among whom was Masako. 

Masako in December 26, 2018

Courtesy of https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10217092064390121&set=t.100000792644087&type=3

Masako contacted me to see if I knew someone working at San Francisco Public Library (SFPL). Doris, one of my Extra Help colleagues at Santa Clara County Library, happened to be a fulltime librarian there, and she just chanced to find out that her library was indeed looking for a Japanese cataloger. With Doris and my aggressive nudging and pushing, Masako applied and got the position. She worked and retired from SFPL. During the time she was working there, Masako and I would meet for lunch or chat in her workplace whenever I had conferences or workshops in San Francisco. She and I had been exchanging Christmas cards ever since I moved back to Santa Cruz from 1996 until 2023 when she was apparently too sick to reply. I always treasure her beautiful cards.

Over the years, Masako also visited my family in Santa Cruz with Debbie and Cyrus until I was told that she had developed Parkinson's disease which eventually claimed her life and smile. We miss you, Masako! Please rest in peace. There is no more long commute and illness pestering you.

Masako Kasai (1948-2024) 

Courtesy of https://www.facebook.com/calimakiroll

Revisit Youngstown for 55th South Reunion

On August 29, Paul and I went to Youngstown to attend his 55th South High Reunion, and returned home in the evening of September 3, the day after Labor Day.

Awesome Eight who attended together Sheridan Elementary, 

Princeton Jr., & South High School 

In less than a week's time, we embraced a lifelong experience. Before and after the big event that weekend, we packed three lunches with his friends from kindergarten, grade school and high school. All in their early seventies, those friends were more or less living and retiring locally or in cities like Columbus or Cleveland, with the farthest in Pittsburgh or Farmington, Michigan. In general, they were all content and happy in their own way. Even Gary who has been taking care of his 101-year-old Mother for more than two decades did not complain to much, except for his bitter reminiscence of his football career thwarted by a school bully who died young in his twenties. 

Poland Public Library Now in Youngstown, Ohio

In addition to lunching with friends, Paul and I visited the famed Poland Public Library, newly renovated Millcreek Park, and ate twice at Handel's Ice Cream, one in the rain, and the other on a chilly evening. According to Wikies, Handel's Handmade ice cream is a company founded by Alice Handel in 1945 in Youngstown, Ohio. Now it operates 125 corporate and franchise stores in 12 states, with its headquarters in Canfield, Ohio, and it's own neighborhood district in Youngstown. To a certain degree, Handel's ice cream & yogurt is similar to Penny's Ice Cream in Santa Cruz with its local business roots. With the change of times, Handel's has branched out to catering parties and Uber delivery, apart from its physical stores. It is superior in its inexpensive pricing and over 45 flavors rotating each month, such as Salty Caramel Truffle, Chocolate Pecan, and of course, Paul's favorite, Black Cherry. No wonder, the business is so loved by many new and returning chubby and chunky individuals and families.

A Handel's we visited twice in Youngstown, Ohio

The 55th Reunion was preceded by an unofficial meet and greet on Friday, August 30 in Holiday Inn hotel. It served as a warm up for the following day for both organizers and attendees. On arrival at 7:00 pm, we found a roomful of people talking and snacking. It turned out that we were one hour late, by adhering faithfully to the schedule which had undergone many revisions without too much notifications to all. When the actual reunion started, Paul and I were in the same hotel one minute before 6:00 pm, so were his classmates.

As Bill Finzel, the Master of Ceremony (MC), was absent due to his dizzy spell, Joseph Palmer, a retired library director, became his replacement. Together with the former Homecoming Queen, Deborah North, the new MC announced the opening of the reunion. It was quite a spectacular scene, with eight round tables, and one long VIP table in the hall, permeated with colorful lighting, music, dance and 3-D rotating photography. 

Paul and I at Reunion

Fifty-five years later, all those high school students gathered together in one place. Their former anger, competition, or frustrations were all like water under the bridge. Present and future was what they held. The organizers did a fantastic job making the reunion affordable and possible. In the past five years, they were holding bake sales and selling raffle tickets to donate to the proceeds to the event.

Deborah North and I

We celebrated Labor Day with Alexees's family. Michael and Joann's four kids came, including two-month-old Charly (Charlotte). It was a real treat to enjoy authentic Greek home cooked food, such as spanakopita, lamb, baklava, etc. On our way to the Cleveland airport, Paul was lamenting our missed opportunities to visit his Greek Church and downtown Youngstown. At that very moment, he happened to glance over his shoulder to see a magnificent building beckoning. Since there's no time like the present, we exited immediately to go through downtown streets and revisit this building that turned out to be his former church. 

Former Greek Orthodox Church, now Apostolic Faith Temple

109 W. Woodland Avenue, Youngstown

What a memorable revisit!

A Time for Everything in August 2024

The month of this August is the embodiment of "A Time for Everything, and a season for every activity under the heavens," as stated in Ecclesiastes 3. 

Having successfully completed her 2024 Boys and Girls Club Summer Camp on August 2, Leni was picked up and driven home by her father Nick the very next day. The following Friday, August 9, Gene Moriarty, a long time good friend of ours, passed away. Paul and I attended his Vigil Service and Funeral Mass August 26-27.

In between time, there were also happy occasions. We spent the week of August 20-24 in Seattle, Washington, having pizza and wine at Stephanie and Tyler's Happy Hour on August 22, and going to their Wedding the following day. In the shadow of the threatening new Covid19 in Hui's family, everyone, once recovered enough, was determined to have a great time, celebrating a brand-new life for the high-achieving couple. Nick and his four younger cousins had a complete cousin reunion for the first time in their life. Meanwhile, I received the first edit of the third installment proof of A Bright Star from the California State Library Foundation. As I did not have a laptop with me this time, I read through Gene Kennedy's corrections and approved them, in addition to answering his query.

August 24 was our departure day. As usual, Paul built in more than two hours for traffic and rental car return. Unlike Thursday night's frantic SeaTac Airport when we picked up Nick, the traffic was smooth, so was our fuel filling and car return. Paul, Nick and I felt visibly relieved to arrive at the quiet airport at barely 8:00 am, well before our respective departure times at 10:30 am, and 3:40 pm. 

All hell broke loose when we reached the Security Check point. There were six serpentine long lines of passengers waiting to be admitted. It took at least one hour to be at the head of the line that was to be continued by another line. The second queue, similar in length to the first one, would take the same amount of time for one to have their IDs, bodies and luggage checked. Instead of using the state of art facial recognition photo scan, all TSA officers checked us with their own eyes. After the checkpoint, we could not find our Alaska gate number, since QR was unable to spit out a printout. All the bulletin boards surrounding us were unusually quiet. Paul had to ask a Delta service desk for help. Instead of using her computer at the service desk, the representative was searching the internet with her cellphone to locate our gate. Fortunately, our flight was delayed 15 minutes, which gave us a pit stop opportunity before boarding the plane, while Nick was guarding our luggage. He was as good as his words to see Paul and me walking the tarmac to the plane. 

We landed in San Francisco miraculously on time Saturday afternoon. Looking at the bright and spacious airport, I felt a blissfully new appreciation of California, after going through the congested SeaTac, its inadequate bathroom stalls, and lack of real time flight information. Over FaceTime we celebrated Lee Anne's birthday that Saturday evening. It is the Birthday Girl that untangled the mystery of chaos at SeaTac. In her search for Nick's arrival time, she discovered that the airport had been a victim of a cyberattack. To be fair, the Seattle airport did a marvelous job in damage control in the face of vicious attacks and unfavorable working conditions. Offline and calmly, it managed to get its passengers to their destinations eventually. There was no public disorder, thanks to the air traffic control tradition of its city's aerospace industry.

Busy August does not seem to slow down, with our next trip scheduled for August 29-Septermber 3 for Paul's 55th Reunion in Youngstown, Ohio.

Gene, a Friend to Remember

Barely six months after the celebration of his 80th birthday, Gene Moriarty left us last Friday, August 9, 2024. It was known for quite a while that Gene's health was declining, but it is a new string of COVID19 that was the ultimate cause of his death.

Gene is the sixth dear friend to depart among our local friends, Sue Reynolds, Ted Grace, Lewis Weinstein (2017), James King, and John Breznak (2021). Each departure has taken something from us, leaving us with more grief and renewed resolve to live a full life. 

In the latest JAMA (August 13, 2024, vol. 332, no. 6), I happened to read Someone Has to Be Around to Put out the Lights  by Joel Jager. It is a very inspiring article advocating the positive attitude toward the disappearing of friends who have succumbed to illness or death. In front of this inevitable life cycle, as the author states, there seems to be only two options to avoid such a sad situation: either one dies first, or develops dementia, so they will not know what is going on around you. However, there is a third option as the author's 90-year-old father did a generation ago, i.e., revamping his purpose in life, "Instead of being immersed in the typical diversions of Southern Florida retirement, he began to focus on helping those remaining individuals and their families 'tie things up," usually in some small fashion...In his words, 'Someone has to be around to put out the lights.'"

Now the author and his wife are both in their 80s. Cognitively still intact, they opt to follow his father's footsteps by invoking the mantra of "May I be allowed to be of service" to each other, and their contemporaries that consist of relatives, friends, and acquaintances in both big and small ways, such as advice, assistance, guidance, referrals, and listening. Even though they often end their day emotionally spent, they are grateful for the opportunity to be of assistance. Meanwhile they hope there will be others around to help them in their declining and dying days. I admire the author and his father's way of living. 

Gene's Mass at Holy Cross Church

Paul and I are both relieved that we will be able to attend Gene's Vigil Service at the Pacific Garden Chapel, at 6:00 pm. August 26th and Funeral Mass at Holy Cross the following day, 11:00 am. Thank you Gene for your kindness, friendship and wisdom. We will miss you.

Holy Cross Father at the Beginning of Reception

Our Table at the Reception

(Lowe's brother, Jim S and Paul)

A Bird to Remember

Last late Friday afternoon, Paul and I were on our way to Leni's Swimming Team practice when we noticed three young girls hovering around a section of the sidewalk at Elm and Center Streets. All we could see was a hungry red mouth facing upward. It must be a lost chick, said I.

Chick Calling

We quickly found a spot and parked our Tesla along the street diagonally across from the bird and girls. It turned out that our initial guess was correct: a fuzzy chick was in distress. With its eyes closely shut, it was calling out incessantly in the middle of the sidewalk. One girl was on the phone, apparently calling a certain animal rescue agency, while her two friends were standing by sympathetically. Paul lost no time to have a closeup of the bird.

Fortunately, the assumed orphaned chick did have a parent. "She fed it a minute ago before we were on the scene," one girl informed us. Soon, the girl on the phone ended her call, and told all of us that she was advised to leave the bird where it was. If it were not abandoned, its parents would come to take care of it. There was nothing else we humans could do. As the chick was sitting in the middle of the sidewalk, we all felt that we need to move it to aside, preferably somewhere secure and out of public eye or traffic. Finally one girl scooped up the bird tenderly and placed it behind a leafy plant right beside the house foundation, as everyone wished.

New Sanctuary

As soon as the five of us walked away, two adult brown birds that had been sitting on the telephone lines above our gathering place flew to the top of the roof and then hopped down to the house. One bird was situated like a security guard on the top of garden tree, while the other cautiously approached the bird call. It was soon seen on its mission to find something edible in the nearby mostly barren yard. A further minute later, the guarding bird flew away, apparently received his mate's order to food hunting to a wider world.

Observing what was happening before our eyes, Paul and I felt extremely content and comforted at the thought that the chick was now in the safe hands of its parents. We now set off for our grandparent's bond towards the Santa Cruz Boys and Girls Club. There was a human bird waiting for our attention.

An hour later when Leni's swim team training was over, we three left the club, only to see not far away a pair of birds still flying by turns to feed their offspring behind the plant. Nothing is stronger than a parental bond and dedication!