Scrambled Eggs

Sometimes nature sucks.
I haven't been able to post here lately because - and I know this sounds silly - it's been a wee bit too painful. One night I was up finishing my absolute last paper for school and it was midnight and I heard robins chirping loudly and mightily. It finally sunk in - birds, chirping madly, at midnight - something wasn't right. I rushed to the backyard, flipped on the back light and caught the gleam of a racoon's eyes on the gate ledge. Next to the nest. I screamed, chased it away and then it was just me and the loudly chirping robins. I dragged Sergio out of bed to go see if there was any chance I had scared the raccoon away in time - I couldn't look myself. Nope, nothing. No eggs and just a few feathers. I was surprised by being honestly, truly heartbroken. The morning and evening times when I peeked in to the nest with my daughter and watched a bird grow, a bird that was maybe 4 days away from flying for the first time - it felt terrible. I still haven't been in that corner of the yard yet. I know there's a cycle of life and preys and hunters and all that good stuff, but I was honestly really really mad at nature. I can't even look back on the last bit of footage I took of the robin baby. Or my last post, hence the absence.

moving along, sadly....

Here is something I wish someone else would make. (I sketched this idea out during a meeting last week). Okay, it would be a web app that had elements of so-called social media, eg a way to gather up all your contacts in one nice easy to search place. But besides who these people are, it would give me a way to organize their little quirks and likes and dislikes and how many kids they have and where they went on their last vacation and what kind of tea she always drinks and what his favourite flower is - all the things I observe and learn about people each day that could help me work with and relate to them better and be a more thoughtful person in the world - and I just plain forget. Or don't recall until after the awkward chit-chat. My brain just doesn't have the room but I'm pretty sure my hard drive does. How it would differ from social media is there is no way in hell that the observations or tidbits would be public. This would be secret information, some of it good, some of it bad - which is why I want this app to be called "Harriet". After Harriet the Spy and her notebooks. Internets, please build this for me.