BIRD BATHING

It was early afternoon and I was sitting on my back deck reading a book when my son, Alex, came out and sat down in the chair next to me.

“You just get up?” I asked as I marked my spot in my book before putting it down on the table.

Alex was rubbing his eyes. “Yeah, I was up till four working on my game.”

“How's it going?” I was truly interested. Alex design's video games and even though I had little knowledge about writing code I knew he was good at it and more importantly, he loved it.

“Pretty good.” he looked over at me. “I'm making progress.” He stretched and looked over at our small bistro table. “Is that our pasta bowl?”

“Yup.”

“Why's it out here?” He got up and walked over to it. “And why's it filled with water?”

“I'm conducting a little experiment.”

Alex came back and sat down. “What kind of experiment?”

“I'm seeing if a bird bath is worth investing in.”

“WHAT!” Alex looked slightly disgusted.

“Birds need water.” I picked up my water glass, taking a small sip as if to prove my point. “Not only to drink but to clean their feathers and get rid of any parasites.” I set my glass back down.

Alex looked back over to the pasta bowl. “So now that's going to be filled with bird parasites?”

“No, I told you I'm just using it as an experiment.” I pointed over to the bird feeders that were filled with birds. “As soon as one of them shows some interest, I'm bringing the pasta bowl back in and going to buy a real bird bath for them.”

Alex just shook his head. “What got you started on this?” He gave a resigned sigh.

“Remember how hard it rained last night?” I pointed to the deck where there were still a few puddles. “Well, I was running to the store this morning and you know that pothole at the end of our street?” Alex nodded so I continued. “Well, it was filled with water and three robins were trying to bathe in it! I almost ran over them!” I was hoping Alex would see my reasoning. “I was going to pick up a bird bath right then but, I decided to see if they'd use it.”

“And?”

“Well, so far no one's been interested.” I sighed.

“How long have you had it out?”

I shrugged my shoulders. “Maybe half an hour.”

“And you're positive no birds have been in it so far?”

“Positive.”

We both watched the pasta bowl. “You know you can't just leave standing water out all day.” Alex added.

“I know. I'll have to change so it doesn't become a mosquito hatchery.”

Alex just nodded.

A robin landed on our railing, looking over at the bowl.

“Oh, I think we might have our first customer.” I whispered rubbing my hands together.

Alex jumped up, startling the robin so that it flew off.

“Hey!” I cried. “Why'd you do that?”

“Now we both win!” Alex went over to the bowl, dumped the water out and tucked the bowl under his arm. “You're experiment's complete.” He began walking towards the kitchen door. “Now you can go out and get your bird bath and I can still eat pasta out of this bowl!”