Out for a Lark

October 24, 2008. It was just like any day as far as our morning routine goes. Except I got a couple of cards from my wife as we were preparing for breakfast. Throughout the day I would be receiving calls, text messages and emails from family and friends greeting me on my 62nd birthday. As of today, I am officially "retired" according to the government records. Soon I will be getting my social security pension. Inasmuch as I have been out of work for over a year now, this was not exactly an earth-shaking event for me. Besides, I'm the kind who does not want nor expect any fuss on my birthday "celebration".

So what do I do on my birthday? Go birding, naturally. I wanted to do a reprise of what I did last year - visit Peck Park in El Monte. Last year (which was just a week after Indymac and I had a friendly "divorce") I got some pretty good birding experiences at Peck's. Today didn't go too well, though. All the sprinklers were on and the maintenance people were busy doing their jobs and quite noisy about it. Nevertheless, I was able to capture some good shots of a couple of "Larks": the Lark Sparrow (the most beautiful sparrow in the U.S., in my opinion) and the plentiful Meadowlarks.

Later that night as my wife and I were enjoying a sumptuous Mediterranean dinner, she asked me how my day was.

"It was a lark!" I replied smiling.