On Parrots, Rhubarb, and Washers That Email

A truly interesting April day, full of so many little miracles.
My family ventured forth for Bobcat Day. The University of California, Merced held it's (maybe) third open house ever. The school has only been in existence for a few years - last year's graduating class totalled three students. The school didn't exist until 2005 or so, and will expand a little at a time until it is the biggest UC in the California system. So to drive on campus is a little underwhelming at first - so few buildings in the middle of San Joaquin Valley farmland.
Yet it is a state of the art campus - wireless ready throughout. Every chair, table and couch in every meeting place has a decoratively hidden power outlet for your laptop. The library has laptops with the newest tablet technology and software avaliable for free check-out for four hours at a time. Classrooms have computer stations for all students. The washers and dryers in the laudromat have the capability to email or text you when your laundry is done, so you don't have to wait around for your undies to dry!

And...it's environmentally friendly too. In an effort to save all the paper that flyers and ads are printed on - the university has strategically placed TV screens around campus that display all of the ads and meeting notices and commercial issues that normally litter a campus with paper flyers. The heating and cooling for the entire campus is through heated or cooled water flowing through pipes to heat and cool rooms. Building materials are made partially from recycled paper and plastic. The lobby of the library has a cafe. It also has three sections of it's floor to ceiling windows that are set up like garage doors. When it gets hot inside and pleasant outside (lovely Cali), they just open the garage door windows and the area is transformed into an outdoor cafe. There is a small shuttle that will pick up students from Merced apartment complexes - reducing all student's need for having a car at all.

So we drive home from this experience, and arrive at our little, old house - far from state of the art, more like state of the old and cluttered. A little let-down, yet familiar...I decide to head to the store for treats. As I walk outside, I hear an odd bird squawk...I look up and there's a parrot in my cottonwood tree. I had heard from a neighbor that one was loose, but no one knew who it belonged to. So I did what most people do when faced with parrots and no experience - I put out my hand and said "pretty bird!" And lo and behold, it flew down and landed on my shoulder! And by the way, when one of these parrots screech in your ear from your shoulder - it hurts! So long story - my neighbor came out and miraculously has a sister who takes in lost birds - so our parrot friend is on the way to meeting other lost friends.

Which leads to odd miracle number three - I went to the store after the bird was saved. When I walked through the produce section, there miraculously was...wait for it......Rhubarb! Not much of a revelation for most - but I grew up growing rhubarb in our garden - many a summer night eating rhubarb-strawberry pie or rhubarb-raspberry-strawberry mush over vanilla ice cream. I can't ever find it in the local stores - and tonight when I wasn't looking for it - there it was in abundance...

Such an ordinary day in the eyes of many - but that's what makes life interesting - that miracles exist in the eyes of the beholder. What is miraculous and unique to me, isn't even noticeable to most other people on the planet.