Baby On Board

It was early evening Saturday, 6:30 p.m., and I had to get to Davis from Folsom pronto, for DMTC's "Annie Get Your Gun." So, it was 75 -85 mph in the fast lane, down the hill and across the Sacramento Valley, Baby Blue and myself (the bird had been waiting patiently in the car while I had attended the housewarming party).

Bounding along the freeway, I thought it was a learning opportunity for Baby Blue, to experience - velocity! After all, how is a bird supposed to learn speed without actually experiencing it? So, I removed her as she sat upon her supporting masking tape and pie plate from the cardboard box and placed her on the dashboard as we raced through the eastern Sacramento suburbs on Highway 50. As we passed the Watt Avenue exit, she got into the spirit of things and clumsily flapped her wings three times, the first time she had ever done that so many times.

Approaching Howe Avenue, she moved out of the pie plate and started do her little pterodactyl crawl along the dashboard, which seemed slightly-hazardous as the car bounced vigorously along the pavement on its tight suspension, so I picked her up and set her in my lap. She painstakingly experimented with my finger as we drove past downtown Sacramento and as we joined Interstate 80 and emerged onto the Yolo Causeway, for the first time ever, she perched on my finger. I held her aloft with my right hand as I steered with the left. After awhile, her legs lost strength, so she was no longer exactly perched, but more or less sitting on my hand, but she didn't complain. She effortlessly flew into Davis watching the great views out the windows, as her driver took care of the more-mundane driving chores.