I was golf balling in Van Cort
and, since I was done, I was preparing to carry my bike over the creek that separates the course from the bike path
when my little guy appeared in my face
I reached into my pocket to grab some sunflower seeds and he disappeared
then I heard a chirp behind me
he had landed on the branch behind my head by about a foot
I gave him some seeds
and there was a tufted titmouse watching
but the titmouse couldn't work up the courage to land in my hand
although he tried to follow the chickadee
finally after about 10 tries
and walking around my feet to pick up the chickadee's dropped seeds
he finally worked up the courage
But there was only two
there were other chickadees flying around in the trees
but they never came down for a snack

Filed under: Feathered Friends>Chicadees

http://www.youtube.com/user/davidpmerle

When I can't bike to work, I take the subway to 242nd Street and either take the bus, walk or 'shuffle' home. Sometimes I cut through the golf course just cause its prettier. On Friday, February 15th I ducked through the fence and was walking by the 5th tee. I had my cell phone in my hand because I was getting ready to call Shirley, when, in a mad flutter or wings, a bird landed on my cell phone. Naturally, I was startled and my sudden movement caused the bird to fly away, but less than a minute later, he was back. He landed on my phone a second time and I had a couple of seconds to look at him as he insolently stared at me. It was a chickadee!

Well, I knew what that meant. Chickadees are not interested in making long distance calls or texting their friends; this chickadee wanted seeds. So Saturday Shirley and I came back to the same spot with sunflower seeds and we practiced standing like statues for 30 minutes with our hands out holding sunflower seeds. Nothing. No birds anywhere. We left disappointed but came back on Sunday for another attempt. Again at the same spot we stood like statues to no avail. After about 10 minutes we left and went for a walk after scattering a couple of hand fulls of seeds on the ground. On our way back to the car, we passed the spot where we had scattered the seeds and it was obvious there had been a feeding frenzy. There were sunflower shells everywhere. I took the bag of sunflower seeds out of my pocket and poured some into my hand and before I could put the bag away my chickadee swooped in and landed on my hand. I stood there as my chickadee made several trips. In the bush right next to me there were two pretty grey birds who watched this with intense interest. Every time the chickadee landed for another seed, they hopped closer on the bush. A couple times they tried to fly to my hand but turned back in a flurry of feathers as they discovered that it was just too scary.

I let Shirley take over with the seeds and almost immediately the grey birds (they turned out to be tufted titmice) landed in her hand and started feeding. Check here to see the videos of me and Shirley feeding the birds. For the entire time, the chickadees preferred coming to me and the tufted titmice preferred going to Shirley.

http://www.youtube.com/user/davidpmerle

Filed under: The Boyz R Back>Peter Luger's

The boyz and I made our annual pilgrimage to Peter Luger's to enjoy some red meat and manly company.Here Michael Russo gives his best attempt at a manly hug with Paul Merle. See more pictures here.

Filed under: Natural Disasters>Food Delivery

I guess this is a story that has to be told.

Last night Shirley and I ordered our usual, General Tso's chicken and Won Ton soup, from our favorite Chinese restaurant: Kung Food. The delivery guy arrived (he's our regular guy), called us from outside (as usual) so I went to the door to pay him. I paid him and left a tip and then went back inside and put the food on the living room table. Next thing you know, he was back and banging urgently on the front door. I went outside in my socks and, although his English is practically non-existent, he quickly made me understand that his car had been stolen. I went back in, got my cell phone and came back outside to call 911. As I was waiting for 911, I asked the Chinese guy what kind of car it was, but he couldn't answer other than he thought it was a Toyota. Meanwhile a car pulled up to the sidewalk next to us as I was describing to 911 the situation. Our next door neighbor got out with his pit bull and started mumbling something like "She is so crazy". As I am talking to 911, I am beginning to realize that this guy not only witnessed the car theft but knows who did it. So I said, while still on the line with 911, "Wait, you know who took the car?". The guy with the dog mumbled some more stuff and was evasive. All he could seem to say was, "She is so crazy". Then the delivery guy started pointed urgently at a car driving buy and said something loudly that I didn't understand. What I believe he meant was that his car was like the one that was driving by at the moment. Later I learned that what he actually meant was "That is MY car. The person who stole it just drove it by the house again". Soon after that the police car came, driving the wrong way down our street. The police asked questions of us and from what the guy with the pit bull was saying I was starting to realize that the person who took the car was his girlfriend, who also lived here in the same apartment building. Then the police put the delivery guy in the car and went off to look for the stolen car. I went back into my apartment to eat my Chinese food. I didn't get to enjoy it for long because, pretty soon, another police car had come and a new police officer was ringing the doorbell. I just wanted to eat my General Tso's chicken at this point. The officer came in and started asking questions. He pointed at the chinese food on the living room table and asked "Is that what the food the delivery guy brought?" I said, "You aren't going to take it as evidence are you?" Luckily he has a sense of humor and didn't pull his gun. Well, I feel I should make a long story short; it turns out the girl who lives in our building took the car for reasons unknown. She drove around a bit and then abandoned the car. The police found the car later that night, and found her in the apartment. They dragged her off to the precinct but no charges were pressed.

Filed under: Natural Disasters>The Economy

I do so hope the economy improves next year. It was a tough year for the golf-balling industry. Merle Golf shipped 9150 golf balls in 2011, over 600 more than the previous year, but profits were down. Average price per ball was down from 29 cents in 2010 to 26 cents in 2011. That smarts! To our shareholders: Merle Golf is dedicated to improving margins in 2012. We are cutting our losses this year and stockpiling for next year. We plan to be strategically positioned to move aggressively forward early next year.

Filed under: Natural Disasters>Hurricanes

It would have been great if I had posted a blog during the hurricane. Of course, we didn't have electricity or water, so it would have been impossible. We had come to the Yellow House in New Paltz to escape the wrath of Irene. It's a 100 miles from where the Irene was supposed to strike: New York City. Who knew that New York City would remain relatively unscathed and that New Paltz would get creamed. Power went out Saturday night around 7:00. It came back around 8:00. We all cheered! It went out again a half our later and didn't come back on for a week. But it was when the power first went out that I truly regretted all the pooh-poohing I did to the hoopla in the media about the dangers of the coming hurricane. So when the lights went out we lit a bunch of candles and took stock of our situation. It turns out we had some stale tortilla chips, a can of soup, some bacon and several pints of ice cream. So we weren't going to immediately starve to death. Plus we had enough bottles of Perrier water in the fridge for maybe two more flushes. There was hope!

Me cooking soup and bacon on the grill

Since the stove wasn't working, Shirley showed me how to turn on the grill and I cooked my first meal: soup and bacon.

Filed under: Sherpas>Espresso Makers

I learned something that I think I should have already known: the difference between Sherpas and porters. As we got off the bus to begin our trek, we were introduced to our support team. For 8 trekkers this included, one head guide (Ekraj) two Sherpas (Dawa and Tilak) and 4 porters. The duffel bag for Shirley and me was so heavy that I would have strained to bring it from my car into my apartment (about 40 feet). When I was told that only 4 of our team would be actually carrying luggage, I said "that's impossible". And I really meant it. As it turns out and what I should have known is that the Sherpas are not there to carry luggage, they are mountain guides, not porters. And in fact, the 4 porters proceeded to tie together 2 duffels each and then tie their own bag on top of this package. Then they put a strap around their forehead, hoisted the whole contraption and off they went. Not one of them weighed more than 160 pounds. As it turns out, a porter carrying this load moves at the same pace as one of us trekkers carrying his or her day pack. Its hard to believe unless you see it for yourself.

The Sherpas however were there to guide. Tilak went first to make sure we didn't get lost, that we stopped to rest often and that we stopped at the correct lunch and dinner spots. Dawa brought up the middle and assisted Patsy by carrying her bag. He also carried a birthday cake for 3 days for a surprise birthday party for Patsy on Saint Patrick's Day without putting a single smudge in the frosting. Ekraj brought up the rear to make sure we didn't lose anyone and to keep track of our slowest trekkers.

They were really a great group of guys. Apparently, this is a high paying job and they brought a great enthusiasm to it. They were a pleasure to be around.