The Rio Grande Valley Birding Festival is always a blur for me. The time goes too quickly and I have too many old friends to talk to and new friends to make. I did my best to stop and talk to everyone I could this time. I had so much help with my usual tasks of running the leaders and field trips that it was a cakewalk for me physically.
Today was an emotional roller coaster. Someone that hasn't spoken to me in almost three years but used to speak to me frequently came over and asked how I am doing. Evidently a mutual human I saw on Wednesday told them I was nearly bald and they had nose trouble and wanted to know more. My issue? I was leading a group. Why in the *uck would you walk up to a chemo / cancer patient and ask how they are doing in front of 20 people? Were they intentionally trying to make me emotional, or get a knee-jerk response of "how do you THINK I'm doing? I'm dying one day at a time - just like you. Only I'll die a hell of a lot sooner". I'm still upset. I did not handle it well. But the field trip was awesome. Incidently my response was an admittedly testy "we're not talking about that now". I've said that to several people at the festival. People I've never met before ask the most invasive questions. No, they don't get answers.
Speaking of awesome field trips, the only other field trip I led was with my friend Laura Paulson. We did a tram tour of beautiful Estero Llano Grande State Park with the one and only John Yochum, park naturalist. It was a great day, even if the winds were blowing NW at 20. That was Friday.
So the fest ends tonight, and I continue birding for a few day with my friends Rene, Eric, and Jorge. It's going to be a blast. I just hope I'm physically up for it. I've pulled something in my gut again and am in pain. Those guys will make it as easy on me as possible. And I will do my best to enjoy every minute of it.
