Nothing Quite Like....

....happy Harpies chirping in the morning. ::laughs::

But seriously, these guys are over the moon thrilled with me right now. And given what Harpies are....that’s a GOOD thing. ::laughs::

So yeah, after my woe-is-me father’s day reflective time....and then gave way to fuck-you attitude…I then decided I should take my lil punk ass on a walk. It’s been ages since I’ve walked Holly (old lady dog) more than just around our apartment section.

There are two wooded hiking/biking trails near my apartment…one on either side of the road. Normally, the hobos are in the South Trail…sleeping off their Steel Reserve hangover and all the paint huffing they did the night before. Normally, the North Trail is hobo free, and I can walk there without worry of being mooned or listening to Hobo Man or Hobo Woman flip out while drunk/high.

But not so yesterday. They were at the first picnic table…where I had my run in last April with Hobo Woman and three black thugs that harassed me the entire trail way. So I turned around and walked back out the way I came in. Now there’s a sidewalk that runs along the road, so I opted to walk that down to the far entrance of South Trail. If the Hobos are in North Trail, then South Trail SHOULD be clear.

I know, I know. What does this have to do with chirping Harpies?
Shut up. I’m getting there.

ANYWAYS, as I’m walking down the sidewalk, I notice this tree overhanging the sidewalk. It looks like a black locust that Kimberly (journaling buddy) and I were talking about a few months back. Ever since then, the Harpies have been hinting around that they wanted a rod/wand/staff made of some sort of wood with thorns. I was thinking maybe a rose cane and was planning to talk to Paula (after school substitute buddy) as she has tons of roses.

But, I get to looking at this black locust (or maybe it’s a honey locust…I’m not 100% sure which one it is)....and I notice these MASSIVE spikes of doom. I mean, holy shit…some of these have to be a good 2 inches long and they fork off multiple times. Wicked, wicked looking. And that’s when the Harpies start twittering.

Well, seems I’ve found what they have been wanting this whole time. No wonder they were so lackluster about the rose cane suggestion.

So today on my walk (after purchasing a pair of good gardening shears from Home Depot).....I cut this cane for them:

Here are the Spikes of Doom I was talking about:

And the cane itself isn’t much thicker than my pinkie finger. Larger branches had spikes that forked off three or four times. I may go back and get some of those spikes later.

But oh! How happy my Harpies are. Chirping and twittering and just so very happy. A rather odd sound, to be sure.

So for now, the cane is out on my balcony, drying out. After it dries, then I’ll figure out what exactly they want on it. I know there will be feathers for sure…and snake vertebrae. They’ve been rather adamant about that. I might also buy a replica of a harpy eagle (Harpia harpyja) talon as well.