Well, my efforts to keep mama dove on her nest have played a part in a happy result. There are two little "squabs" (as baby doves are called) in the nest. While doing something on my computer, I heard the characteristic whistling of doves wings, which told me that mama had left her nest. I grabbed my camera and got the picture. First is the picture I couldn't load the other day, which shows the two eggs in the nest. Next is today's picture of the little guys.























It may take some careful study to differentiate the two young birds, their feathers aren't in yet so they kinda look like hairy blobs. I would guess that they were born just before noon today. It is now 2:00 PM Central Time. Later, I'll get a picture of mommy on the nest. I am not feeding them or anything other than just observing. Mother Nature has done a good job of keeping the species healthy and thriving for millennia - she doesn't need my help.

Zounds! I have discovered that this is "National Simplify Your Life Week". I really don't know if there is a whole lot I could do to make things simpler for me. Let's see now- I don't work any more; that's pretty good. I try to stay out of my kids lives unless they ask me in; that has worked very well. I have zero debts to pay off; that's incredible. I go fishing whenever the mood strikes me; I have died and gone to Heaven. I hope all my friends are simplifying their lives.

Every morning I read CNN, the L.A.Times and the Omaha World Herald, all on line. I am learning the sports situations here in this plains state, but had to sit back and take stock when I realized the the Omaha Royals, a triple A baseball club (that's one step down from the major leagues) is in the Pacific Coast League. Huh? Let me look outside again just to be sure, but I don't think Nebraska is anywhere close to the Pacific Coast. If it has to reach to Omaha for a team, the league is not nearly what it used to be. Of course, most of the cities that fielded teams for the PCL in the old days, now are home to major league teams.

The San Francisco Seals, the old Los Angeles Angels, and the Hollywood Stars disappeared when the Giants and the Dodgers came west in 1958. The old Triple A San Diego Padres, Oakland Oaks, and Seattle Raniers were replaced with major league teams in the 1960s. Do the Sacrament Solons and the Portland Beavers exist anymore? I'll have to look that up.

As a young teenager, I used to travel with my buds by streetcar (remember them?) to L.A.'s Wrigley Field to watch the PCL Angels play. I remember names like Cecil Garriot, Rube Novotney, Bob Muncrief, Gene Baker and of course, Steve Bilko, who could hit a fastball fifty miles but just couldn't deal with the curve ball. The Dodgers' Jim Gilliam used to call the curve ball, "Public Enemy Number One". It separated minor league hitters from the big time. Chuck Connors, of "Rifleman" fame, was a first baseman for the minor league Angels for a couple of years and at one time I had a picture of me with him taken on a "Picture Day" before the game at Wrigley Field. Over time the picture has disappeared and I sure miss it when I have moments like these.

Holy Mackerel. I just took time out to do a quick Google on Today's Pacific Coast League and it bears absolutely no resemblance to the old. Not only is Omaha in the league, but so is Memphis, New Orleans and Houston, not to mention Oklahoma City, Nashville and Albuquerque. The Albuquerque team is called the "Isotopes", probably to take advantage of its proximity to the Los Alamos atomic proving grounds. Question: After playing there for a while, do the players glow in the dark?

I don't think I want to find out.