great white hunter

I was up on kansas street, portreo hill district, the sunniest side of san francisco, although the dense fog hung over the street until noon and then the winds came, blowing sheet rock and plywood off the house i was building. i had a debris chute build out over the side walk to a dumpster and mark and i were shoveling bricks and old lumber down the chute when the winds come up in a gust and blew the chute and mark who was standing on it into a telephone pole and scared the hell out of me, thinking mark was going to get fried but he jumped out and pissed m e off running to his truck to see if it was ok, and left me holding onto the end of the chute. we got everything righted after some pulling and moaning. i used to eat lunch down the street at a place called the jackdaw which had a little outside attriam, lattice with plants growing overhead, it was warm there and no infernal wind. birds lived in the attriam and i noticed there were a lot of parrots and exotic looking types and they would drop down out of the thicket and peck away at bread crumbs on the tables when people left. this one forelorn looking parrot guy would end up on the table next to me and i eventually suckered him over my table with some choice crumbs and ate my lunch while he ate his, always with one eye on me. we had lunch together for a couple of weeks when it came to me, how was the little guy going to make it through the winter? he'd gotten out of his warm nice cage and wasn't going back. i took my laborer Angel with me one day, armed with a paper bag and my flat tin construction box, just the right size i'd determined to cover the bread basket. here was the plan, i'd coax my feathered friend down with the usual crumb entre, angel remains still, birdy climbs in the basket, eye on me, i give the nod to angel and he slides, this is important, slides the flat can over the basket trapping birdy boy. we praticed this a number of times on the job site in preparation, me holding my hand out making angel slide the metal box over and over until he got it right. the biggest problem wasn't going to be the bird but angel, he just didn't believe in it, i know he thought i was crazy, but i was going to catch my man. we went to lunch, had some pasta, i bought angel a beer, relax i said it's going to work fine, and sure enough birdy boy saw the proverbial bread basket, lighted on the table, crawled in and ate his crumbs, a quick nod from me to angel, the shiny metal can slid into place and i had my capture, quickly transfering mr. bird into the paper bag which i punched some holes in with my fork and then i sat back and drank my beer. this all created a big fuss in the cafe, the waiters went and got the owner who came back with a long line of waiters and demanded i let the bird go, citing animal cruelty, freedom for the bird, etc, etc. i said the bird was mine and i'd caught him, he was going to a pet store and if anyone touched my paper bag there would be serious, i mean serious consequences. i loaded my bird up in my jeep and we sped into the city where i found an exotic bird emporium and when i showed the owner my catch he said, yep and austrailian so and so, never make it though the winter and i'll find it a good home. the jackdaw never would let me eat lunch again. right to refuse service, to a ruffian trapper the likes of me. jgk