Saving a Pigeon

by Cindy Robinson

Neither of these pigeons are the one in the story. These are photos I took before which are entitled “Stumpy & his girlfriend”

Neither of these pigeons are the one in the story. These are photos I took before which are entitled “Stumpy & his girlfriend”

I think I inadvertently saved a pigeon’s life over the weekend, or at least saved it from being maimed and minimized its trauma. Let me rewind a little bit first though.

My daughter and I had plans over the weekend which kept morphing and changing into different plans. Our first set of plans for Saturday didn’t work out the way we’d hoped but later in the day we did indeed have some good fun. Kudos to singers Troye Sivan and Nick Jonas for being awesome young men! We love you guys.

As our plans evolved we found ourselves in a different part of Los Angeles that we don’t normally frequent and in an area I normally consider a pretty nice area. We were hungry and opted for a quick stop to escape the traffic and avoid the long search for a new place to eat. We saw a Costco so decided “Yes, quick & easy.”

It was the craziest damn Costco we’ve ever been to! I won’t name the location because I probably know people who frequent this as their regular Costco. It was like all those bizarre people you see in the bad Wal-Mart photos and videos had escaped to Costco over the weekend!

It was a fest for people watching! There was what I assume, a homeless couple enjoying a pizza with their shopping cart of haphazardly packed belongings next to them. They seemed normal enough, until the man got up to go get something and proceeded to make this bizarre series of noises as he walked between the tables and again as he returned to his seat. But then he just engaged in normal conversation with his lady companion and the table next to him while he was seated.

At the  table next to us was a big guy with a hearty laugh, ear buds in, enjoying some show on his phone, who enjoyed burping – repeatedly, loudly, and without excusing himself, like he was at home on the sofa in his underwear watching TV.

A couple of tables away my daughter is certain she spied a popular Youtuber who had his hair up in a ridiculous man-bun with a woman’s little claw hair clip. I so wish I had scissors handy but my daughter thought it looked good!

At the table in front of us was an older man with grey hair and a boy or young man who appeared to be an older teenager with perhaps some sort of mental disability. At first the boy was sitting at the table with the man eating their pizza. Then the boy sat on the ground and began feeding his pizza crust to the pigeons which of course made them flock to him. At one point, the man got up and left the table to go get something. Then suddenly the boy had a pigeon in his hands! He’d caught one and it looked like we he was grabbing the wing with force like he had intent to do damage. I just automatically yelled out “What the hell are you doing?” And he released the bird while several large and small feathers remained in the boy’s hand. Everything seemed to go silent for a few seconds and then the normal chatter of people eating lunch returned. The man came back to the table and the boy showed him the feathers he’d gotten. I was just sitting there a bit stunned. The man didn’t acknowledge that he’d seen anything go awry but they left a few minutes later. Then it dawned on me that I’d actually said that out loud and I asked my daughter if I had been loud. She said I was and that people stopped to look for a moment but it got him to release the bird.

Some readers may think “it was just a bird” or “pigeons are totally annoying at Costco” or “well, the kid has a disability”. Just because it was one of millions of pigeons doesn’t mean it’s OK to harass and torture it. Just because someone has a disability doesn’t mean they get to skip knowing right from wrong if they are able to process that information. If pigeons are a pest at Costco it’s only because you, the patrons of Costco have taught them to be that way by feeding them and teaching them to seek food from humans instead of finding it as they should. I’m super guilty of this because I like birds, I like it when they are curious and come near me and I sure as hell wasn’t going to sit there and let some kid torture a bird or anything else for that matter.

As for the kid, he did seem to have some disability but did seem functional enough to know right from wrong if he had been taught that. I guess that was the scary part for me. The older man – father, caregiver or whatever he was didn’t even address the kid sitting on the ground trying to catch the pigeon, didn’t clarify to him anything about right or wrong so if the boy can’t grasp that it’s wrong to harm a small bird maybe some other time he won’t understand it’s not right to harm something or someone else.

We sat there kind of shocked for a few minutes and then we figured the poor bird probably flew off to a tree to shit himself crazy with fear after his little ordeal. I couldn’t help but wonder if other people would say something in a situation like this? I wish I’d said something to the man but they left before I came out of my shocked state. But that is me, if I see something strange happening, I will likely say something about it, whether it embarrasses the people I’m with or not.

I didn’t even intend to write about it, and it doesn’t really fit with most of the things we write about at Life On The Scene, but after a few days it’s still sitting in my thoughts going “damn, that was kind of crazy!” so here it is. I just hope the pigeon is OK.

Life Is Beautiful Coming to Las Vegas

The larger than life festival is heading to downtown Las Vegas in just a few weeks, running from September 25th-27th. Have you grabbed your tickets?

The music lineup is vast & varied including: Stevie Wonder, Imagine Dragons, Kendrick Lamar, Duran Duran, Hozier, Snoop Dogg, Weezer, Major Lazer, Death Cab for Cutie, Chance the Rapper, Brandon Flowers, Kygo, Atmosphere, Twenty One Pilots, Knife Party, Porter Robinson, Thievery Corporation, Edward Sharpe & The Magnetic Zeros, Metric, AWOLNATION, Walk The Moon, Carnage, Run The Jewels, Rebelution, Madeon, Future Islands, Robin Schulz, SOJA, GRiZ, Royal Blood, Glass Animals, Lindsey Stirling, Clean Bandit, Best Coast, BADBADNOTGOOD & Ghostface Killah, Audien, The Green, TCHAMI, Ab-Soul, Against Me!, SZA, Dan Deacon, Meg Myers, Claude VonStroke, New Politics, Two Gallants, Halsey, Shamir, Cashmere Cat, Ryn Weaver, What So Not, Big Data, The Magician, JAUZ, Saint Motel and many more.

Check out the Life Is Beautiful festival site for each day’s lineup. You can buy three-day festival passes or grab single day tickets if you can’t stay for the entire weekend. The full scoop on the types & prices for tickets can be found here.

The festival also has a massive line up of culinary delights with a variety of food trucks, food vendors and celebrity chefs offering their mouth-watering treats throughout the weekend.

There will be art for your viewing pleasure in between musical sets and guest speakers promoting a force for good including Bill Nye (the Science Guy!).

Which day(s) are you attending? Who are you most stoked to see? Leave us some comments below on who you are excited to see perform live! Come back and share some photos and reviews of the best aspects of the weekend.

FREE Organic Tortilla Chips at Sprouts Farmers Market

As most Life on the Scene readers know, we jump around on a variety of topics so here is today’s random post. If you live in an area of the United States that has Sprouts Farmers Market, you may want to print out this coupon that is valid through September 18, 2014 to grab yourself a FREE bag of Sprouts Organic Tortilla Chips. Two of my favorite things in the same sentence – FREE and tortilla chips! Yum!

While you are on the Sprouts Farmers Market website to grab your freebie coupon, don’t forget to check out their regular coupon section which has a bunch of great coupons you can print right now (remember, most sites let you print two (2) copies of each coupon so you can save even more on your next trip to the grocery store)! These coupons all look to be valid until September 30, 2014 so that gives you while to find a good sale on these products.

A few coupons that jump out at me include:

$1.00 off any ONE (1) Earthbound Farm Deep Green Blends Kale or Power 1lb. Bag – Yum! I love kale

$1.00 off any ONE (1) Evolution Fresh Juice (15.2 oz.)

$1.00 off any ONE (1) Naked Juice

 

Please share any great savings tips or coupons you may find with our readers by adding them in the comments section below. I love finding great savings on everyday things we need at home. It allows us to save money to enjoy the fun things in life.

FREE Pizza! Who wants one? Hungry Howie’s Has One For You

Hungry Howie’s pizza is offering up a free small cheese pizza to customers this week who head over to their Facebook page, like the page and submit their name & email address for the coupon to be emailed to you. The catch is, you have to get the pizza this week as the coupon expires this Thursday, October 17, 2013 at close of business.

You can visit their webpage for a list of locations to see if there is one near you. When you complete the form on their Facebook page it does require you to select your store location so if yours isn’t on that list then it isn’t part of the promotion.  A free little pizza sounds like a quick dinner option to me this week! Just add some garlic bread and a salad at home and you’re all set.

Hungry Howie’s is also a big support of the National Breast Cancer Foundation so your “like” on their Facebook page during the month of October will also generate a donation to the NBCF. There is also a donation link directly on the page if you care to donate more to a great cause.

 

FREE Seventh Generation Sample, McDonald’s Coupon

I found a few good deals today while scouring the internet. You can get a free sample of Ovaltine Stick Packs by visiting their Facebook page, liking the page and clicking on the “stick pack” tab. Then fill in your details and your done! Here’s the link to make it quick & easy for you. Ovaltine FREE sample Supplies are limited so hurry over to request your sample.

Target is currently offering a free sample of Seventh Generation all natural personal care. This sample is limited to certain zip codes but you will have to visit the site and enter your zip code to see if you qualify. Luckily, my zip code qualified and after answering a few simple questions I was able to choose either a face product or lotion. Visit the Target Sample Page now to see if you qualify before these disappear!

Image courtesy of http://www.mcdonalds.com/

 

McDonald’s is also offering a rare $1 coupon on their new 250 calorie Egg White Delight breakfast sandwich. For a limited time, you can try this new sandwich for just $1 with the coupon! Visit the McDonald’s site here and click on the blue diamond with the $1 in the middle to claim your coupon. I don’t expect these will last long so print it while you can.

I also found a good coupon for Earthbound Farms organic carrots .75 cents off. That’s posted on our Facebook page. Visit us on Facebook to grab that coupon. I know Walmart in my area stocks these carrots and with this coupon they will be free or nearly free!

Have you come across any great deals this week? Please post them in the comments section below to share with our readers!

 

FREE Cat Food Sample UK

Fluffy

Purina One, a Nestle company, currently has an offer open for a FREE can of their new Purina One wet cat food formula. This freebie is only open to residents of the United Kingdom. You can visit the Purina UK site here to sign up for the sample pack of wet or dry cat food. You will need to register for the site, or log in if you’re already a member there. I love getting these sample packs here in the USA because they usually include some nice high dollar coupons for future purchases.

We’d love to hear about any current sample promotions or links to great printable coupons that you’ve come across recently in the comments below.

 

NBC and Chipotle Team Up for FREE Food

Image via Wikipedia

Television network NBC, their new show America’s Next Great Restaurant and burrito giant, Chipotle, have teamed up to offer viewers a great coupon for a buy one, get one free item at a Chipotle Mexican Grill location near you. Please go to America’s Next Great Restaurant Facebook page, ‘like’ them and then go to the Chipotle tab and watch the video.

Once the video completes, you will be able to print out your Chipotle coupon so be sure to have your printer connected and loaded with paper. The offer is limited to one per person and creates a unique code on the coupon so you can only use it once.

NESCAFÉ® Taster’s Choice® & Aquafresh samples & coupons

Image courtesy of Taster's Choice

Here are a couple of great deals to get your week started dear readers. NESCAFÉ® Taster’s Choice ® will send you a FREE sample of coffee while supplies last when you like them on Facebook and click on the NESCAFÉ® sample tab. Allow them to access your information and input your mailing address. (You can always remove this later from your application settings).

Aquafresh toothpaste also has a list of new printable coupons available on their site now. Hurry over and print yours before they are gone! They include $1.00 off coupons for a variety of toothpaste products in any size and a $7.00 off coupon for Aquafresh White Trays!

Happy saving everyone! Do you have some freebies or coupon deals to share? Leave a comment and share with Life On The Scene readers.

Denny’s Offers FREE Valentine’s Day eCards; FREE Pancake Puppies Sundae

Image via Wikipedia

Denny’s – Open your heart!.

Send a FREE Valentine’s Day eCard to a loved one and they will also receive a coupon for a FREE Pancake Puppies Sundae (with purchase of entrée) at Denny’s. Plus, you’ll also get a coupon for yourself.

Robert Downey Jr. Drives Me Nuts – Peanuts That Is!

Robert Downey Jr. drives me nuts! OK, ok, so most Life On The Scene readers already know that, but literally, he’s gone nutty this time. Mr. Peanut will speak in a new ad campaign as Kraft Foods and Planters launch an image makeover with the Golden Globe® winning actor of  Sherlock Holmes and the Iron Man movies gives him a voice.

Robert Downey Jr

Kris Wixom, a creative director at Being, the advertising company behind the campaign, tells the New York Times that Downey, Jr. was chosen because of his “everyman suaveness” and because he has “a voice that could wear the top hat, monocle and cane and still feel contemporary and cool.”

“At Planters, we know how to throw a remarkable holiday party,” Mr. Peanut says in the ad. “Just serve classy snacks and be a gracious host — no matter who shows up.”

Mr. Peanut must fend off party guest Richard the Nutcracker. Fortunately, judging by his bandaged noggin, Mr. Peanut just a week earlier proved a tough nut to crack.

“Well, forgive and forget,” Mr. Peanut says before wielding his cane like a weapon — lodging it into Richard’s lethal mouth — and cracking wise as he escapes a social jam.

The animated commercials will begin airing on Tuesday and can be viewed on Mr. Peanuts Facebook page now.

I actually keep an antique glass Mr. Peanut jar in my bathroom at home to hold Q-Tips! Another chance to hear Robert Downey Jr.’s voice on a regular basis advertising a product I’ve always enjoyed is indeed a win-win scenario for me. He looks so cute as a peanut, I could just nibble him right up!

 

There is also a Seasons Greetings ad featuring Robert Downey Jr. as Mr. Peanut singing Chestnuts Roasting On An Open Fire.