The window is dirty. That’s what just a little bit of rain and blowing dust will do. I stand there in the kitchen with my telephoto lens and drive the autofocus mad as the little buggers dive and whiz. This guy has some mighty shoulder action. It pulls me in. You think a hummingbird is tiny but then where does it keep the batteries?
Today I replaced the cabin air filter on our 2007 Vibe. I should have done it 30,000 miles ago, but I knew better, right? The old one was piled high with birdseed husks, leaves, bug wings, dirt, and a wad of dirty string (?). It disintegrated on removal and I thought I caught it all, but when I tested the fan, the dashboard shook and shuddered. (Das ist nicht gut.) This wasn’t hard to figure out. I must have dropped some ugly crap down in the blower vanes, and now the whole assembly was unbalanced! Easy does it, fella. Coat hanger wire. Pliers. Gentle fishing where I can’t reach, and mira!—out comes a piece of dirty string, a leaf, and my salvation.
Goodness, and comfort, and art. Hummingbird dynamo heart.
John Hamilton Farr lives at 7,000 feet in Ranchos de Taos, New Mexico, U.S.A. As New York Times best-selling author James C. Moore tells it, John is “a man attuned to the world who sees it differently than you and I and writes about it with a language and a vision of life that is impossible to ignore.” This JHFARR.COM site is the master writing archive. To email John, please see CONTACT INFO on .png)