every day i drive over the hillsborough river twice (it runs between stratford and charlottetown). most days when i come back at dusk there is at lest one big flock of birds (sandpipers, maybe?) swooping under and around and beside the bridge. hundreds of them, all moving together. it is so beautiful and amazing. especially when it's sunset and you're listening to sigur ros. so yesterday i parked my car at the closest parking lot and walked back to the base of the bridge. when i got close to water at the pier beneath the bridge i could barely hear the cars above because of the crazy wind. sadly, when i got to the water the birds were still too far away. however, i had a very full bladder (which i had just then realised) and thankfully it was fairly secluded. and that's where the title of this post comes in.

there are certain maxims in this universe. unchangeable truths which cannot be bent or molded to the will of any entity within the closed system we inhabit. sometimes one can travel quite some time through this world without ever coming into conflict with one of these fundamental laws. it is almost as if they didn't exist. you don't have any particular need of them, and sooner or later they pass from conscious thought- forgotten. and then you are smacked upside the head with one. or, rather, unpleasantly moistened into remembrance. ahem. well, it really wasn't that bad. i realized pretty quick what was happening and compensated adequately. whew.

anyhow, i was looking on the internet today about what makes birds in a flock swoop and dive in formation so effortlessly - like they were fighter pilots. i found one article by the ever-luminous straight dope society. one really complex java applet example that my computer was too weak to handle (but it looks cool). and a simpler example. i didn't really come across any really meaty articles on the subject, the usually thorough straight dope people gave (in my uninformed, subjective view) only a rather cursory overview. so if anyone finds anything better, let me know. it seemed to me that the stratford bridge birds were more about enjoying the wind currents, a sort of avian rollercoster. but who am i to say?

hockey time.