Today, neighborhood sparrows held a meet up and gathered in vast, chatting numbers in the nearby bushes and tops of trees, until one adolescent brown-flecked bird landed on the wire next to my desk and peered in at me as if to wonder why I have not chosen to be wild like he was. This was an odd sort of day, fragmented by car maintenance errands and plagued by the usual poor and badly-timed transportation options back from the Subaru dealership to my home, though the sunshine and heat made my slow return to work more than somewhat worth it.