Wonderful evening; bad morning

Last evening, we had a wonderful time with the parrots. They were joys to be around. In fact, Thomas (who never says stuff like this) said, "If our house were to blow up in some kind of explosion and we lost all of our parrots, I don't think I'd want to get any more because ours are so wonderful that no one could ever take their place." I don't know why he was thinking such macabre thoughts. I apparently paid the price this morning for their wonderfulness last night, as I had one of the worst mornings in recent memory.

Let's start with the good stuff: last night.

Apparently Rocky's not the only one interested in garlic. As soon as Beeps saw Thomas with the cloves, he flew over to Thomas's shoulder and climbed down his chest to investigate. Thomas did offer him some, but Beeps didn't want any.
We were making a vegetable soup, and Max also came over to investigate the frozen vegetables. She just looked, though, and didn't start throwing them out of the pot as I had feared.
Rocky's nails were starting to get a bit long, so we got out the Dremel tool and Thomas sanded them down. Rocky lies complacently on his lap as long as Rocky's face is covered and he can't see what's going on. We have to be careful to not trim them too short as we did that one time and I couldn't hear the clicking on the floor when he walked on it. I need warning when my stalker is near!
The evening just went so smoothly.

Then, this morning happened.

It actually started off well. One day during the work week, I don't get up and run and today was that day off for me, meaning that I got to sleep in. The parrots get up at the same time every day (give or take about 20 minutes). Usually I get up really early and run before they get up, but on my off day, I get to sleep in an extra 2 hours and the first thing I do is get them up.

Today, from the moment I showed my face, straight for about 35 minutes, Rocky screamed. He did stop for about 5 minutes when he ate his breakfast. I couldn't figure out a reason. There was at most 1 second of quiet time in between screams. He had been doing so well and had barely been screaming lately, so this was going back to behavior he had when he first came to live with us. It is not pleasant.

During this screaming session, I was refilling the parrots' water and food. As I walked by Beeps's cage carrying water dishes into the kitchen to be washed and refilled, Beeps jumped on my arm and started biting me. Startled, I dropped Max's water dish, splattering dirty water all over the living room and shattering the ceramic dish.

This prompted Beeps to go into what I call "freakout mode." I've only seen this about 4 times in our relationship. It's almost like he becomes possessed. He starts flailing around the living room, goes behind the fish tank, and acts very fearful. The first time, I chased him around until I could towel him and put him back in his cage. This seemed to cause him a lot of stress, so now I just let him freakout, avoid him as much as possible, and after 5-10 minutes, he returns to his cage and I close him in there. If I hadn't have had to go to work, I would have returned to bed.

The screaming continued, and my nerves were frazzled. I was thinking how much better my life would be if we hadn't taken Rocky or Beeps home. This was just a fleeting thought, but I had never had it before, so that was disconcerting (I no longer feel that way and am glad we have them). I decided, off day or no, I needed to do a hard workout and pound away my stress.

I put everyone in their cages and went downstairs to hear water streaming through the ceiling. Apparently Thomas had overflowed the toilet before leaving for work. I had to plunge, clean up the mess, and start a load of towels (since our bathmat had gotten wet and I used towels to mop up the water).

Needing a laugh, I put one of my favorite episodes of Arrested Development on and did a hard treadmill workout. I managed a few laughs and got out my frustration.

By the time I made it back upstairs, everyone was back in their normal good moods. Rocky didn't scream again, and Beeps was no longer freaking out or threatening to bite.

I saw Andreas, covered in seeds, and felt that all was right with the world again. It's like he knew I needed a laugh!
Completing our normal morning routine, Max and the caiques showered with me and we all shared a quick breakfast before I ran out the door and rushed to work. Late, but in a much better mood than if I hadn't been able to run.

I just hope I don't have another morning like this for a long time!