*sigh* Old People Stuff

So I used to poke fun at my step-mother for feeding the birds when I was growing up. Not only was she setting the poor birds up for dependence on human intervention by feeding them year 'round, she was depriving them of their nutrients--why would they bother to eat bugs and worms and the stuff they really needed if some idiot was catering to them, day in day out.
It was an ongoing war--merely because I could see NO value whatsoever in purchasing food for birds when they had a whole world full of food availed to them.
And she was changing their whole migration pattern, as well!
It's not NICE to fool around with Mother Nature, you know!
Let's not forget that my father fed squirrels peanut butter sandwiches and that the two of them could sit for HOURS in their lawnchairs watching the critters scamper around and flitter about.
What was THAT all about?!

Yeah well.....I shudder to admit that I've become one of 'those' people.
I've done my research, though!
I'm not affecting whole migration patterns.
I'm not ripping the birdies off of their vital nutrients.
I'm not keeping them in the frozen tundra and causing their deaths.

I am buying birdseed like crazy. And peanuts. And corn. And sunflower/saffron/thistle seeds.....
I'm NOT making peanut butter sandwiches! (please note that!)
I am naming them and giving them personalities.
And I do greet them by name.....

OMG....I AM one of "THOSE" people!
He is, too! He is, TOO!!
(that's my only defense.....LOL....)