Been a busy time here in the heart of the rust belt. End of
the semester things have kept me busier than the person doing damage control on
Trump’s Twitter account. For the good of the nation somebody needs to take that
idiot’s phone away from him. Just give him a little box that lights up and
makes noises but doesn’t really do anything. I doubt he’s smart enough to know
the difference.
Despite the busyness there has been some time for fun.
Several Molly’s high school chums were coming back for Thanksgiving so we
decided to stay here for the holiday. Had a great Thanksgiving dinner with the
Hall family. We cooked traditional turkey dinner and the Halls did a ham
dinner. Much eating and frivolity to be had by all.
The Saturday after Thanksgiving Lise, Molly, and I did a trip
down to the Detroit Zoo. They had an exhibit of the British Natural History
Museum’s Wildlife Photographer of the Year winners. Lots to be jealous about,
including entries from the under ten years old group. In all fairness, some of
those kids were using some heavy-duty camera gear. We’re not talking cell
phones here.
The Detroit Zoo has built a new penguin exhibit that Lise
and I had not seen. This was major cool. Actually, it was cold. They had
manufactured snow falling in it. The exhibit has a tunnel under it where you
can watch the penguins swimming by you and over your head. At one spot they can
hop out of the water or waddle up to the glass right by where you stand. There’s
just a thin glass wall protecting us should any of them decide to go rogue. You
get the distinct impression they’re observing us as much as we’re observing
them. Personally, I think they are reading Trump’s tweets and feeling sorry for
us.
Swimming – or flying through the water.
Swimming – or flying through the water.
Did you see who they elected – poor saps.
Until Molly came along I was never much of a zoo person. I
was never comfortable with penning up larger and more advanced animals. Animals
where travelling distances is a part of their daily routine. I didn’t have quite
as much of an issue with smaller animals. For an animal like a tree frog, whose whole universe isn’t typically much more than a few square meters, zoos
probably aren’t a bad thing. Especially where zoos are serving as an ark for
very endangered species. But something always bothered me, staring at an animal
like a lion or large primate that was staring back at me. Maybe that’s why I
let our lizard Fido free range around the house. Not that she was any more
intelligent than say, a frog.
Then Molly came along and zoos became a regular part of our
life. I remember our first zoo visit. She was enamored with elephants and would
watch movies and videos about elephants over and over. So, we went to the
Indianapolis Zoo to see some real elephants. A trainer had an elephant out
where you could walk up and touch it. I was carrying her and as we walked up to
the elephant she started to grasp its size. She made a little “ahhhh” sound and
sank back into me. For a long time we just stood there while she stared
slack-jawed. I would ask if we should go look at other animals and she would
silently nod no. After about 15 or 20 minutes we finally touched the elephant
and moved on.
So, after that experience, I softened my stance on zoos a
bit. Especially when it comes to penguins. These waddling flightless blobs of
lard are probably my favorite birds. And unless I can get Lise to open the
purse strings a bit, I’m not going to see them in the wild. I have to settle
for observing them from my side of the glass.
I bet we could take the guy with the camera.
Turn him into scrapple.
Last night Lise and I went with Ellen and Barb to see Carrie
Newcomer perform at the Ark in Ann Arbor. The Ark is a folk music Mecca that
has been around since the mid-1960s. Carrie Newcomer is a great
singer-songwriter who lives down in Bloomington. Naturally several her songs had uplifting
messages about persevering despite things like the results of the past
election. She told a little story about the creeks around Bloomington being
full of geodes and sang a song about how indistinct little brown and gray blobs
like geodes can have something beautiful inside. Lise made comments to the
effect of, “I’m homesick and we’re moving back.”
Ed's and Lise's Biggish Years 