Yesterday just felt like a road trip day to me, actually I felt it coming on Tuesday night, and with Bruce's wake up call, I was up around 5 making tea and getting a move on. For months I've been thinking of going to the Lowery Park Zoo in Tampa where Emily works but just never got up in time to make the drive. That has now been rectified, and what an enjoyable place it is to visit. Except for....
Upon arrival I found the parking lot to be very full. I pulled into a space and asked the woman getting out of her car next to me (a darling yellow VW Bug I might add) if she'd ever been there. She asked me if I was looking for a job? She didn't look too closely because I was both un-showered and not dressed for a job interview! But I digress, anyway, she said they were holding a job fair which accounted for the gazillion cars. Sadly so many people are looking for work. I was asking for directions to the front which I ended up finding by following all the squealing children. Yes, there were squealing children everywhere. In fact, the guy out front told me there were 1,000 elementary school children streaming in. See my opening line.
I do remember those field trips when the brave non-working mothers would accompany the class, herding, oh wait, I meant to say shepherding, the children around the site with constant exhortations to settle down. I heard plenty of that yesterday. Kids will be kids however and I saw both the human and animal kind yesterday.
Here's the mother orangutan trying her best to get just a little more sleep:
Every new mother knows just how that feels.
When I first went by the mother tiger and her two cubx there were gazillions of children pushing and shoving to get a closer look. There are several windows for observing, but mostly fencing which can be quite challenging to photograph through. I expect I put this one on manual focus during my second pass through. Fortunately the children had to return to school leaving me with just another couple to share the space with. Only one of the cubs was ready to settle down for a rest when I took this one.
They are a type of Bengalese tiger with blue eyes, rare in the wild because their bright coat make it hard to stay camouflaged. I believe the cubs are around 3 months old. I'm not sure if this one shows how large their paws are for their little bodies--no doubt they will grow into them.
Lastly I'll show you the elephant and her baby. This was also taken on my second pass. Originally they were too far away for my camera to get much of anything interesting, however, they moved forward to have a little refreshment. They were very cute together--this one seemed like a gesture of love.
I'd thought I might go to the wonderful aquarium while in Tampa but to tell you the truth I was a very tired girl by 1:30. My head tells me to get out and about, my body rebels; I was in bed asleep by 8 last night.It didn't help that I had the first twinges of another cold on the drive home. I am afraid I've got another one on the way. No colds for years on end, and now two in a few months makes for an unhappy lady.
I read an article in the Times magazine the other day about undiagnosed illnesses. Apparently the National Institute of Health is taking a limited number of difficult cases. All the time I've not been well people have expressed surprise that I have no diagnosis which I've assured them happens more often than you can imagine. The profiled woman has so many horrible symptoms, and system breakdowns that it seems impossible they don't know why. She's lost one eye, her kidneys don't work, her hair turned gray prematurely, and she has dreadful patches of ick on her shins with those being just the miseries I remember. A large group of specialists examined her and still no one really understands her case. Is it any wonder I quit going to the doctor?
Bruce is on a plane now heading for the sunshine and warmth after spending the last three days in Massachusetts and Connecticut. This is a beautiful time of year but there is one aspect that is not so great. I mentioned the other week about the pool--you should see it now. The lawn guys were here today and filled the back of their pick up with leaves from both the street and the lawn. We still have one whole tree to go, making for several more messy weeks. First the leaves followed by the fuzzy stuff which is maybe even worse!
So you can guess what I'm about to do I bet.
2 comments:
Hi Aunt Gail it's Emily, Mom linked me to this post. The baby elephant is Tamani and that is his mom Ellie with him. He is 3 years old and she is 24. I see Tamani all day long and he has so much personality! Such a little goofball :-)
I so totally should have called you. As I was leaving a worker called some ugly animal by name and I thought it was way cool.
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