lunchtime

My sister is in town and I took her to the zoo so she could try out a new camera that she had bought for one of her daughters. It was a beautiful sunny winter day.

On our way out, we stopped at the sea-lion pen just as feeding time was about to begin. The sea-lions were frolicking in the water, as if their internal clocks sensed the event that was about to begin. As the woman who was going to feed them unlocked the gate, the sea-lions all went and assumed their fish-eating positions. I noticed that one of the sea-lions had taken position away from the others, on a rock, eyes closed, head swaying left and right--looking as if she was doing her best Stevie Wonder impression. What the heck? It was mealtime and why wasn't she bobbing up and down in the water with the rest of the sea-lions? I pointed out my observation to my sister and questioned whether the sea-lion was blind.

It was entertaining watching the keeper toss each sea-lion fish, making sure each one got a portion of the meal. The sea-lions would catch the fish, flip it in their mouths, and then swallow it. Even the one on the rock would do this, eyes closed and all. Occasionally, a fish would slip beyond her reach and fall to the bottom of the pool.

After the feeding, the keeper asked if there were any questions. My sister asked if the sea-lion was blind. Indeed she is blind, and has been for two years. Nothing traumatic or exciting to cause the blindness. Just age-related, something the twenty year old sea-lion was experiencing.

Here is a sequence of pics showing the blind sea-lion catching, and eating her meal. I swear, in the last pic, it looks as if she is smiling at the camera. Could life not be greater?

Here comes the fish! You can see it flying in on the left side of the pic.

Searching under the water for it...

...finally grabbing it under water...

...the above water flip...

...a perfect catch, and down the hatch!!!

SMILE ☺

"We tend to forget that happiness doesn't come as a result of getting something we don't have, but rather of recognizing and appreciating what we do have."

~Frederick Koenig

BCPs

I know I've said this before, but there is just something awkward about going to the pharmacy and picking up a prescription of birth control pills and having a nun wait on you. BUT it's not as funny as my friend who feels the need to lie and tell said nun, "I take these because I have really bad dysmenorrhea." Funnier being that my friend is Jewish! Meshuggener. Just kidding :)

WTH?!

Look! Two Asses!!!

...oh no, silly me--they're just a couple of Grevy's Zebras. Sorry for the confusion, folks.

"When a zebra's in the zone, leave him alone."

~Madagascar

♡❤ Happy Valentine's Day ❤♡

Woke up to a beautiful snow this morning. ☃

Breakfast at First Watch with a friend. ☕

Walk after breakfast.

Shopping at Target. ☺

Cooking chili. ♨

Relax. ☸

❆❅❄Snowing again. ❄❅❆

❄❅❆Shoveling the sparkly snow. ❆❅❄

Crawling into bed beneath freshly washed and dried sheets/blankets.

Wonderful day.

The end.

by me. ❧

Gross Story--Don't Read

Warning. This is a gross, but true story. Seriously, I'm warning you NOT to read it. It's so gross, I can't even include a pic that would go with it, but I'm writing the story because I really couldn't believe this person shared it with me. Here it goes:

I was busy working--several coworkers had come up to me asking where our support staff were. I looked around and none were to be found. Somehow, they are never around when you really need them. All of a sudden, one of them popped up and asked if I had seen one of the other support staff. (I think it is a game they play with each other--try not to do more work than your coworkers.) I told her no and asked what she needed. Then, out of the blue, the one in question showed up.

I asked, "Where were you?"

"In the bathroom," she replied.

I countered, "For 45 minutes?!"

She laughed and answered, "YES! I pooped on myself."

I tried not to react, but I think my eyeballs about popped out of my head.

She continued, "Yeah, I thought it was just gas, and I let it go and pooped all down my leg. I had to wash everything. Good thing I always bring an extra pair of clothes here."

I just stood there and calmly said, "I. cannot. believe. you just said that out loud."

She closed with, "I told you I'm not shy about things." Then, she turned and strutted away laughing.

Moral of the story, always have an extra pair of clothes with you. You never know, although it feels like it, that next one just might not be air...

...I'm also thinking I need to come up with a code name for this person. That would make it easier to tell these stories. This is her second appearance in my blog and I'm sure it's not the last.

*giggle*

No pic for today. Just checking in to say I've been busy.

Was invited to have coffee this morning with two friends. Felt like I was being invited into their secret society--they've been getting together for coffee about once-a-month for eons. I'm such a crasher, but then I guess I'm not really a crasher because I was invited. Oh well.

**Somebody said something that made me giggle at work today...I noticed a coworker was looking around as if she was searching to ask someone a question. I asked her if I could help her. She got a sheepish grin on her face, and asked me, "Where do you keep your vibrator?" At the same time making a hand gesture and then a noise. Oh, it was priceless. I guess there is no tactful way of asking where the vibrator is and not have one's mind "not go there"...unless you're a prude, or just a plain liar.

Sight

Yikes. Alessia went on vacation and so did I...

Found a pic from the fall. A cool sculpture of a huge eyeball. Sight. How amazing an ability. The brain, the neurons, all that is involved to produce an image. I was talking to some friends the other day and one of them said, "If I lost my sight, then you'd just better put me in a box under the ground." I thought that was kind of a sad statement. I mean--yes, sight is a sense that most of us are born with. Beautiful colors, shapes, etc., but sometimes going by what we see can deceive us. Without sight, our other senses are heightened. Smells, sounds, taste, touch, extrasensory perception...

Ach...I don't know where this entry is going. Oh well. Let me just say that even if you lose your sight, never lose your vision.

"People only see what they are prepared to see."

~Ralph Waldo Emerson

"The most pathetic person in the world is someone who has sight, but has no vision."

~Helen Keller

"Vision is the art of seeing what is invisible to others."

~Jonathan Swift

Stevie Wonder is a musical genius.