Critters and Kids

The sunrise today was wonderful, and the light painted the snowy tops of the mountains in shades of rose. It's 24 degrees outside, but the sun is shining brightly. Banichi has been sitting about two inches away from the squirrels peanut pile, and it has been fun to watch the younger squirrels sneak up very slowly, grab a nut and run. Gimpy is just sitting stolidly opposite Banichi and stuffing his face without any urgency or any sign of duress. Lovey is sunning up in the cat tree with the window pane magnifying the sun's heat. Rosie and Remy were well-behaved on their walk yesterday - we ran into Brio and his lady, and Rosie started to growl, so I had both Rs sit and pay attention to me before I gave them and Brio a treat. Rosie did manage to get a single bark in, just as we turned to go around the corner, and Brio's owner laughed. We also ran into Sarah, who was walking her Bichons, and she said that she was the one who called the Rs "Betty's dogs" when she was speaking with Nancy and Joel. I just laughed, and told her to forget it - that Joel and Nancy are now used to people thinking that Remy and Rosie are mine, and they say I'm Aunt Betty, a part of the family.

Wow, that storm in the mid-Atlantic is really causing some problems. Yesterday the rain had parts of Miami underwater, and Hialeah Racetrack had to move over 600 horses because their barns flooded. In southwest Virginia, the Highway Patrol reported 160 calls about separate accidents in a 135 minute period. The University of Maryland at Salisbury has cancelled today's Graduation exercises due to the weather. And, besides the snow, the Eastern Shore is expecting coastal flooding, as well. I did see one comforting item: Maryland has received a $400,000 grant to rebuild the sand dunes on the northern end of Assateague Island. I started reading Whisper To the Blood by Dana Stabenow last night; I didn't want to put it down, but had to give myself over to Morpheus when I dropped the book on my face the third time. Kathy is working until 6 tonight, so Jim and I will meet at Red Robin and order a meal for Kathy, who will join us as soon as she gets off work. Then we'll head over to the Boulder Theatre for the Celtic Christmas Revels show... it's supposed to be very good. And I stuck my nose into a weird situation at McDonald's yesterday - a Mom and her 8-year-old son were sitting across the aisle from me, the Mom had purchased two Happy Meals with Avatar toys inside them, and the boy was whiny and crying. Unabashedly eavesdropping, I learned that the boy was motion sick from his car ride from Denver (and Mom didn't help much by telling him they still had the long ride up the Canyon on "that twisting and turning mountain road" to get to Eldora), and he was upset because he is a big fan of Avatar - The Last Airbender, a cartoon on Nick Toons, and he felt that the new James Cameron movie was a rip-off of his favorite show. His Mom was trying to convince him to eat, but the boy just sipped his orange soda. So I made the comment that I still get motion sick, at my age, which made the boy, Sean, grin. Then I got him to tell me about the cartoon that he loves, and, suddenly, all of his food started going into his mouth. I told him what little bit I know about the movie, and we all agreed that he should look the word "avatar" up in the dictionary when he got home. When they left, he had eaten all of his lunch and was smiling. It made me feel good. Happy critters and happy kids - I guess I'm a push-over.