Happy Halloween

I don't like costumes anymore, but apparently I didn't mind them when I was younger.

There's not much I wouldn't do for free candy.

Sandy

"This is a higher destructive potential than any hurricane observed between 1969 - 2005, including Category 5 storms like Katrina, Rita, Wilma, Camille, and Andrew."

I don't think this is one of those cases where we can brush it off with "it's never as bad as they say it will be."

Also. Damn.

3. IF YOU ARE RELUCTANT [to evacuate], THINK ABOUT YOUR LOVED ONES, THINK ABOUT THE EMERGENCY RESPONDERS WHO WILL BE UNABLE TO REACH YOU WHEN YOU MAKE THE PANICKED PHONE CALL TO BE RESCUED, THINK ABOUT THE RESCUE/RECOVERY TEAMS WHO WILL RESCUE YOU IF YOU ARE INJURED OR RECOVER YOUR REMAINS IF YOU DO NOT SURVIVE.

Moving Pictures

Here are some videos I took of animals on my vacation. 

Bird, swimming:

Crab, diggin' a hole. This was really cool, I set up my umbrella and beach chair and looked down and there was a crab, undertaking what looked like a major excavation:

Manatees, being giant and awesome. We watched a mother and a baby feeding for awhile in a marina:

Pictures

Oz sent me this while I was on vacation, and it is almost too apt.

www.birdandmoon.com

Here are some highlights from my vacation photos for my fellow biologists and nature lovers alike.

Food

On the drive back from Florida, my Aunt and I were trying to find somewhere for us to have lunch with my parents. We had the following conversation.

My Aunt: You want to eat at Chick-fil-A?
Me: No - there's nothing there for me. And they hate gay people.
My Aunt: Your parents hate gay people?!

We ended up eating at Cracker Barrel. They may hate gay people as well, but I don't know about it. They certainly hate vegetarians.The cook their vegetables in meat. But they at least have the decency to state that in the menu. I suppose I shouldn't complain.

I did have two good vegetarian meals in Atlanta. The best was vegan soul food. Chicken fried steak, collard greens, sweet potato, and cornbread. All blissfully free of meat and delicious. The chicken fried steak was gluten, a bit like seitan but more solid. It was served with onion gravy.

Why why why don't people vote?

There's a municipal election going on here, which I haven't written at all about. Usually I'd be all over it, because I love politics, but I've been away a lot and just haven't had the time to inform myself, let alone write about it for people who don't live here or care about our mayor and city council.

They offered early voting on-line and by phone for the last week or so. The turn-out for that super-convenient method was only 22.5%. That is sad. The actual in-person voting is tomorrow, so I really hope Haligonians step up and vote. And not for Tuxedo Stan.

I'm back. Again.

This is why I haven't posted in a while. I was too busy getting skin cancer in Florida.

I'm still still here

Okay, I did go away for a while. I was at sea for five days last week. Five solid days. It was the longest sustained trip I've done in over a decade. When I was out earlier this summer, the longest we were out without touching land was four nights, but this trip was five days and five nights. And two of those days were very rough seas. Not so rough that it was unsafe to fish, but rough enough that you learn to do everything one-handed because you use the other hand to hold on. And my legs are covered in bruises I don't remember getting. I was land sick for two days after we got back. I almost fell over in the shower.

This time I was just off Seal Island, NS.


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I had a dream about the island one night on the boat. I dreamt that the island was full of volunteers who reenacted battles for the entertainment of the people on boats as they sailed by. But the battles they reenacted were between hunters and the penguins that used to be native to the island (dream biogeography is rarely accurate). So there was a bunch of people in penguin suits running away from people shooting arrows at them from bows. In the dream we were sailing by and watching, and one of the penguin people was actually hit - but it was all faked for the reenactment.

I'm still here

I've just been neglecting my little blog. The fall has proven to be very, very busy and I don't think things are going to calm down until Christmas. I'm not going to complain, though, because I still have a job to take up all my time and some people don't even have that.

I haven't quite finished writing about my Ontario trip. I got to spend about 12 days at my cabin. The first part of it was with the Core Four and the second part with my BFF, and the third part with my parents and their giant of a puppy, Barkley The Forlorn.

Sad, giant puppy

Wonderland

As part of my three week vacation, I spent a couple of days in Toronto. One day with my brother (Hurricane Michael) at Wonderland and one day to visit with friends in the city. I hadn't been to Wonderland since the ¾ of the Core Four 30h Reunion Extravaganza two years ago. I really wanted to go this year because I had the time and they have a new coaster I really wanted to try. So my brother got a day off work and we went on the Monday of the last week in August. Since returning from my trip, I got this email from my brother:

"A woman I work with somehow ended up at a function with the guy who designs the rides for Canada's Wonderland (talk about a great job).  He told her that the week we went, historically, is the busiest week of the entire year at the park.  So we got ridiculously lucky."