Hairy Houdini

 

First off, Happy Birthday to our pal Kimberley in California! Hope you have an absolutely fabulous day, Chickie!

Some storms passed through last night, but the morning cleared up nicely! I got my bike ride in early this morning (my butt is very happy with my cushy new bike seat), before it got too hot, and MAN, did it get hot. The humidity made it pretty obvious that we'd pop some thunderstorms this afternoon, and sure enough, it's clouded up and the thunder is rumbling. No rain yet, but it looks to be on the way. For a while, the outside temperature was saying 90° and the inside was 80°--it's amazing how much cooler it stays inside! Now that the wind picked up a little, the outside temperature is cooling off a bit, and it sounds like after the storms clear out, we're in for a lovely weekend.

I got plenty of time out on the deck, and I'm making good progress on my book (The Magus). It's getting pretty freaky, and at this point, I'm not sure what is real and what isn't. But I don't feel too bad about that, because the main character is just as confused. I'm really liking this one. I also got some quality bird watching in, with lots of hummingbirds coming up to the feeder above me--from my vantage point, I can see their teeny little claws clinging to the perch, and it always tickles me to see how incredibly small they are!--and the Rose-Breasted Grosbeak and the Oriole came by, too. I hadn't seen them for a while (they must be nesting), so it was good to catch a glimpse!

I also enjoyed a couple of phone calls. My Mom called, all excited because they saw fawns in their backyard. Yes, fawnS, plural--they have twins! We see twin fawns around here every couple of years or so, and if one fawn is cute, TWO fawns are absolutely adorable! Mom was just thrilled--they came right up into their back yard. Their mom checked things out first, trotted across the back yard, then one of the fawns followed. A few seconds later, the second one came along and Mom was so excited! She said, "Can you imagine? There are people that would shoot that doe, and there those fawns would be wondering where their mother was." I didn't tell her she was talking about the plot of "Bambi." <grin> It was fun to hear her so excited about their fawns! They really are SO cute--I haven't seen ours since Monday, but I'm sure he and his mom will be around in the coming weeks.

My second phone call was from my buddy Jimi. He had taken his boys to the lake to go swimming and cool off a bit. He thought he'd just call and see what I was up to. He asked, "Are you busy?" I laughed merrily. Yes, merrily I laughed! (Sorry, we got to laughing so much that I'm still in a bit of a goofy mood.) It was great to talk to him and get caught up on things, and hear all the scuttlebutt. At the end of the summer, he's going to start doing "power weekends," where he works Friday, Saturday, and Sunday for 12 hours shifts (but gets paid for 40 hours). He's kind of looking forward to it, at least to seeing how it works out for him, because he thinks it will give him a chance to spend lots of time with his kids. I hope it works well for him! I did point out, though, that if he's working 7 AM to 7 PM on Sunday, he'll miss church. He said, "Yeah, that's right...I'm goin' to hell!" I said, "The lab is SENDING you to hell!" He said, "I'll get there, and it'll be an exact duplicate of the lab." [crazy laughter from both of us] He said, "It'll be a huge walk-in incubator, with never-ending racks of cultures." We riffed on that for a few minutes, but you get the gist. I'm still chuckling about it! It was great to talk to him, and I hope it works out that he and his wife can join us for our comedy club visit coming up soon.

Breaking news from our local paper!

Monkey uses garden hose to scale moat, bolt from M.C. zoo

Associated Press Report

MICHIGAN CITY, Ind. (AP) — A spider monkey used a garden hose to scale the wall of a moat at a Michigan City zoo before being captured at a nearby boat dealership.

One of two spider monkeys recently added to the Washington Park Zoo broke out of its enclosure this week while workers were cleaning the moat, which had been emptied of water.

Zoo Director Johnny Martinez says workers had figured the monkeys would remain inside their enclosure during the cleaning despite the lack of water in the moat to act as a barricade.

Once past the moat Wednesday, the escaped monkey jumped onto the roof of a water filtration plant. Martinez says zoo staff recaptured it at the dealership atop a white and blue speedboat.

Martinez says the monkey is sociable and posed no danger to people.

Hey, this monkey has balls. Not only did he escape his cruel imprisonment at the zoo, they found him on a speedboat. He was trying to make his getaway. It wasn't just a bass boat, or little tiny fishing boat: the little guy knew to try to nab a SPEEDBOAT! I think that monkey is now the stuff of legend among other monkeys back at the zoo. "Hey...see that guy? That's Koko...but they call him Houdini. He almost made it outta here. He woulda made it, too, if it wasn't for that snitch Nigel."

I kind of like the little guy's courage.

 

Tags: The Magus, escaping monkey