Crazy Critters

Jacob and I attended an animal presentation last week sponsored by the "Creature Conservancy" in Ann Arbor. The Conservancy rescues critters that have been abandoned after people discover that wild animals do not really make good pets. We saw quite a few strange varmints, including a laughing kookaburra (yep, it laughed and laughed) and a gila monster. We also learned some interesting and amusing facts about a number of different creatures.

Later, gator!

The two-toed sloth hangs upside-down in the rain forest canopy 24/7.

Coiffed

Adam surprised everyone recently by deciding to get his hair cut after almost five years. (He did have some length chopped off last spring, but his locks still flowed down past his shoulders.) He says that he was just ready for a change. The new style doesn't seem shocking to me at all - in fact I really like it. There is a large group of people, though - namely Adam's roommate and other college friends - who have never seen him with anything but long hair. I suppose it will take a bit of time for them to get used to his change in appearance.

Here is Adam's old look.

Here is the new 'do, which looks very similar to the style he had when he was a senior in high school!

In Stitches

My cell phone rang around 11:00 pm. on Friday. I was chatting with Jim on our home phone while I painted the basement steps, so Jacob grabbed the cell for me. I overheard this one-sided conversation:

"Adam?" Pause. "You're going to the emergency room?" Pause. "Your leg?" Pause. "The glass table?" Pause.

By this time my interest was piqued. I shot questions to Jacob who, in turn, relayed them to Adam. Apparently, Adam had been leaning on the glass coffee table in his apartment when it shattered. Some glass had cut deeply into his leg. Luckily, his roommate, Mike, and Mike's fiancee were there and able to take him to the hospital. I offered to meet them, but Adam assured me - via Jacob - that he would be fine with Mike and Andrea. I told him to update me on his condition as things progressed.

I completed my discussion with Jim, who had stayed on the other phone the entire time but did not seem very concerned about our older son's predicament. I finished touching up my painting and gingerly climbed over some still-wet spots on the stairs. Not long after that Adam sent a text saying that he was at the ER and waiting to be checked by a doctor. An hour or so later, he was back home with six new stitches in his leg and lots of glass to pick out of his carpeting.

While the doctor was cleaning his wound, Adam had actually passed out on the examination table. Jim and my sister, Nancy, often faint during medical procedures, so it did not shock me that it happened to Adam as well. Not only were these Adam's first stitches, but this was also his first hospital experience.

Recycling

Jacob and I are back in Michigan. On Monday morning, we went on a field trip to the Ann Arbor Recycling Center. I thought that I knew a lot about "Reducing, Reusing, and Recycling," but I learned quite a bit more during our tour. I won't preach on the obvious benefits of recycling, but I will say that I am stunned that so many cities still do not offer it as part of their trash pick-up service. Currently, approximately 30% of all waste in the United States is recycled. It doesn't sound like a bad statistic until you realize that up to 70% could easily be kept out of landfills.

The Ann Arbor Recycling Center facility was built with a large quantity of recycled materials. They have 32 employees who sort much of the waste by hand. They are upgrading to some new-fangled machines that will actually be able to do a lot of the sorting automatically. The building that we were in only had a slight stench to it - nothing like the sewage treatment plant that I visited with Adam's class many years ago.

This is cardboard. Lots and lots of recycled cardboard.

We walked outside to see where the recycling trucks dump their loads.

Jacob like these crushed cans. They are from Ohio, where there is no bottle-return law.

Adam's Choice

After some difficult deliberation and much agonizing analysis, Adam has finally decided where he will go to graduate school. The colleges to which he applied - and to which he was accepted and granted full monetary assistance - were the University of Washington, Colorado State University, Penn State University, and Princeton University. Each school invited him to visit their campus and meet with professors & grad students. Adam went on four whirlwind trips across the country where he was wined & dined and, in Princeton's case, driven around in a limo. (None of which impressed my down-to-earth son.) Each university offered him wonderful opportunities to work with renowned meteorologists and to carry out intriguing research. In the end, he chose Colorado State University. Go Rams!

Growing Like a Weed

I am simply amazed at how quickly my banana tree is coming back to life! Someday I will pull all the weeds and old growth from underneath, and it will look even better.

A New Texas Bug and a Banana Tree Update

Last night, Jacob and I were inside the house while Jim was in the backyard monitoring our new Polaris pool vacuum. The sun had set, the pool lights were on, and, as usual, numerous bugs and insects were dive-bombing into the water. At one point, Jim excitedly popped his head in the door and shouted for us to come out to see the "huge bug" that had just landed in our pool. Jacob and I rushed outside, camera in tow, and were not disappointed. The thing looked like a butterfly, but it would occasionally plunge to the bottom of the pool and gracefully swoop around as if it could actually swim. The wingspan of the critter was about 4 inches across and it was almost 6 inches in length. Jacob commented that it looked like "nature gone wrong." It was certainly one of the strangest-looking insects I had ever seen. We watched it for about 20 minutes, then scooped it out of the water with our skimmer. After we went back into the house, I searched the internet in an attempt to find out what this freaky beast might be. I am fairly sure that it was a "Luna Moth," and, not surprisingly, it is one of the largest moths in North America. Kind of creepy that it decided to pay us a visit.

The Luna Moth ignored this rather large beetle. We later read that it does not eat because it doesn't have a mouth! It only lives for 7 days.

We cut back our dead banana tree the other day. Amazingly, new stalks began to shoot up from the center of the old trunks almost immediately.

At least 11 trunks are sprouting new growth - growing at the rate of about an inch per day.