The Adventures of Sunsette -- Texas again y'all! - Feb. 27

[davidd]

Savor your last few days in the sunny southland! It sounds like there is more than enough to keep one entertained and amused there in your part of Texas.

I'm somewhat surprised to see that a memorial to a Confederate general still exists. A few years ago there was a major push in the US, similar to Mao's Great Leap Forward in China in the 1960s, to erase American history, and in particular any public acknowledgement of the Confederacy of the 1860s.

They look to be interesting murals depicting the evolution of Texas history from the era of General Cleburne to the present, colorful and of an impressive size.

[Alliecat]

"Our housesit wound down quicker than ex-pected.  The people returned a couple of days early -- or rather, we didn't know exactly what day they were coming because they fly standby, and we thought it might be a couple of days later.  They wanted Mum to stay and visit, and Mum wanted to stay and visit, but Mrs. came home with a streaming cold, which, knowing the immune-draining long-haul trip home that awaited, Mum really didn't want.  So we ended up in a hotel for a couple of nights.  It was a nice enough hotel but in a very noisy location -- even before the 10-or-so emergency vehicles went screaming by.
"Our last adventure was a visit to the Grapevine Mills Aquarium, which Mum had glimpsed on a map but didn't ex-pect to be in the vicinity to go see.  It was sooo cool!"


"No flash allowed, so you can't really see me, but we thought this was cute.  Some areas have animated projections on the walls and floor, and in the first room, all these little crabs were running around.  One of these is about to punch the other out."



"Since we love chocolate, we had to have a picture with the Chocolate Chip Sea Star."



"There's a fun little exercise where you can pick a turtle to 'rescue' and it takes you through some of the ailments and injuries human activity causes them, and tells a little about how they are treated by rescue programs."



"Success! with our 'rescued' turtle."



"We're in a fabulous 360-degree tunnel."



"And we saw a couple of caimans up close."





"We are, very sadly and reluctantly, back to winter now, and back in the land of crummy internet where it took 45 minutes (three tries and finally two at a time) to upload these few photos and then access them.  We'll have a few more from the real cameras when Mum gets them downloaded.
"Thanks for reading!"

"Love, Sunsette  "

[davidd]

Caimans! When I was a kid they still sold caimans in some pet shops. I wanted on so badly! Of course my mother was wise enough to realize that trying to maintain an alligator would be an untenable proposition so she refused my begging.

Still, it woulda been so cool.

Your picture and description of the crab projections makes me feel homesick for da North Shore. I used to sit out on the beach and toss little bits of chips or cookies to the sand crabs that scampered about.

Bummer about having to leave sooner than eected. Oh well, maybe you'll have an early spring. There was a woodpecker (actually, a Flickr) tapping on the side of the house today, and chipmunks are already emerging. There is, however, a chance of snow in the forecast for later this coming week.

Crummy internet means you need Starlink. Seriously, it's a game-changer (to employ a currently faddish colloquialism). Plus, business ex-pense (at least under the American tax system -- you need it for your journalism biz, right?).

Sunsette needs to find a "sit" in Florida next, seeing as she gets along with crocodilians so well!

[Alliecat]

maybe you'll have an early spring

Hah. [Interrupting Sunsette’s narrative to complain] The snow is knee-deep, covered with a layer of ice. When I got off the late boat at 10:30 I spent half an hour chopping my way into the garage. Last night I spent about 1 1/2 hours chopping snow and ice off the porches – up to 10 pound blocks at a time. Yesterday it snowed. Lows well below freezing are forecast for next week.
Florida would be nice. I have considered looking for housesits there.
As someone who is very interested in astronomy, I can’t quite bring myself to support the enterprise that is increasingly turbo-polluting our night skies with light trails as well as – have you ever looked at a tracker of just how many pieces of space junk now enshroud the Earth? Yikes

[davidd]

There was a time when putting all the stuff in to space which impacted the night sky bothered me more than it does. Sadly, air pollution in general has become so bad everywhere that even seeing a few stars is becoming a rare treat. Serious terrestrial astronomy is done for, I fear.

I feel sad whenever guests staying at the holiday rentals comment on how they cannot see any stars where they live. Even out here, in a "dark sky" zone, the light pollution from the cities miles away is having an effect, amplified by the amount of haze that seems to always be in the air.

Plus -- jet airliners. SO MANY PLANES! I could argue that any time we fly, we are contributing just as much to interfering with astronomical observations as do satellites.

I understand what you're saying, and I wish I could agree in full, but the pessimist in me says it's too late to matter at this point.

Yuck about the ice and snow. I've only had to chop away layers of ice one time -- and it was miserable.