Attending Mass.

     Since the infamous events on 9/11 I haven’t been very keen on flying.  It’s not because I’m afraid something is going to happen to the plane, but because I hate going through all this security stuff they have in place.  I remember what it was like to fly in the late 1970s and 1980s. 

     But my nervousness about something going wrong was mostly in vain.  Sure, I had to nearly strip down to get past the metal detector but the people in Austin were quite pleasant about it.  For some reason we weren’t allowed to bring our $2.00 Dr Pepper bottles through the checkpoint.  I didn’t know they were so dangerous.

     We flew on Jet Blue airlines.  After reading about the things a lot of airlines were doing, I wasn’t very keen on flying at all.  But Jet Blue rocked.

     The flight took off ten minutes early (sucks to be you, Late Guy!).  The seats had TV’s in the headrests, which also had XM satellite radio (which I don’t like as much as Sirius but I guess that won’t matter much longer).  They didn’t give away headphones, but you could use your own or buy theirs for $1.  They had free snacks (blue potato chips being the company mascot, I guess) and stuff to drink.  Oh, and it only cost $15 to check your first bag.  The crew was awesome.  It was easily one of the best flights I’d ever had.  Oh!  And the seats were nice and roomy. 

     So we land, wait in line for 45 minutes to get the rental car, then puttered over to the hotel.  As soon as we got the keys to the hotel room, the fire alarm goes off.  We waited outside the place for another 45 minutes waiting for the police and Fire folks to show up.  45 minutes!  Thank God the place wasn’t on fire.  Scuttlebutt has it that someone was microwaving popcorn and left it in too long.  Anyway, all that got sorted out.

     The room is great.  Because of all the inconveniences we got upgraded.  We’re now in a two bedroom suite with a full kitchen.  Sure, that sounds awesome, but there’s only two of us and we’re only staying for two days.  Still, it’s pretty cool.  But their wi-fi coverage SUCKS!  I’m lucky to keep a connection at all, and it’s really slow when it is connected.

     Now that I’m on the East Coast, there’s some things that I’d like to do.  One of them is to go to Dunkin’ Donuts.  Oh, for a donut!  And coffee!  There’s a store right down the street.  Everything is stupid expensive around here, though.  Dinner ended up being two expensive bowls of soup. 

     Time to get this day rolling.  There’s a lot to do, and most of it needs to be done early. 

Midway Through A Bad Week

     I’ve lived my life being told that animals don’t think or have feelings.  They work completely off instinct.  Having grown up that way I firmly believe that line of thinking is utter bullshit.

     Last night I had Zoey (who, it turns out, is a Timneh) on my arm and I wanted to get her onto her cage.  She’s got a large perch on top of her cage.  Zoey, by the way, hates not being on me and will resist any time I try and get her to step down.  Unless she’s hungry or thirsty or tired.

     So I held my arm out so she was behind her perch.  I held my arm so that for her to move closer to me, she would have to step up onto her perch and then I could get my arm away before she could get back on it.  It was a good plan.

     Or it would have been a good plan had Zoey cooperated.  What she did was stand on my wrist and look around to see if she could get back to my shoulder without losing contact with my arm.  She would try and go a certain route, but once she realized that both her feet would be off my arm, she would stop and back up.  She did that several times.

     Finally, she used her beak to grab onto the very edge of the perch and edged her body around it.  This was a route she had thought about a few times but didn’t go through with.  Probably because of the angle her body would have to be at.  But she finally realized that she had no other way of getting to my shoulder without leaving my arm entirely.  To me, that shows quite a bit of problem solving and analytical skill.

     And anyone that says animals don’t have feelings never had a parrot sit with her back to them saying, “Peek-a-boo” in a very soft, sad voice.

     The kids have been dropped off to camp.  Sadly, the SUV died sometime while we were gone.  That makes life just a little bit more difficult.  So now I have to rent a Volkswagon Jetta to get around. 

     Actually, it’s not a bad car.  It’s no Viper, but it does move when you want it to move. 

     Since I have a camera, we decided (on the way back from Denton) to take a boatload of pictures of the racetrack.  I didn’t have any real reason for doing so, but it seemed like a good idea.

     It was nearly deserted there.  I guess that’s not a big surprise when there’s no race going on.

     But now I can say that I was there.  Ha!

     Anyway, if I can get things working right, there’ll be more pictures at the GoE-Gallery.