Monday, September 06, 2004
Holy Gorgeous Gorgosaurus
I woke up this morning feeling sinfully refreshed, with sunbeams warming my feet and casting a pleasant glow over the rest of my room, the shadows...aw shit my brother's here.
(I realize this reads like a little girl being ran in on while playing barbies (prince ken magically ...) by her little brother wanting GI Joe to join the fun, but it's exactly what it was. We both use different hunks of our brains entirely)
So, I'll ditch the description of how wonderful it was to awaken in my own bedroom this morning, looking up at the wide white curved ceiling, and listening to the lulling neighborhood sounds from my window (read: all the shrieking siren goodness of living by a traffic circle no one can use properly) and move on to the best, if not shocking, part of the day. My brother came crashing through the door with his girlfriend Chef Ravioli, and though I was fully dressed and watered, it was not without some squinting and shivering that he dragged me out to the car. For a suprise. My nephew Gauge sat in the back seat, bigger than ever, and panting in the apparent heat of the car. I was informed that no, the growing dimensions of the dog was not my surprise. And he opened the trunk of the station wagon to reveal an aquarium. Please god, don't let it be a rodent.
Instead, I was greeted by the sight of my new four and a half foot long corn snake. A "blood red" as I later read in the manual that so handy-dandily got included along with my new acquisition. Someone is making up for an iguana with a very good home (read: not with me) somewhere. "His" name was Abu. I freaked out in excitement and went to ask my grandmother if I could keep it, dreading that she'd say no. It turns out that I was shanghaied, because everyone else knew that this was going to happen, except for me. Everyone. Probably my extended family too. So, I got to keep the snake curled up in the chips peering out tentively at the world as it got moved into my basement hovel. I took the snake out of the dilapitated aquarium as soon as possible to have a good look at it, and was delighted to see that it had molted maybe only a day or so earlier, and was very healthy, and very people friendly, moving indifferently from one person to the next, scales shimmering iridescently under the flourescent lights. Incidently, this snake has been sexually confused for the last five years as a male, when it so obviously was not. The manual shows no signs of being read either. The heatlamp is a fire waiting to happen...and etc. and etc. I need to go to a petstore tomorrow and remedy all this, and my brother knew something was up too, so he gave me money as an additional gift.
At first, I have to say I sort of was suspicious of the whole thing, thinking old cliches about dying habits of trying to buy love and stuff, but this was different. He went through a lot to do this for me. He drove this snake from BC to get it here, and he's terrified of them. So, I did immediately realize I was thinking like a schlub, and that I am very fortunate to have a brother like him who would do something so thoughtful for me. And the snake is amazingly cool.
I of course thought the name was pathetic, along with the whole mis-sexed thing, so, my corn snake, the girl, is called Elaugh. I was reading the manual, and the genus of her type is Elaphe, and I told Judy and mispronounced it, coming up with "Elaugh". And I liked it.
Before I could clean her cage of it's soggy woodchips and chunks of shedded skin, I got dragged out to Wabumun for some high quality sailing time. The wind was a little non-existant initially, but it turned into a nice long run after the first fifteen minutes. No sailing down the lake completely like last time, but with multiple tacks for a dodgy wind, it still pretty nice. The sun was gorgeous, and the water was that wonderful slate blue/gray in one direction, and then a warm dark green in the other. On the horizon it was just dark, with flickers of sunlight spilling onto it like silver out of a forge. Not to get all romantic poet on anyone. It's funny sailing on days like today though, because the wind is chilly, but the sun just instantly heats every surface that it touches enough that you're in this curious limbo of temperature because the wind doesn't wick away all the heat completely.
My day was awesome. Tomorrow will be another story. Ideally, all I would need to make today perfect at this point, would be a phone call from someone I was fond of.
I really wanted to post a picture of Elaugh on here, but I can't seem to get Hello! to work. I got a little pissed and gave up, so whoever wants to see a picture of Elaugh will have to wait, or talk to me via MSN, for some non-lame file transfering fun. ¶ 10:50 AM
(I realize this reads like a little girl being ran in on while playing barbies (prince ken magically ...) by her little brother wanting GI Joe to join the fun, but it's exactly what it was. We both use different hunks of our brains entirely)
So, I'll ditch the description of how wonderful it was to awaken in my own bedroom this morning, looking up at the wide white curved ceiling, and listening to the lulling neighborhood sounds from my window (read: all the shrieking siren goodness of living by a traffic circle no one can use properly) and move on to the best, if not shocking, part of the day. My brother came crashing through the door with his girlfriend Chef Ravioli, and though I was fully dressed and watered, it was not without some squinting and shivering that he dragged me out to the car. For a suprise. My nephew Gauge sat in the back seat, bigger than ever, and panting in the apparent heat of the car. I was informed that no, the growing dimensions of the dog was not my surprise. And he opened the trunk of the station wagon to reveal an aquarium. Please god, don't let it be a rodent.
Instead, I was greeted by the sight of my new four and a half foot long corn snake. A "blood red" as I later read in the manual that so handy-dandily got included along with my new acquisition. Someone is making up for an iguana with a very good home (read: not with me) somewhere. "His" name was Abu. I freaked out in excitement and went to ask my grandmother if I could keep it, dreading that she'd say no. It turns out that I was shanghaied, because everyone else knew that this was going to happen, except for me. Everyone. Probably my extended family too. So, I got to keep the snake curled up in the chips peering out tentively at the world as it got moved into my basement hovel. I took the snake out of the dilapitated aquarium as soon as possible to have a good look at it, and was delighted to see that it had molted maybe only a day or so earlier, and was very healthy, and very people friendly, moving indifferently from one person to the next, scales shimmering iridescently under the flourescent lights. Incidently, this snake has been sexually confused for the last five years as a male, when it so obviously was not. The manual shows no signs of being read either. The heatlamp is a fire waiting to happen...and etc. and etc. I need to go to a petstore tomorrow and remedy all this, and my brother knew something was up too, so he gave me money as an additional gift.
At first, I have to say I sort of was suspicious of the whole thing, thinking old cliches about dying habits of trying to buy love and stuff, but this was different. He went through a lot to do this for me. He drove this snake from BC to get it here, and he's terrified of them. So, I did immediately realize I was thinking like a schlub, and that I am very fortunate to have a brother like him who would do something so thoughtful for me. And the snake is amazingly cool.
I of course thought the name was pathetic, along with the whole mis-sexed thing, so, my corn snake, the girl, is called Elaugh. I was reading the manual, and the genus of her type is Elaphe, and I told Judy and mispronounced it, coming up with "Elaugh". And I liked it.
Before I could clean her cage of it's soggy woodchips and chunks of shedded skin, I got dragged out to Wabumun for some high quality sailing time. The wind was a little non-existant initially, but it turned into a nice long run after the first fifteen minutes. No sailing down the lake completely like last time, but with multiple tacks for a dodgy wind, it still pretty nice. The sun was gorgeous, and the water was that wonderful slate blue/gray in one direction, and then a warm dark green in the other. On the horizon it was just dark, with flickers of sunlight spilling onto it like silver out of a forge. Not to get all romantic poet on anyone. It's funny sailing on days like today though, because the wind is chilly, but the sun just instantly heats every surface that it touches enough that you're in this curious limbo of temperature because the wind doesn't wick away all the heat completely.
My day was awesome. Tomorrow will be another story. Ideally, all I would need to make today perfect at this point, would be a phone call from someone I was fond of.
I really wanted to post a picture of Elaugh on here, but I can't seem to get Hello! to work. I got a little pissed and gave up, so whoever wants to see a picture of Elaugh will have to wait, or talk to me via MSN, for some non-lame file transfering fun. ¶ 10:50 AM
