I seem to get home about 8:30 or so at night no matter what I do during the day

Today is no exception. I picked a friend up from work and took him to get his bus pass and on a couple of errands, then took him to where he's staying. Then I went to another friend's and washed dishes, taught him how to forward an e-mail (apparently I've never covered this in all these years), and set his default font in Office to Times New Roman rather than Calibri because he prefers that. Then I headed home, parallel parking for the first time in a long time, and nailing it. Now I'm back in air conditioning, with a big glass of ice water, and eating a strange dinner of burritos, cheese, and fruit (a banana and berries).

There was a general notice on my door this evening from the leasing office about how someone really made a mess of the fitness room and laundry, even destroying a trash can in the ladies' room, over the weekend. That's a shame--I thought our tenants were more mature than that. If it continues, they'll just keep it open during office hours, which means I can never use it, as those hours are when I work, except on weekends, maybe. So here's hoping people straighten up. The apartment complex has been doing a lot of upgrading and without more than a tiny increase in rent--$5 this year--and they deserve better respect for their efforts. I think maybe they need to put in cameras. There probably should be some, anyway, as they're open from 5 am-midnight, and even with the fobs, they can't tell who all's been there, I'm sure, if someone lets others in, so it would make it more secure for those of us in there.

Work went really well today; my pace was very steady and I got everything accomplished I wanted to, even the monthly audit. It will be a slow clinic week, so I may catch up on some things that have been on the back burner like processing and cataloguing books and creating a new order to take advantage of our vendor's spring promotion (22% off). I wound up finishing everything up about 15 minutes before it was time to leave. I love days like that, when I feel my time has really been used well and I've had progress in meeting my goals for the day.

I've felt energised these last couple of days. One of my co-workers insisted that it might be the steroids they prescribed for my crud, as she always gets revved up and cleans house when she's on them. I don't know if that's true, but I have had a burst of energy. I thought it was just getting over being sick, but maybe she's right. I'm down to four pills a day and go down to two soon, so that'll be gone in a bit. But at least it was productive while it lasted. :)

My face is still pretty red, but the arms have darkened a bit into what I'd almost call at tan where I burned the other day. My neck got red, but not splotchy, for a change. So I look like I got sun, but no one's come up to me and said, 'Oh, God, don't you know what sunscreen is???'

I talked with one of my co-workers who was at the Cincinnati Zoo this weekend during the incident where a three- or four-year-old boy [accounts differ] climbed a barrier and fell into the moat of a gorilla enclosure, and then was picked up by a male gorilla, who was then shot to death to save the boy. They never made it to the gorilla enclosure, and didn't know what had happened until later. But her daughter is three, so I think she had a good perspective on things. It's caused quite a controversy, and I've avoided comment. I admit, my first response was, 'where on earth were the parents?', but I also know that as someone who has not had children, it's not very fair for me to comment when I've never tried to keep up with a quick, wily four-year-old. Even the best of parents let their guard down, sometimes for enough moments for a child to get away, and usually it doesn't have such terrible consequences--but it could. My understanding is that in this case the mother--who works in a care facility for small children--told him he couldn't go in the water when he said he would and then was distracted by other children in her care. My co-worker said it disturbed her and her husband that people have been posting the personal phone numbers and information of the family online for harassment, after having such a terrible scare. I have to agree. That's wrong. It's horrible that the gorilla, Harambe, was killed. Most of the experts are saying tranquilising the gorilla could have meant the boy was more likely to get hurt. I don't know if I completely buy that, but unlike apparently most people out there, I do know tranquilisers don't work as fast as what you see on TV and in movies, either, so they may be right. My friend did say the enclosure had a small barrier, a brushy area, and then the moat the boy fell into that the gorilla retrieved him from. Maybe the zoo needs to consider another system of barriers.

But the fact of the matter is that the great majority of the people calling for blood over the death of that magnificent creature weren't there, don't have all the facts, and probably should not be making comments. Do I wish they'd done something else in response? Yes, of course, if at all feasible. But if the boy had died, the same people would have been blaming the parents and the zoo for a terrible tragedy, too. There really is no winning in this situation. It does, however, bring up a dialogue on keeping wild animals in captivity to be gawked at by clueless humans, all in the name of preserving the species and conservation. Don't get me wrong, my grandmother instilled in me a love of that zoo (I've been to only three, but the Cincinnati one is the one I've been to the most). I think it can be very educational. But there are issues that the animal rights people (many of whom I think are a bit too far in left field, no matter how much I love animals) have some very good points about. Anyway, the authorities are now investigating, and I'm sure there will be lawsuits and reports on what could have been done differently, that sort of thing. I am very saddened by the death of the gorilla. I'm very glad the boy is alive. Enough said.

What I've been following more than that, however, is the story out of Japan where the parents put their child out of the car for misbehaving (he'd been throwing rocks at cars and the like, definitely spoilt brat behaviour) in an effort to discipline him and left him, supposedly for a few minutes, out on the side of the road. When they returned, he was gone, vanished into a remote forest full of bears. Now hundreds of people have been looking through the area for FOUR DAYS trying to find him. Initially the parents gave a story of him wandering away while they were looking for wild vegetables, but then confessed that it had been a time out gone wrong. They are, of course, now very regretful about what they did.

Regretful? I know lots of people threaten to put their kids out of the car (and I know at least one who did, briefly, but not in a bear-infested woods), but this, I think, was not thought out well. I'm sure the kid said fine, I'll show them, and hid in the woods, figuring he'd make them look for him, and then got lost or hurt. He's seven, it would be natural. I hope they find him safe, for his sake, and that of his parents.

What do both of these stories tell us? In just a few short minutes, everything can change, especially when dealing with small children who don't really know much about life, but think they know everything there is to know. It's all our responsibility to keep kids safe, and we have to be vigilant--not just parents, any of us, of when they are in danger. But a parent must, especially, because ultimately, not only did you create this little human, he or she is yours to protect for life, and any day that you put them to bed safe and sound is a good day. Hold their hands, hell, put leashes on them if need be, but keep them close, because in a moment, everything can change, and what is done cannot be undone.

Okay, one more animal-related post

This from Wired.com:

Why Can’t We Be Friends? Top 10 Interspecies BFF Videos

What is it about interspecies friendship that makes it universally cute, hilarious and heartwarming?

I don’t know the answer, but if you tell me there is something better on the internet, I won’t believe you. These videos of friendship between a tortoise and a hippo, a gorilla and a kitten, and an elephant and a dog are all the evidence I need.

There are some interesting similarities among many of the videos. Many involve domesticated animals, not only dogs and cats, but apes, elephants and pigs. Many also result from freak accidents, like a tsunami that washed the baby hippo to shore, where it was raised by the tortoise. Or the baby squirrel that fell out of the tree, was rescued, and raised by a mother cat.

Many of these animals seem confused about their identity. My guess is the hippo thinks he’s a tortoise, the baby squirrel thinks he’s a kitten (it even learns to purr).

The elephant and dog I wrote about the other day are there. I was so glad to see Koko and her kitten All Ball as well, as that was back in the 1980s. But she's had several cats over the years she's been very close to. For more on Koko, check out koko.org.

Sad

Mama gorilla won't let go of her dead baby: Mother ‘is mourning and must say goodbye,’ zoo spokeswoman says

And some people don't think animals have emotions. They do. Especially our cousin primates, including gorillas.

I direct you to two articles

from this August 6th issue of Newsweek

Anna Quindlen's How Much Jail Time?, where she looks at the unwillingness to take the anti-abortion line to the logical conclusion of jailing women--or treating them like they aren't responsible because they're incapable of making decisions.

and

Gorilla Warfare: Even after 10 years of war, rangers are stunned by the mysterious killings of great apes in Africa's oldest park.
It's well-written and discusses the political and environmental factors in bringing mountain gorillas closer to extinction. The gorillas referenced were not killed for their fur or meat, as the animals were left intact but dead and in one case burnt. It may be a way of intimidating park rangers who have spoken out about rapid deforestation in the area due to charcoal industry. It's an incredibly dangerous job--about 120 rangers have been murdered since 1994, and they patrol with AK-47s now. And one of the rangers who has been very vocal against the charcoal interests in now under arrest because the gorillas were killed under his watch, something the killers may have planned all along. For more information on how you can help, visit Wildlife Direct, the organisation that pays the salaries of most of the rangers, rather than the government of the Democratic Republic of Congo. Of the 12 members of the gorilla group, only 5 remain, mostly young males (the alpha male was one of the ones killed, along with a pregnant female. Other females and infants were killed or are missing.) For those of you who care about animals (including gorillas), the environment, or for that matter the survival of the human population in the area, whose resources are already stretched due to the influx of refugees (the deforestation will do no good to them, either, in the long run), please let others know about these events.