Random Thought

The other day I was driving down the street and observed a street sign that I see every day. It's not an unusual street sign as you have probably seen it millions of times in your life...but have you ever stopped to think that that the ladies on this sign have no feet, yet they are carrying purses?

A Life Cut Short

So Henry bit the dust after only 5 days of living with us. I have never been really sad about the death of a fish before, but I feel like we went to such lengths to save him, only to have him jump to his death. Yes, you read that right; he made a jump for it.

This morning I asked my yonger daughter if she’d like to feed Henry – of course she did. So she ran over to his bowl and said, “He’s not in there”.

“What do you mean he’s not in there?” I asked. I thought she just couldn’t see him through the thick class. But then I looked and I couldn’t see him, either. I looked on the kitchen floor and there he was, pasted to the linoleum.

My husband scooped him up and gave him a proper burial (the royal flush). Now I am sad. He was our little buddy. I should have put a cover on the bowl.

Goodbye Henry, Rest in Peace.

Bringing Home Henry

Last night my husband and I took the girls to the local fireman’s carnival. We walked in and made the rounds to see what rides they wanted to go on. My older daughter spotted a game where you throw ping pong balls and try to get them into little fish bowls. The prize was a goldfish.

“Mommy, I want to win a goldfish!” my daughter exclaimed.

“Absolutely not,” was my reply. Something just seemed terribly wrong about the whole thing. There were kids walking around the carnival with goldfish in bags. Some kids had multiple bags of goldfish that their parents had yet to find out about. And I’m sure those poor fish had been in those bags for a long time. They were probably losing oxygen. I was not about to contribute to that. No way.

While my younger daughter was on the Orange Whip, I turned toward the “fish game” to see my husband, with his fists in the air yelling, “Whoo-hoo”. My daughter was excitedly pointing to a bag containing an oxygen-depleted goldfish. They came running over to us.

“Let’s name him Eraserhead,” suggested my husband. They settled on Henry.

Well, this morning we woke up to find Henry at the bottom of his big glass vase that we designated as his new home. He wasn’t dead, but I could tell it wouldn’t be long.

I hate to see living creatures suffer, so I went out to Petco and bought a little filter/aerator. I put it together and stuck it to the inside of Henry’s glass home. Now for the test…I plugged it in….

Bingo! Henry shot up, down, and around his bowl. In fact, it’s been a few hours now and he is still swimming like his life depends on it. I’m pretty sure he is high on air bubbles.

The sad thing is that 99% of those other fish probably won’t make it through the next few days. But not our Henry, he’s going to be just fine.

Can anyone spare a square?

Today was beautiful outside, so I decided to take my daughters for a walk in the woods at a nearby game refuge. It's really pretty there, and I though we'd hike by the stream and look at some wildlife. This is a picture of the refuge and a goose on the waterfall.

I made sure they went to the bathroom before we left, and stopped at a convenience store for some bottled water and trail mix.

They’re always up for a hike if there are snacks involved. I think they think of it as more of an adventure if you’re bringing food. Like, if we get stranded, they’ll have something to eat. Only the trails are wide and clearly marked and there are always people walking their dogs, so you’re not likely to get lost or stranded. Plus it’s summer, so a snow storm is not likely to blow in unexpectedly.

So anyway, we’re driving along toward our destination, and I look back and my 4-year-old has already chugged half of her 20 oz. bottle of water. Excellent – I can already see where this is headed.

We get to the parking lot and both of them have to go to the bathroom, so we head directly up the trail to the outhouse – which, of course has no toilet paper. They go anyway and I tell them to shake it (gross, I know but you gotta do what you gotta do).

We get about a mile into our walk when my older daughter tells me she has to go #2 and it’s not going to wait. Excellent. I decide we’d better just go home because toilet paper would definitely be a necessity at this point.

We get into the car, they devour the trail mix and remaining water as we head for home. When we get out of the car my daughter exclaims that she no longer has to go to the bathroom. Next time I’m bringing my own toilet paper.

Rocks?

Summer just goes by too fast. My older daughter was already online this morning picking out the backpack that she wants for school. Well, actually she wants a messenger bag this year, which I kind of have issues with because she’ll have all that weight on one shoulder, and she tends to be a little packrat with her school bags.

One time I picked up her school bag and asked, as I’m sure many parents sometimes do, “What are you carrying around in here? Rocks?” I was obviously joking.

I opened up the bag and pulled out a plastic Target bag filled with….rocks! No lie. I couldn’t believe it. I laughed about that for days. She loves to collect rocks that she finds on hikes or at the beach, and she brought them to school to show her friends. Only she didn’t just bring a few, she brought about 5 pounds worth!

Needless to say, I will be keeping an eye on their bags this year to make sure they are not breaking their little backs lugging around rocks or who knows what else.