Wednesday's Digressions

• The 2014 Z28 sounds awesome but my American dream car right now would be a CTS-V Stage 4 D3 modded Caddy. 750 hp and it would ride like well, a Cadillac.
• The cat has been licking himself for most of the past hour. It reminds me of those old signs, "Clean up after yourself. The only self cleaning thing around here is the cat!"
• A lot of Pink Floyd's music is really awful, most of it actually I guess but holy smokes their good stuff is like magic.
• The people who scream the loudest daring us to compare ourselves to the UK on issues related to guns and the death penalty etc. sure can shrink up it seems when others want to use Britain as example of what happens when you create a welfare state.
• No, I am not pro death penalty mostly because it is counterproductive, unfair and basically really dumb.
• It wouldn't bother me a bit if I never had another headache.
• I think often about a refugee patient from Sudan who came into the US years ago. He had about 5 kids and worked like a dog at 2 different jobs trying to make it here. He was a teacher I think in Sudan. He was nice, funny and smart and carried the weight of the world on his shoulders. I don't know if I ever did anything for him other than hiring him as an interpreter but I hope he made it. He was a sweet guy whom I saw being just crushed and there was little I could do for him.
• Another associated flashback: There was a girl who came in from Bosnia who was fluent in Serbo Croation, German and English. I loved talking to her in German and she thought it was cool I could speak it a little. I told her to come back the next day and I would have her sign a contract to be an interpreter and interview her. The interview was mostly to educate what I expected, general privacy policies and give her the medical terms I would use the most often in encounters so she could look them up if she needed. It was not intended to be anything official. I would have taken care of it right then while her hair was up and she was in her sweats but I needed to get the contract from another office and I was pressed for time. She came in the next day in the shortest dress I have ever seen- literally. There must have been some laws against it somewhere. It was white and the hem terminated just below her bottom.  She pulled her chair away from the desk and did her best Basic Instinct impersonation. She was absolutely beautiful and was totally aware of the power she possessed in that little dress.
• And I was an oak.
• Sugarcult Pretty Girl.

  

  One of the Sharkarosa exhibits is named after a boy from the area.

  
  

  

  I think this would be called a tug but I'm not sure. Vehicles like this used in tight shipping and receiving areas to move trailers around are called yard dogs. It could also be correctly called a tractor I suppose since it pulls other objects.

  
  

  

  Pattern on a cross between a horse and a zebra- A zorse is a zorse of course...

  
  

  

  Pere David deer. These are extinct in the wild in China, although there are some in preserves. The last wild ones  were shot out and ate by soldiers during some troubles I believe in the early 1900s.

  
  

  

  Mooooo

  
  

  

  These things with a cup of coffee or a glass of milk are like crack. I don't even kid myself when I reach for these in the store- I automatically buy 2-3 boxes.

  
  
  

Sharkarosa After Action Report

• It was OK- not great as I assumed it would be. Alright- it was very OK. The kids loved it and it didn't break the bank so I'm not going to complain.
• Noticed a lot of people with children whom it appeared obvious were foster children. There were multiple families and none of them seemed to interact, so I don't think it was a group thing.
  
  
  

  

  Zac gets high fived by a Joey.

  
  

  

  This guy got smashed in the face by a car when he was a baby. Sheesh, I thought I had it hard.

  
  

  

  Mom was not impressed with this red tailed boa's antics but she seemed like a good sport overall about it.

  
  
  
  
  

  

  I asked the kid where this type of snake was from. From Peruvian was his reply.

  
  

  

  Two cel phone just laying around- not in their natural habitat.  I'm sure a kid ditched them out of a stroller.

  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  

  

  I hear people talking about camel toes all the time. I don't get it- but here is some if that is your thing.

  
  

  

  Smooch!

  
  
  
• African crested porcupines are one of my favorite animals. They get eaten by humans in their native land.
• They have an albino spectacled cobra. The handler said it had been defanged.
• There are probably 10-12 camels there. All are dromedary and all but 1 female. 
• There were only a couple of birds on display and no reptiles.
• One of those teacup pigs got aggravated at me and snapped at me in the petting zoo- right after I commented on him looking delicious and saying something about bacon.. Everybody laughed at me.
• The driver of the safari tram was named TJ.
• I noted very few wild birds flying around. It would have been a logical assumption I thought that they would be everywhere snagging the dropped feed.
• Mike Rowe did an episode of Dirty Jobs there. He fed baby kangaroos and stimulated them to poop with a wet wipe into his hand.
• Every animal there appeared to be healthy and happy.
• The snack stand was pretty good, especially their hot dogs and the lady running it was a sweety. She and her husband were working it together. They have been married for 25 years.
• I was surprised there wasn't a sign prominently placed telling the story of how they arrived at the name Sharkarosa.
• The US flag was displayed incorrectly. It was to the right of the state flag as you enter the grounds.
• They have 2 Pere Davids deer there- a male and a female. Sadly there are none left wild in their native China. The species is sometimes nicknamed sibuxiang (Chinese: 四不像, pinyin: sì bú xiàng), literally meaning "four not alike", which could mean "the four unlikes" or "like none of the four"; it is variously said that the four are cow, deer, donkey, horse (or) camel, and that the expression means in detail:
  • "the hooves of a cow but not a cow, the neck of a camel but not a camel, antlers of a deer but not a deer, the tail of a donkey but not a donkey."
  • "the nose of a cow but not a cow, the antlers of a deer but not a deer, the body of a donkey but not a donkey, tail of a horse but not a horse"
  • "the tail of a donkey, the head of a horse, the hoofs of a cow, the antlers of a deer"
  • "the neck of a camel, the hoofs of a cow, the tail of a donkey, the antlers of a deer"
  • "the antlers of a deer, the head of a horse and the body of a cow"^[4]