Give a Hoot

For as long as I can remember I have wanted to see an owl out in the wild. To date I have only seen them in zoos. Yesterday was no exception. I had forgotten that the last exhibit in the zoo here is a Great Horned Owl. I spent a lot of time there trying to get a good picture of him. He was quite accomodating and posed for me. Perhaps one of these days I will be lucky enough to see one out in the wild but for now this guy will have to do.

Orangutan

I decided to take a little trip to the Greenville Zoo this morning for the sole purpose of doing some photography. I arrived to a parking lot full of cars and once inside I discovered that today must have been "Mom's and Strollers Day" because that was about all that was there... and there were a ton of them! I made my way thru the throngs and managed to get some good pictures. Below is a baby orangutan. He was in an area with his mom and dad and he put on a little show. He had a brown paper bag that he was playing with. He picked it up and was tumbling around with it. He fell off a little wall area and kept playing. Finally he decided it would be fun to hide under the bag. Absolutely adorable!

Rainbow

Last night just around dusk we had a knock on the door. One of our neighbors was standing there saying we should come outside to see something. There in the sky was a beautiful, vibrant rainbow. Of course I grabbed my camera and took pictures!

If you look closely you will notice double rainbows in this picture. The one to the right is not as bright.

Our neighbors US flag with the rainbow in the background

Exercise

Today I thought I would write a funny story about something that happened to me about a year and a half ago. Exercise has never been something I enjoy but with my recent weight loss today I decided to pull out the exercise rope I bought and do some strength building exercises. I was quickly reminded of the story I am about to share with you. Now I have to go back to a year and a half ago... I decided I would buy one of these things, not even sure what to call it other than a tubular rubber band with a handle on each end. I was in a local Walmart and headed off for the sporting goods department and quickly found what I was looking for. The thing was that I discovered they come in different lengths and not knowing which length I needed I decided to open up the boxes and take them out to see which size would work best for my needs. Right away I discovered the long one was not for me, I needed the short one to do any good strength building at all. So, there I was standing alone in the aisle and I had the bright idea to give it a try. I put it behind my back and was going to pull my arms forward to touch in front. What happened next would certainly have been a contender on America's Funniest Video's had it been on tape. Instead of the band stretching and my arms pulling around forward the band took a ride right up my back, catching my then long hair and rolling it right up to the scalp. OUCH! There I stood in the aisle stuck... I was trying desperately to get my hands out of the handles and unroll the contraption from my hair quickly before anyone came down the aisle and saw me. I nearly became a full fledged contortionist that day trying to wriggle it out. I somehow managed to get my hands free but then there was the task of unrolling it from my hair... Yowee! It was quite painful but I finally got it out. And would you believe I actually ended up buying it after all of that? I did, and I used it once or twice then hung it on the bathroom door hook where it has remained ever since. I am happy to report I used it without incident today! A few years ago I bought a similar product but it was just 3 wide bands with no handles. You had to wrap the bands around your hands and then do the pulling. One was easy, one medium and the other one was the most difficult. I had the medium one and was doing a leg exercise when the band slipped out of my hand and popped my right calf with gusto. Oh my lord... I thought I had amputated my leg. Talk about painful!!!! (think of being popped by a 4 inch wide rubber band pulled taught then let go) A huge hemotoma instantly popped up, about the size of my fist and it remained there for about a month before disappearing. I never used those bands again after that. Exercise... it is not for sissy's and apparently not for me either!