Mammals
So Sunday was one of my first off days here, after a lazy morning involving some reading and spy kids 2 I set off in the early afternoon to get a better sense of the place. I first went to cedar bog lake, which is really a big mud puddle. Though I saw my first turtle and a pair of snails, I picked them up and stared at their foot for a while, it was fun. I then crossed the road, a marsh with only minimal wetting of the feet hiked, across biocon (where the experiment is I'll be working on most of the time, through the trees and past grandmother's house, and I found myself at the shores of fish lake, a good deal more picturesque and picnicable than the bog lake.
I sat down to finish a letter, and after a while I look up and there is what I take to be a beaver headed straight at me. It gets on a log 10 feet from me and then swims off. It looked like it had a flat tail, and the second turtle I see is what I think scared it away. I asked the naturalist here about it and he informed me that it was more likely a muskrat then a beaver, dash it all I still haven't seen a wild beaver though I did once incorrectly call a wild frog a beaver, but that was on purpose or at least I told Kevin it was on purpose. However, I'm told beavers can actually be found around here, I'll keep my eyes open.
Hopefully more open then I did for 5 minutes after I saw the muskrat because I looked to my left and 5 ft away is a long rodent like creature. AN OTTER, we both get a good fright as I jump and yelp like I do when I'm scared, and it jumps and swims gracefully through the water, popping up on a log to hiss at me then swam away. Most exciting. This was later followed with what I now realize was a second muskrat siting, this one looked more like a rat than a capable dam engineer, and was a different one from the first, more brown and less grey and a very rat like tail. That's a lot of varmit wild life for half and hour so it seems I picked quite the spot, although it took some getting to.
Some bad news now I'm afraid, at least for all you U of C ulty fans out there. The team got eliminated Sunday at sectionals by western Illinois after narrowly beating indiana and losing to Purdue, each by 1 point. Feel bad for them as I know many 4th and 5th year players had their hearts set on making regionals again. Seemed like a weird season even though I didn't see any of it, playing really well, and really poorly depending on the stars and weather X had 2% or skim for breakfast. I am happy they beat Indiana as I never beat a full strength Indiana team in college, though through the cursed fates Indiana wound up winning the next 3 to take the 5th spot at regionals again. How cruel is fate, apparently you just can't keep a hoosier down , at least lower than 5th place.
Still thinking about the middlebury tourney, Its theoretically doable, but it will take the suspension of my sanity to make it happen. It hinges on 2 amtrak 8 hr train rides, 2 14 hr car rides, one of which most get back to chicago in a no more than 20 hrs after the tourney ends, 3 days of missed work, my boss agreeing to drive me to and fro downtown (although that may work as he has class in st paul mon and wed night) and sally letting me crash at her place. All for a tournament in vermont more in a canadian spirit than american which is good. I get to see Lyrica, josie, sasha, ian and tazo again, not to mention U of C folk. So what does everyone think. Should I do it, am I nuts, or am I just a little too much in love with spring ultimate in the state that conceptualized Mud for me (sorry, inside joke that only one other person will get). The other side is that I want to go to Chicago over memorial day, maybe poultry days, definitely Mars, ahh so many tournaments and so limited in the travel options. Maybe I should take up a minnesota sport like field curling, now that would be sweet.
So apparently I can't write with brevity, which would imply the absence of wit, which means this was doubly painful, my deepest apologies gentle reader(at this point still me) though I think I'll let the world know about this blog tomorrow or wednesday , and then unsolicited political punditry here I COME.
I sat down to finish a letter, and after a while I look up and there is what I take to be a beaver headed straight at me. It gets on a log 10 feet from me and then swims off. It looked like it had a flat tail, and the second turtle I see is what I think scared it away. I asked the naturalist here about it and he informed me that it was more likely a muskrat then a beaver, dash it all I still haven't seen a wild beaver though I did once incorrectly call a wild frog a beaver, but that was on purpose or at least I told Kevin it was on purpose. However, I'm told beavers can actually be found around here, I'll keep my eyes open.
Hopefully more open then I did for 5 minutes after I saw the muskrat because I looked to my left and 5 ft away is a long rodent like creature. AN OTTER, we both get a good fright as I jump and yelp like I do when I'm scared, and it jumps and swims gracefully through the water, popping up on a log to hiss at me then swam away. Most exciting. This was later followed with what I now realize was a second muskrat siting, this one looked more like a rat than a capable dam engineer, and was a different one from the first, more brown and less grey and a very rat like tail. That's a lot of varmit wild life for half and hour so it seems I picked quite the spot, although it took some getting to.
Some bad news now I'm afraid, at least for all you U of C ulty fans out there. The team got eliminated Sunday at sectionals by western Illinois after narrowly beating indiana and losing to Purdue, each by 1 point. Feel bad for them as I know many 4th and 5th year players had their hearts set on making regionals again. Seemed like a weird season even though I didn't see any of it, playing really well, and really poorly depending on the stars and weather X had 2% or skim for breakfast. I am happy they beat Indiana as I never beat a full strength Indiana team in college, though through the cursed fates Indiana wound up winning the next 3 to take the 5th spot at regionals again. How cruel is fate, apparently you just can't keep a hoosier down , at least lower than 5th place.
Still thinking about the middlebury tourney, Its theoretically doable, but it will take the suspension of my sanity to make it happen. It hinges on 2 amtrak 8 hr train rides, 2 14 hr car rides, one of which most get back to chicago in a no more than 20 hrs after the tourney ends, 3 days of missed work, my boss agreeing to drive me to and fro downtown (although that may work as he has class in st paul mon and wed night) and sally letting me crash at her place. All for a tournament in vermont more in a canadian spirit than american which is good. I get to see Lyrica, josie, sasha, ian and tazo again, not to mention U of C folk. So what does everyone think. Should I do it, am I nuts, or am I just a little too much in love with spring ultimate in the state that conceptualized Mud for me (sorry, inside joke that only one other person will get). The other side is that I want to go to Chicago over memorial day, maybe poultry days, definitely Mars, ahh so many tournaments and so limited in the travel options. Maybe I should take up a minnesota sport like field curling, now that would be sweet.
So apparently I can't write with brevity, which would imply the absence of wit, which means this was doubly painful, my deepest apologies gentle reader(at this point still me) though I think I'll let the world know about this blog tomorrow or wednesday , and then unsolicited political punditry here I COME.
posted by Joe Little at 10:39 PM
1 Comments:
yo.
I'm not making GHGL. he's kinda sorta double-booked himself for the weekend. whoops.
sorry to disappoint.
however, i am delighted to see that you are settling into the great north rather nicely.
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