foggy flamingos party while bloviating politicians reverse time
Although the ‘F-Word’(fog) continues to dominate Santa Barbara’s (morning) May weather, the afternoons are sunny and warm. And as COVID controls are loosened iit becomes possible to visit the Zoo — an excursion that generates interesting memories for Azelle…
“… and all those flamingos were pooping in the water,” Azelle recounted.
“Wow!” I replied. “Do you think we should put diapers no those flamingos?”
“No Dan. They like to have poop come out of their little pink butt.”
Vaccinations, both within the family and throughout the community as a whole have helped us begin to resume in-person social life. This week, Mitra and Stefan got their second vaccination while visiting us in Santa Barbara. Darius and Christiane have also received full vaccine doses, and were able to take the girls to a friend’s (balloon-filled) birthday party.
Now that Darius and Christiane are vaccinated, they feel comfortable about flying to …
“… as comfortable possible when contemplating a 1000 mile flight with two young children.” Nazy interrupts.
… Santa Barbara in June. We are looking forward to seeing them in a few weeks.
Here the grandchildren are continuing their swimming lessons. Arrow and Azelle have classes on Monday and Wednesday. Tiger joins them on Wednesday — after his school and after their classes. On Wednesday, I join them for play after Tiger’s lesson. But — when Tiger arrives, Arrow is finished with his class. So I play with Arrow while Tiger is taking a lesson. This is not always well-received by Tiger…
“So I will be working while you and Arrow are playing? That’s not fair.” Tiger claimed.
“Arrow already did his lesson. We will all play together after you are finished.”
“Okay.” Tiger snapped. “But don’t have any fun until I get there.”
So.. Tiger began his class (he’s working on strokes and swimming longer distances under water), while Arrow and I sat in the Jacuzzi making waves. Arrow really liked running in circles to create a big current — but every so often, in the midst of giggles he stopped to shout.
“We are not having any fun, Tiger!”
Meanwhile Azelle is practicing waling on water.
As the pandemic ebbs, Nazy and I beginning to plan more outings and excursions. I expect that we’ll start in California:
“I want to see Bakersfield, Nazy,” I asserted.
“Bakersfield? What’s there?”
“it’s Kevin McCarthy’s home town — and they have a time machine that he uses to erase, rewrite and live in a alternate reality. He’s even changed his own history.”
“It’s either that or he’s lying.” Nazy replied.
“It’s a science-free city, Nazy. They don’t believe that the sun shines because of nuclear fusion. They think the sun is heated by hot air created by a bloviating, one-term, twice impeached, former ‘president’.”
“They think that the hot air generated by Trump lies powers the sun?” Nazy replied.
“Yes.”
“That’s believable,” Nazy concluded.
This week, I took Azelle to nearby Mesa Park for a playground visit. She loves both the swings and the slides as well as the the trees and the flowers. After exercising on the slide, I asked her if she would like to walk to the smoothy store.
“Yes,” she replied. “I want a pink smoothy.”
We looked at the trees (Jacaranda about to bloom) and flowers (Geraniums) on the way.
“I love Geraniums, Dan.” Azelle noted. “Because pink is my favorite color.”
This week, Tiger and Arrow each made a presentation to the family. Their talks, modeled on ‘Ted Talks’ featured a projection system, button microphones, laser pointers, professional videography and an enthusiastic audience.
Tiger spoke about the solar system with a talk that highlighted temperatures on the planets as well as his weight on each of the planets and…
“…. I would weight 1407 pounds on the Sun, if I wasn’t burnt to a crisp.” Tiger announced. He went on to describe his weight on a white dwarf (67.600,000 pounds) and a neutron star (72,800,000,000,000 pound).
Arrow talked about Time and things used to measure it. He noted that Time only ‘went one way’ (“like an Arrow&rdquo
, that you can’t make time, you can’t stop time and you can only go with it like a boat in a river.”
Arrow also displayed his collection of hour glasses.
Unlike many, neither Mitra nor Stefan suffered any untoward reactions to their second vaccine shot.
Vaccines, the most consequential development in medicine in the last 10,000 years have the potential to protect everyone — but that potential is only realized if almost everyone gets the vaccine. There are people in the country who are more into ‘me’ than they are into ‘us’, so the vaccine promise might not be completely fulfilled. And, by the way, the vaccine arrived quickly not because corners were cut but because the process of designing, scaling up, and mass-producing mRNA vaccines is simpler.
“… and all those flamingos were pooping in the water,” Azelle recounted.
“Wow!” I replied. “Do you think we should put diapers no those flamingos?”
“No Dan. They like to have poop come out of their little pink butt.”
It’s clear that one of last year’s Christmas presents (left photo) primed Azelle for the live flamingo exhibit. The photo on the right, take more than five years ago, is me with Tiger at the zoo: the flamingos haven’t moved since.
Vaccinations, both within the family and throughout the community as a whole have helped us begin to resume in-person social life. This week, Mitra and Stefan got their second vaccination while visiting us in Santa Barbara. Darius and Christiane have also received full vaccine doses, and were able to take the girls to a friend’s (balloon-filled) birthday party.
Now that Darius and Christiane are vaccinated, they feel comfortable about flying to …
“… as comfortable possible when contemplating a 1000 mile flight with two young children.” Nazy interrupts.
… Santa Barbara in June. We are looking forward to seeing them in a few weeks.
Here the grandchildren are continuing their swimming lessons. Arrow and Azelle have classes on Monday and Wednesday. Tiger joins them on Wednesday — after his school and after their classes. On Wednesday, I join them for play after Tiger’s lesson. But — when Tiger arrives, Arrow is finished with his class. So I play with Arrow while Tiger is taking a lesson. This is not always well-received by Tiger…
“So I will be working while you and Arrow are playing? That’s not fair.” Tiger claimed.
“Arrow already did his lesson. We will all play together after you are finished.”
“Okay.” Tiger snapped. “But don’t have any fun until I get there.”
So.. Tiger began his class (he’s working on strokes and swimming longer distances under water), while Arrow and I sat in the Jacuzzi making waves. Arrow really liked running in circles to create a big current — but every so often, in the midst of giggles he stopped to shout.
“We are not having any fun, Tiger!”
Meanwhile Azelle is practicing waling on water.
As the pandemic ebbs, Nazy and I beginning to plan more outings and excursions. I expect that we’ll start in California:
“I want to see Bakersfield, Nazy,” I asserted.
“Bakersfield? What’s there?”
“it’s Kevin McCarthy’s home town — and they have a time machine that he uses to erase, rewrite and live in a alternate reality. He’s even changed his own history.”
“It’s either that or he’s lying.” Nazy replied.
“It’s a science-free city, Nazy. They don’t believe that the sun shines because of nuclear fusion. They think the sun is heated by hot air created by a bloviating, one-term, twice impeached, former ‘president’.”
“They think that the hot air generated by Trump lies powers the sun?” Nazy replied.
“Yes.”
“That’s believable,” Nazy concluded.
This week, I took Azelle to nearby Mesa Park for a playground visit. She loves both the swings and the slides as well as the the trees and the flowers. After exercising on the slide, I asked her if she would like to walk to the smoothy store.
“Yes,” she replied. “I want a pink smoothy.”
We looked at the trees (Jacaranda about to bloom) and flowers (Geraniums) on the way.
“I love Geraniums, Dan.” Azelle noted. “Because pink is my favorite color.”
This week, Tiger and Arrow each made a presentation to the family. Their talks, modeled on ‘Ted Talks’ featured a projection system, button microphones, laser pointers, professional videography and an enthusiastic audience.
Tiger spoke about the solar system with a talk that highlighted temperatures on the planets as well as his weight on each of the planets and…
“…. I would weight 1407 pounds on the Sun, if I wasn’t burnt to a crisp.” Tiger announced. He went on to describe his weight on a white dwarf (67.600,000 pounds) and a neutron star (72,800,000,000,000 pound).
Arrow talked about Time and things used to measure it. He noted that Time only ‘went one way’ (“like an Arrow&rdquo
, that you can’t make time, you can’t stop time and you can only go with it like a boat in a river.” Arrow also displayed his collection of hour glasses.
Unlike many, neither Mitra nor Stefan suffered any untoward reactions to their second vaccine shot.
Vaccines, the most consequential development in medicine in the last 10,000 years have the potential to protect everyone — but that potential is only realized if almost everyone gets the vaccine. There are people in the country who are more into ‘me’ than they are into ‘us’, so the vaccine promise might not be completely fulfilled. And, by the way, the vaccine arrived quickly not because corners were cut but because the process of designing, scaling up, and mass-producing mRNA vaccines is simpler.
For last week's letter, please click here
Time only goes one way like riding a raft in a river
Costa Rica… Melika, Nazy and Dan (and others)
blog comments powered by Disqus