When you are all by yourself it means you can do just what you want to do. I can take up the whole bed instead of being confined into a tiny tiny tiny sliver of the side. I can eat crackers on the bed. I can jump into the pool with my clothes on instead of changing into my bathing suit. I can paint sitting on the floor and wipe my brush on the rug or my pants instead of a paper towel. I can control the Netflix queue. I can listen to distractingly loud music that is not in Italian or French. While I enjoy this freedom, I miss Aaron's company more than anything else, even more than the crackers in bed which do taste better that way.
To pass away the lonely hours I draw and spend time with the handsome man above, Marty Stouffer, the creator of Wild America. I watched Wild America through all of my developmental years in the 80s and consequently have an irrational devotion to it. Devotion aside, it's a great show. It was made before all the wildlife "naturalists" wrestled down vicious predators but instead spent days stalking even small mammals like a mink to get natural behavior which for me makes it absolutely fascinating. Off the top of my head here are some of my favorite episodes:
Owls Lords of Darkness
Grasshopper Mice - A whole show on desert mice that turn out to be ferocious predators who howl after every kill. If you are wondering they usually kill grasshoppers.
Ringtailed Rascals
The one on Antelope
The one on possums
The one on Turkeys (which has two parts)
The one on swamp bears
The one on wolverines
Fishers in the Family - Marty stumbles upon a road killed Fisher, determines she is a nursing mother, tracks down her den in a snow storm, retrieves her kits and brings them to his house to be raised along side his two year old. Awesome.
Aaron and I stumbled upon the first six seasons (12 disks) at Sam's club and immediately purchased it. I'm saving up for the next box set, seasons 7-12. Hours and hours of fun are just waiting to be had.
2 comments:
I must say, Marty Stouffer can capture some mean wildlife footage. Some of it is pretty scarring however because Marty shows the entire life cycle of the animals he highlights, often including reproduction. But, Marty saves the day by being a really snappy dresser (the man embraced 70s style mountain man wear) and using lots of alliteration. I must say though I'm worried I'll have to compete with this guy...perhaps I'll have to grow a beard and raise some wild animals in our apartment or something.
Ah, animal reproduction. We saw some turtles engaged in the aforesaid behavior at the zoo. They were swimming along, and Spencer was particularly taken with them and wanted to watch the swimming beasties at length...which I found a bit uncomfortable. Fortunately, Aunt Katie had a ready explanation about how one turtle was giving the other turtle a ride, and that pre-empted any "Mommy, what are those turtles doing?" type questions. I'm going to have to figure out a good way to have that birds and bees talk...but I prefer it not be in midst of a crowd. (All other reptile house spectators were similarly taken with the turtle tank, interestingly enough).
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