$5 To Ride Around In Circles

We attended a local festival this weekend with the typical overpriced $18 afternoon “unlimited ride” band that only applied to several rides and did not include the $7 bouncy jumpy rope thing that we passed with seething resentment. It also did not include any games, many of which were $5 for three tries (at darts or hitting the sledgehammer, etc). We did pony up $4 for berry lemonade, but not $7 for funnel cake. And certainly not $5 for a pony ride.

How about you? Would you pony up for a pony? Or would you rather spend that money on a camel ride? A pair of camels split the shift. This one was on break but still suited up.

This was the shortest line we saw of the dozens of fairground lines.

I guess riding a camel isn’t quite as exciting as Pharaoh’s Fury or the Zipper (from which 99% of the ride screams came). And I doubt it’s on anyone’s bucket list. But at least you can say you did it once.

http://abarim-publications.blogspot.com/

Tuppence A Bag

source: “A Living Lens”

On an upstate New York farm where she settled after fleeing the Commies in 1929, Countess Alexandra Tolstaya (youngest daughter of author Leo Tolstoy) proves that even countesses have to feed the chickens.

Tolstaya died at age 95.

Therapy Elephant Brings Serenity Now

Okay, not really. This isn’t a therapy elephant. It’s just a cute little two-year-old. There, there, little guy.

Natl Geo March '69
Natl Geo March ’69

Maybe I could have a Borneo pygmy elephant instead?

www.youtube.com
http://www.youtube.com

But therapy elephants do exist, as far as helping autistic kids. For more on that, click here.

I Need To Get More Acreage

Shaggy Icelandic ponies on Washington Island, Wisconsin, Natl Geo, March '69
Shaggy Icelandic ponies on Washington Island, Wisconsin, Natl Geo, March ’69

That settles it! I need to move out of the burbs and get thyself to a red barn and a stable full of Icelandic ponies. This one has better hair than I do.

www.raspberrypi.org
http://www.raspberrypi.org

Hill Country Tonto

Punxsutawney Phil may have seen his shadow and determined six more weeks of winter, but Hill Country Tonto has decided winter skipped central Texas altogether. No ice days like we usually have near MLK Jr Day, no snow days, no scraping ice off the windshield. We never wore our thick jackets nor our mittens. Only one day did I don a knit beanie, and that was barely warranted. So I guess it’s early spring and 89 degrees, and I’m applying sunscreen but still getting a swimsuit tan.

Cuba Scuba Dive, Part II

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I couldn’t begin to tell you what this is. Something down deep in the sea with little feelers. This next one I was told was a brain coral with a bristle worm on it.

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What a Creator we have indeed! Look at all the colors undersea.

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And how about this for a profile?

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Cuba Scuba Dive, Part I

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My aunt and her scuba-dive-loving husband visited Cuba late last year and were able to schedule a series of dives. Among them–swimming with the sharks. Clearly they are both more fearless than I. But the pictures my uncle captured with his camera were amazing.

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cubascuba-4

cubascuba-1

Crazy Eyes

hhdog

I was perusing the site of a nearby dog shelter yesterday, and I came across this Anatolian Shepherd mix named Duke. I couldn’t help but share the photo. Could you wake up to this face each morning? Is the blue eye (a product of his Heterochromia iridis condition) too disconcerting? And what about his ears?

That Dog Though

"Women of the West" by Luchetti & Olwell
“Women of the West” by Luchetti & Olwell

Here a family drags all of its belongings into the Yukon Territory near Alaska in 1898. This must have been the granddad of Petey the dog from Our Gang.

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And here’s a happy pack dog with his gold-prospecting owner in the Yukon Territory a few years later. He gets to carry the pots and pans.

 

pinterest
pinterest

This group of dogs in Dawson City in the Yukon was responsible for carrying mail in 1898.

http://www.historymuseum.ca/
http://www.historymuseum.ca/

Wow! Dogs really are man’s best friend.

giphy.com
giphy.com