Amazing Animals

I've seen two amazing animals in beautiful downtown Seattle lately:

Tuesday, as I was on my smoke break at the back door of the office tower where I work, at the back of beyond back door where you are hidden from sight if you are smoking, at the entrance to the underground parking garage back door, anyway, I was admiring the concrete retaining wall lining the drive to the aforementioned underground parking. This wall starts at about four feet tall and gradually becomes taller as the drive descends -- except -- for this hiccup where the wall might be two inches shorter. At the top of the this wall and beyond, between the building and the I-5 corridor, is a "V" shape of land full of lush Pacific Northwest vegetation. I can also watch the planes descending towards SeaTac, lots of planes, but that's neither here nor there. The I-5 corridor has no part in this story either I'm just trying to orient you to the full picture, but for now disregard I-5 and concentrate on the space. So here is a level retaining wall gradually getting steeper due to the drive way going down, when here comes a silly squirrel scampering down the drive looking lovingly up at the vegetation four feet above him, of course it might be a her, but for now I'm going with him. It seemed as though he couldn't figure out how to get at the plants. I'm thinking poor squirrel, silly dumb animal he can't get to the bushes from here -- except -- he goes to the exact spot where the wall is barely two inches shorter (remember I said there was a hiccup in the drive where the wall was shorter) this squirrel goes to that exact spot and hops up with the ease of a bubble and disappears into the plants.

At first I was amazed at how smart he was, but on reflection I decided if your life depended on leaping from branch to branch you too would be hard-wired in gaging two inch differences.
Life is always educational -- AND -- entertaining.

But, I saw two amazing animals so now I will tell you about the other one:

Early one quiet Sunday morning as I was on my smoke break, since it was Sunday and no pedestrians around at six-ish in the morning I was brazenly smoking in the front of the building, I was looking down the way at nothing in particular when I saw a strange, strange black animal scurry across the street and slither up the block as close to the buildings as it could get. Two restaurants sit on that block and I had a perfect view as this strange animal crawled up the street slowly and methodically. I was stymied as to what kind of animal it was. It was too big to be a rodent, it was too flattened to be a cat or dog. I've never seen a badger except on T.V., but the way it scurried I thought that reminds me of a badger and asked myself have badgers been urbanized like coyotes and such. Fascinated I watched as the animal came up alongside the buildings, hesitate at the corner and then continue to scurry across the street all the time getting closer and closer. It scurried down a driveway of a building across the street then scurried back out, all the time black and flattened, all the time getting closer -- UNTIL -- the wind picked it up and blew my fascinating animal away.

Black plastic bags can be so tricky.

The moral of the animal stories? There isn't one except even the plastic bag kind can fool me. Does that make me dumber than a plastic bag or just blind?

I was reminded of the time I was observing prairie dogs for a biology assignment in college and my prairie dog flew away in the shape of a bird. Tricky prairie dogs.

I'm glad I will soon be at Greenleaf and viewing real animals -- the four and the two legged kind.

It took me seven tries to get my airplane ticket bought. I was sure I was going to screw up somehow and was trying NOT to call Jean to do it for me. I'm a big girl, I'm smart, I can do this. Well, we will see if I make it to Greenleaf and back home again.

Today is one of those special three son's days. Ian and I will drive to Ballard so Christian can tell someone to change his oil. Then today being Thursday playdate with The Connorman I will see Roger. I haven't seen Stephanie for the last two weeks because she has been working late on some big project. New IPhones anyone?

The last two morning have been deliciously foggy, all the way to my back window.

Hey Amber, I have enjoyed your quotes on Facebook. I'm going to bring you some quote books I have retired. And a book for Jean. And a book for you too Jeff.

Make someone happy today, we are all amazing animals.
Well, some more amazing than others.