Bipolar II - 2/18/2002

Don't cheat, start at the beginning.

02.16.02 - Saturday - worked the half day. Got home to find out the ignition switch on the Ford had busted, overnight it seemed. As it worked last night when C and I used the car. Now, this being a Ford, it did not surprise us. We do not have luck with Fords. We do not like Fords. But C's Conquest is non-op right now so we're borrowing it from her parents until we can afford to fix the computer in it (not cheap). Anyway, now this leaves us with one car, and I would need mine for work on Sunday, and C would need transport to her work and then home again Sat night/Sun morning, in a city 100 miles away from me..... at times that needed us that 100 miles apart at the very same time. So we spend three hours trying to figure out a gameplan for the Ford, meaning getting a hold of her parents, because they own the car and would sort've have to okay what we did with it, especially because neither of us could afford to fix it by ourselves..... and by the time we find out what we can do, it's too fucking late to head to LA because by the time we got there, we could spend an hour, then have to head home so C could get to work that night and I could get enough sleep for work on Sunday. I was not pleased. I plummeted. After two hours of sleep, working my ASS off to get everything finished on time to leave at noon, and coming home to the Ford Fuckup...... by 3 I just said fuckit, going to lay down, come get me when something's been figured out. At 5 something things finally got into plans..... and by then it was just too late ot leave and actually enjoy the party. So I stayed in bed, napping on and off, from 3 until around 1015-30 or so, when I was too hungry to lay still anymore. I couldn't fathom why I was so fucking..... depressed.... over it. So C came and just cuddled with me and watched TV all afternoon/evening. It was really really nice..... I really needed it. I haven't been able to spend time like that with C for a very long time. Everybody took a little time to just cuddle and hang out. Watched movies, Cartoon Network, TLC, The History Channel, Animal Planet.....

I know a part of why I was so down, now. Saturday, DS lost someone very close. So I'm sure I picked up on her greif. Probably where some of the depression came from. It's a little better as I type this.... but I'm still feeling very quiet.....

By 1130ish, maybe earlier, I was back in bed. Watched a few minutes of random shows flipping channels for a bit, then put Wicked City in the DVD player...... let Spazzboy watch that then finally got back to sleep until time for work Sunday morning.

02.17.02 - Sunday - today. DS's birthday. Had D put a surprise .jpg I made for her up on the website DS and I own as a surprise "card" for her. I had also posted something on the school discussion board in a class we share, as well, so sorta got the double surprise thing going. Was cool.... she seemed happy. Work was..... work. Long, off and on rainy day spent doing everything from bleaching raptor ponds to catching and giving goats belly rubs to watching vulture windsurf to nearly beheading B.

We lost one of our pygmy goats (Momma) last spring to a cause we're still unsure of. She seemed bloated one day (often, ruminants have gas and problems dispelling it, therefore bloat, you can see this in them because they look lopsided, one side of their stomach will be bigger)..... then it just got progressively worse as she kept widening, stopped eating.... and just to end her suffering we put her down within a week of first symptom. Baby is somehow related to her (either her daughter or sister, I'm not sure, and the way the zoo animals are named, I wouldn't be surprised at either relation, only both), and seemed uncomfortable today, walking funny, her bleat had some distress to it..... so, I had T and JO help me catch her (and, strangely, Children's park was EMPTY when we began this, within two minutes we had an audience of over 30 people..... luckily, no video cameras this time as there was last time I was catching sheep)..... so we caught her and I got the pleasure of feeling up the goat. She felt fairly.... distended I guess is a good word. So, being the Super Keeper that I am, rubbed her belly for about 20 minutes to get 6 or 7 BIG belches out of her (right into JO's face, as she made the mistake of opting for the front end hoping it all would go out the back way, heh). Hopefully this will start the process to dispell the gas throuhgout the rest of the night. Since I work tomorrow (holiday) I'll be able to check on her, and if it didn't work, get in touch with our vet tech and figure out if it's just treating it with some mineral oil, kaopectate, panalog, or if we're going to take faster action because of what happened to Momma. It was actually pretty funny as the other goats and sheep would stand at a distance with this strange "What the HELL are you doing?!" expression.... Bart, another pygmy, seemed to understand this was a good thing, and stood in line to get his belly rubbed next.... wouldn't let me leave the yard until I did it *chuckles*

A little known fact about turkey vultures is that they are one of the few bird species that socially play. Y'know those big tornado looking things of vultures slowly circling? That's not just them catching a thermal, and it's not them hunting because you can't really smell in a thermal, you do that in straight line glides, but....... they're actually socializing and playing. Today, the winds were coming up the valley in such a way, and in just the right spot, that when we were cleaning the bear enclosure at closing the entire flock of about, oh, 20 or so, was right above us and the mammal round...... they were literally surfing the winds coming up the valley. They'd hover, wings locked outstretched, and just seem to be floating, making tiny little adjustments to stay where they were, practically in formation...... until twitching just a little into a barrel roll or dive that sent them soaring out over the lower vally and river only to circle around and do it again. Some were so low we could make out their facial features, they were within 10 or 15 feet of us. Dark black dorsal feathers, yet beneath their wings is a stark white/gray, blood red head....... It was fucking beautiful to watch, especially with the dark stormclouds overhead, it had just stopped raining a few minutes prior, the sun setting through the clouds....... I wish I had my camera...... just to watch an animal so free, so agile, so skilled, so unconcerned about anything other than that very moment..........

Of course, we were all standing there, staring UP at a flock of vultures.... with stormclouds behind...... and not at all unnerved by this.

"You might be a zookeeper if...." eh?

Then it was nearly decapitating B..... all four of us piled onto the golfcart because of the rainy weather, but B opted to stand in back because that's pretty damned fun, and not raining at the particular time. Unfortunately, I assumed she would duck when we were passing beneath a rain shelter because she was looking ahead...... not actually look into the enclosure we were passing on closing rounds to visually check on the animal that was in there..... so I didn't slow down, only winced hearing this solid THUNK..... then slooooowly looked back to see B nearly taken off the golfcart