Sunday, November 13, 2011

Day 698

I spent most of the day at Pet Fair. The volunteers did a fabulous job of organizing the event this year. There was a little bit of everything. There were tons of games for the kids, including a large bounce house, teddy bear surgery, and something that involved throwing water balloons. One of the most popular areas was the reptile exhibit, where kids who dared, got to touch and even hold large pythons and other snakes. I never dreamed that there would be so many kids who wanted to walk around with a large snake around their neck, but there were lines waiting to get near the reptiles. The girls were just as interested in holding a snake as the boys, and one little girl was so fond of her snake that she sat with the snake in her lap for most of the afternoon. The reptile exhibit was well supervised by two herpetologists, and although I wouldn't want a snake as a pet myself, I'll have to admit that they are interesting animals. While I was filming the reptiles, I noticed that parents were much more skittish around snakes than their children. For the most part, the children were fearless. I guess fear of snakes must be learned behavior.

There was a great neighborhood Doo-Wop band, playing hits from the fifties and sixties. Unlike some garage bands, their harmonies were on key and their musicianship was quite good. Sometimes I think that half the men over forty play in one of these garage bands. They're everywhere, and no charity event would be complete without one. As the afternoon was drawing to a close, a young man in his late twenties came to complain about the noise and said he'd call the cops if the band didn't stop playing immediately. Actually, the cops had been at the event all afternoon, and none of them seemed to have any problems with the band. The ironic thing was that the old men in the band were the rockers and the young guy complaining was the old fuddy-duddy. Nobody seems to want to accept their role in life these days. It gets confusing sometimes.

The new Panasonic camera is fabulous. One of the first things I noticed about shooting with a memory chip camera is that you can actually use the on-board mics. Since there are no moving parts in the camera, it operates completely silently. The next thing I noticed was how light the camera was. After years of carrying a Beta-SP camera around on my shoulder, this thing seemed almost weightless. The picture quality was amazing, especially considering that I didn't bring any lights and there were hard shadows everywhere. I think I'm going to like shooting with this camera!

Dot and Dash were a bit miffed that they didn't get their usual trip to the dog park today. Hey, you can't do everything. To make up for this faux-pas, I did take them on a longer than usual evening walk. By the time they finished dinner, I think they'd forgotten all about the dog park. Tomorrow, it's back to our usual schedule.

Puppies are our Dalmatians of the Day

Watch of the Day

4 comments:

  1. As a child ,growing up near the zoo,we were used to seeing snakes creeping into our backyards.We were dead scared and my Dad would shoo them off spraying a little kerosene oil.I believe they detested the smell.

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  2. Hi,

    eeewww, I hate snakes and scared of it as well.


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    thank u

    Lady

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  3. We had a pet light-faced Columbian boa (which I think is what you have pictured) for many many years. He was over 4 feet long when he died. A sad day. Very interesting pet.

    Thanks for my puppy fix for the day!

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  4. I have always liked snakes. I remember when I was little I walked down to the creek by our house with a coffee can on a search for little critters. Not really looking for snakes at that moment but found some baby snakes. I put them in the coffee can and brought them home. That was before I knew of my Mom's fear of snakes, fortunately she was not home! I showed my snakes to my Dad thinking they were garter snakes and my Dad ripped the coffee can from my hands quick. Odd as my Dad wasn't afraid of snakes. He told me they were not garter babies but they were copperhead babies!! Yeah I got lucky I was not bitten. My Mom never found out about this as it was best she didn't know.

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