Monthly Archives: June 2012

Under the Sea

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It will be another 105 °F hot summer day here in Saint Louis, but under the sea it is only 68 °F, also here in Saint Louis. Today, the Saint Louis Zoo opened to the public its newest exhibit, “Sea Lion Sound”. Instead of my usual dawn patrol, I slept in a little and Anne got up a little early too. The end result was that we launched together towards Forest Park, before the heat had set in. The timing was right, so halfway through our bicycle ride we stopped off at the zoo and visited the new sea-lion exhibit.

Daughter: I don’t want to go underwater.
Mom: You won’t actually be underwater.

This mom would have been closer to the truth if she had told her daughter that, “You will be underwater, but you won’t get wet. That sounds a lot cooler and it was a lot cooler, both from a temperature and style point of view.

People forget that the animals that they are viewing also have eyes and that they see them too. This is most apparent when a new exhibit is opened to the public. While the public, as expected, went wild over the opening of the new sea-lion exhibit, so did the sea-lions. They were checking us out just as much as we were checking them out.

Modeled after the Northwest’s Pacific coastline, this exhibit features eleven new sea-lions in a marvelous looking new pool that replaces the old sea-lion exhibit area. As pictured above there are multiple windows that allow underwater viewing, culminating in a 35′ underwater plexiglass tunnel, where the sea and the lions surround you. As I mentioned above, the water is ‘climate-controlled”. No more Saint louis summer bath water for these lions of the sea. Having a blanket of chilled sea water all around you keeps the viewing tunnel quite comfortable.

Seeing the sea-lion exhibit is free, as is most of the zoo. The Saint Louis Zoo is arguably, the second best zoo in the country, but we are still trying even harder. Adjoining the new sea-lion exhibit is an also new amphitheater for the zoo’s traditional sea-lion show. This show was once held up the hill, next to ‘Big Cat Country’, but has now moved, co-locating all sea-lion activities. The sea-lion show is ticketed and is $4.

A couple of final asides: I always enjoy seeing pictured a geeky bicyclists, in a non-bicycling venue. Especially, if I am that cyclist. Being the cultural capital of a landlocked state, Saint Louis has scored a win with “Sea-Lion Sound”.

Under the sea
Darling it’s better
Down where it’s wetter
Take it from me
Up on the shore they work all day
Out in the sun they slave away
While we devotin’
Full time to floatin’
Under the sea
– “Under the Sea” from
“The Little Mermaid”

Male Blindness

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Sunrise at Pagoda Circle

I was bicycling in Forest Park this morning and because of a moment of male blindness, I almost became an over-the-bar blood donor and nearly did some spring planting. In cases like this, cases involving an involuntary dismount, how you endo and where you auger can make all the difference between life and death. Fortunately, I am still alive and well, and able to write this post.

Let’s try this again in English. My male blindness occurred in this case, not from staring into the sun, like in the photograph above, but when this male cyclist was distracted by a very ‘fit’ looking female runner. I was going into a curve and when I regained situational awareness, I was steering into the oncoming bicycle lane. A bent (recumbent) driver just so happened to be right there. Mama don’t let your sons grow up to be a bent drivers. Boy did he look surprised. If I had endoed, or flew over my handlebars, it would have been to auger into his lap. My involuntary dismount (crash) would have been bad for me, but much worse for him. I’m not sure which one of us would have been the bigger over-the-bar blood donor, him or me. I felt like such the Fred afterwards. A Fred with too much Lycra and titanium and not enough cycling skills. Beat me Baby, eight-to-the-bar.

It’s a Dry Heat, So My Powder’s Dry

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Sunrise in the Park

I hauled my butt out of bed this morning, and I went bicycling at dawn in Forest Park. Against my will, Papa! Against my will, Papa! Even though it was 81 °F at five this morning, it still felt quite comfortable. The reason for this is that even though the temperature is running higher than normal, the humidity is running way lower than normal. It is a so-called dry heat. Sitting here at the confluence of the Mississippi and Missouri Rivers, we are drying up this summer. We’re looking at a severe drought this summer. Southern Illinois is under a fire alert now. That means that the corn crop that is figuratively burning up this summer is in danger of literally doing so. As I am writing the mercury is at 108 °F, but interestingly the heat index is at 104 °F. I’ve never seen that before. Because it is so dry, I am watering daily, just to keep the plants alive. I’m wondering now, which will be higher, my electric bill or my water bill.

After my pre-work bike ride, I showered, changed and then launched towards work. As is my want, I stopped at Starbucks on the way into work. Immediately before me in line today was a woman who I’ll refer to as sweaty Starbucks woman. She had been running and must have timed her run to peak just before she hit Starbucks. Even though she was just before me in line, I kept my distance from her. Maybe her heat wasn’t as dry as mine, because she wasn’t glowing, she wasn’t perspiring, she wasn’t even just sweating, and she was totally covered in sweat. I know that I’m pearl clutching about this incident, but would a little bit of a cool-down have killed her before she entered the coffee shop? To add insult to injury, by the time that I was back in my car, she had pressed the cross walk button and froze me with a pair of ‘No Right Turn’ lights, as she sauntered back home, just across Hanley. Anne thinks that I’m not pearl clutching on this subject, but being down right hypocritical, because we have cleared out a few restaurant sections in our day too.

The weather might be front page news here in Saint Louis, but nationally the big news was today’s Supreme Court decision on the Affordable Care Act. Obama-care was declared constitutional or at least good enough. The law was upheld. Wailing and gnashing of teeth erupted immediately from the Repugs after this SCOTUS decision. To paraphrase our Dave, the SCOTUS has thrown the conservatives under the WHAM-bulance, but don’t worry, it’s covered. A doff of the hat to those that are not Democrats, I offer up the following quote from Senator [Ayn] Rand Paul, ideological idiot and neo-fascist:

“Just because a couple of people on the Supreme Court declare something to be ‘constitutional’ does not make it so. The whole thing [ACA] remains unconstitutional… While the court may have erroneously come to the conclusion that the law is allowable, it certainly does nothing to make this mandate or government takeover of our health care right.”

I wonder if Senator Paul could ever pass a simple citizenship test. Pardon me, but I have to enjoy a chortle or two now. About the Repug pushback, since the ACA is supposed to cut the Federal deficit how are they going to pay for its repeal? I’ll close with my paraphrasing of a Nancy Pelosi tweet: Ted Kennedy, Rest-in-Peace.