Talking to Myself Again

I Love Spring

Our redbud tree is in full bloom. One of many reasons why spring is my favorite season.

Hawk! Who goes there?

There was a hawk sitting on the bird feeder in our backyard this morning. What's that about? True, he wasn't eating any birdseed, but it was still a bit odd. Was he waiting for a sparrow to wander by? Or maybe he just felt it was a convenient perch from which to watch for rabbits. In any case, he didn't stay for more than a few seconds before he flew off.

Now, if I see a buzzard back there tomorrow, I'm going to get really worried...

Houses and Trains and Bears! Oh My! (And Tornadoes!)

One of the ironies of having an online journal is that, when my life is busy, I have no time to write about it; and when I have time to write, it's probably because there's not much going on in my life! That's just my way of saying, "Yes, I'm way behind on posting anything here." So let's start getting caught up!

Bears! (and Other Animals)

On Wednesday, March 1, we went to Henson Robinson Zoo. I had taken the afternoon off to babysit Lando while Dawn went to the doctor, and since the weather was nice, we decided to go to the zoo after he woke up from his nap. It was very nice weather, but unfortunately we failed to take into account the fact that, during the winter, the zoo closes at 4:00 on weekdays. It was 3:30 when we got there. Oops! Oh well, we figured Lando probably wouldn't put up with much more than that, so we went in anyway.

Orlando didn't pay too much attention to most of the animals, but he did find the monkeys quite interesting -- and vice versa, as you can see.

There was one unexpected benefit of showing up late -- a backstage pass to see the bears! When we got to the bears' exhibit, they were gone -- one of the zookeepers had just put them inside for the evening. She saw us, called us over, and let us into the building where the bears stay at night (at least during cold weather).

Mandy

She had just fed them, and we were close enough we could have reached out and touched the bears (if we were stupid enough to do so)! I asked whether they had been named and was told that the female is named Mandy, while the male is named Booboo -- at which point I said, "I'm so sorry, Booboo."

Booboo

One advantage of going to the zoo during cool weather is that many of the animals that are normally lethargic during the hot weather are quite active. The wolves, cougars, and even the wolverine were all out and running around. The wolverine in particular was extremely suspicious of me (or of my camera). He would stop and look at me; I would raise my camera; he would run away; I would lower my camera; he would come back; we'd repeat our dance all over again. Here's the best picture I got:

More zoo pictures are available in the photo gallery.

Houses!

On Saturday, March 4, we went to the Greater Springfield Home and Builders Show, held each year at this time in the Prairie Capital Convention Center. This is not to be confused with the Home Expo Building and Remodeling Show, held each year at this time in the Orr Building at the Illinois State Fairgrounds.

The former has apparently been running for 27 years. The latter started up a few years ago, operated by the Springfield Area Home Builders Association. (The SAHBA also does the Showcase of Homes each year in early summer. This year they'll be showing homes in Centennial Park Place June 16-25.) A few years ago they held their shows on the same weekend, in a spirit of cooperation. Nah, they didn't even try to claim that -- each show just ignored the existence of the other one. Luckily, the last couple of years they've run on different weekends. This year the Home Expo was held on February 24-26, while the Home and Builders Show was held on March 3-5. We had too much going on the first weekend, so we skipped that show and made it to the second one instead.

We were hoping that we would buy a house last Spring. Between being tired from having a new baby and Dawn not having a job, that plan got pushed back. We're now hoping that maybe we can buy a house this Fall, but.... Well, we'll see.

Trains!

On Sunday, March 5, we went to the Train Fair in the Illinois Building at the Illinois State Fairgrounds. When we were getting ready to go to this show, I was thinking that it seemed like the wrong time of the year. We went to last year's show, and it didn't seem like it had been a year ago. Plus I was thinking that last year's show had been held in the Orr Building, which is larger.

Sure enough, it turns out that this was a different train show than the one we had attended before. The other, called the Great Western and Atlantic Train Show, is held in early October and is larger. The Train Fair is much smaller and features more swap meet type stuff. In other words, it's a train show for model railroad enthusiasts by model railroad enthusiasts -- specifically, the Springfield Model Railroad Club.

Orlando, as expected, was fascinated by much of what he saw, although I think he found the little train that you could ride on to be the most interesting part, by far.

In addition to buying some train-themed T-shirts (one can never have too many T-shirts, apparently), I did make one purchase at the Train Fair. One of the tables had some old train magazines for sale. On top of the stack was a a manual for an old HO scale car racing set. I did a double-take when I saw it, because I recognized it!

The "Aurora Model Motoring Service Manual for Thunderjet 500 D.C. Motor Sets" was, as best as I can tell, the exact same racing set that I had when I was growing up. It even included the tiny folded insert that explained how to oil your racecar's motor! I quickly paid $3 to own a copy of a manual to a racing set that I know longer own.

Isn't nostalgia wonderful?

More train fair photos are in the photo gallery (and more will be added soon).

That's all for now! (Oh, the tornadoes? I'll talk about those later. The short version is we're fine and the house is undamaged.)