Thursday, August 24, 2023

Poem for Wednesday and Seattle Aquarium Mammals


Sonnet: To the River Otter
By Samuel Taylor Coleridge

Dear native brook! wild streamlet of the West!
How many various-fated years have passed,
What happy and what mournful hours, since last
I skimmed the smooth thin stone along thy breast,
Numbering its light leaps! Yet so deep impressed
Sink the sweet scenes of childhood, that mine eyes
I never shut amid the sunny ray,
But straight with all their tints thy waters rise,
Thy crossing plank, thy marge with willows grey,
And bedded sand that, veined with various dyes,
Gleamed through thy bright transparence! On my way,
Visions of childhood! oft have ye beguiled
Lone manhood’s cares, yet waking fondest sighs:
Ah! that once more I were a careless child!

-------- 

I got to talk to all three of my good high school friends on Wednesday morning and watch part of Infinity War with Kristen in the afternoon, which is good because a lot of the rest of my day was very frustrating. I had a package that was supposed to be delivered by FedEx, got a message it was here with a photo of an apartment with no number visible but certainly not mine, was put in voicemail hell, was eventually spoken to rudely by a FedEx operator, and was ultimately told that only the shipper could investigate a lost package (and when I tried to email the shipper, their mailbox was full). I know we're supposed to try to order less from Amazon, but on the very rare occasion I've had a problem with Amazon, they've either refunded my money or reshipped my item immediately -- none of this nonsense where no one will take responsibility for a screw-up. 

And when we finally went out for a walk (belatedly, because I also had to scream into the voicemail void with my insurance and pharmacist about a prescription), we inadvertently shut Effie inside the closet in which we hadn't noticed she was hiding, so although it was a lovely day for a beach walk, I came home to find that most of my socks, half of my t-shirts, and all my hanging robes had been scattered all over the closet floor whole she tried to dig her way out. So I had to clean that up, missing a bunch of the Orioles game which at least they won by a lot (the Mariners blew their game in the 10th). At least Ant-Man: Quantumania is on Disney+ now, although that's my least favorite of the series, and we just watched that because we were sure we missed a bunch of things the first time. And in a minute I get to see a few seconds of Loki. Marine mammals we met at the Seattle Aquarium: 

2023-08-20 13.45.38

2023-08-20 13.56.28

2023-08-20 13.54.10

2023-08-20 13.59.24

2023-08-20 13.45.55

2023-08-20 13.39.06

2023-08-20 13.53.14

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