World of Reptiles
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Atlanta Zoo, Tiger Exhibit, April 2007
I don’t know who these people were in front of me but I love the expression on the woman to the far right. I wasn’t aware of her but she was aware of me and the camera and granted a bemused grin. Glad I caught it. Most people try to avoid the camera out of politeness. “Oh, I’m sorry!” they say, attempting to duck by.
A weekday is usually a great day to go to the zoo during the spring and autumn as you’re fairly assured a low crowd factor and a lazy, easy day of animal watching. But we realized, on the approach, this wasn’t going to be one of those days. Three counties must have decided this was the day to take their school kids on a field trip. There was school bus after school bus after school bus after school bus. Seemed like dozens of them. We arrived at noon and my sister was told that a good many of the school groups were leaving–and in fact I stood to the side at the gates, unable to cross to where H.o.p. and Marty were standing, as kids flooded out. But the zoo was still packed. And all the school kids had on matching red or blue t-shirts proclaiming what great readers they were. I’m hoping the field trip didn’t leave out the poor readers…
Encounter with a Tiger at the Atlanta Zoo, April 2007
The above niece’s encounter with the cartoon foot massager cat was more fulfilling for her than the outing in the tiger house.
Anyway, it was a gorgeous day and we all had fun. I wrestle for good shots of the kids but it’s difficult for me. I have a few more up at Flickr. There was H.o.p. and 6 of his cousins all of whom are continually in motion and I just take shot after shot hoping to get at least one decent one but the majority of time I have missed the “cute” shot by a split second and faces are already hidden behind surrounding arms and legs and trees and playground equipment.
When we got home the landlord showed up and looked at the kitchen and promised to fix and paint it in the next couple of weeks. He had a box full of books for the library book sale and he had me come out and dig through to see if I could find anything for H.o.p.
Something bit the c#@*! out of my back while I was sleeping the other night. A nice row of bites. An application of Benadryl helped a lot and it looked a lot better yesterday but it still hurts like crazy.
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