Chicago Weblog

I volunteered for an Humane Society fundraising event today.  Although I often volunteer with the local Humane Society, I make it a point to avoid events and tasks that would put me around the homeless animals.  I find it too heartbreaking.

But this event was safe; it was a motorcycle rally, and I would be working at the local Harley-Davidson dealer.  Then a couple of days ago, the coordinator let me know that they really, really needed someone to help out at one of the stations along the route.  I knew that there would be animals there for adoption, but was told that I would be helping with parking and directions, not back with the animals.  Well, OK, I said.

This morning it stormed.  The coordinator called us all and told us that the rally was still on, but would be starting late.  As it turned out, it started very late, and I ended up spending quite a bit of time with the other volunteers.  Back with the animals.  In particular, a scrawny calico.  I looked at her.  She looked at me.  I looked at her.  She looked at me.  This continued for two hours, and she wore down what little defense I had to begin with.

So now we have a new cat in the house, “Lily”.  Since this acquistion was unplanned, the wife and I refer to her as “love child”.

The GC is spending the week at the YMCA day camp.  They took a field trip today and went to where I work (we had not previously discussed this).  I was going to a meeting this morning when I came up behind a tour group of small children.  They were all well-behaved and paying attention to the tour guide.  All, that is, except for one who was swinging her visitor’s badge and hitting the child next to her.  Yes, our GC.  So I came up behind her, turned her around, and with a stern expression told her to pay attention.

I didn’t realize that her eyes could get that big.  But I’m not telling Santa Claus – this time!

Denver on DVD

Last night we watched the story of Denver, Guide Dog (DVD available at shop.aph.org).

“Is he a Hero Dog?” the gc asked.
“Yes,” I replied.
“A Superhero Dog?”
“No, just a Hero Dog.”
“Can he fly?”

Then this morning, we visited APH and met Denver and his owner in person.  How often do you get to meet a real live Animal Planet star in person?  Or in canine, as the case may be?

We also toured the grounds of Whitehall, an antebellum mansion not far from our house.  The Jefferson County Master Gardeners Association has been working on the gardens for years now, and the results have truly paid off.  One section that the gc and I both had a fondness for was what we called “the bee garden” – a planting of flowers that were obviously appealing to bees.

After those diversions, we went over to the Speed Art Museum.  Thanks to a reading challenge at the Louisville Free Public Library that the GC had successfully completed, we got into the children’s art area for free (a $15 value!).  There is a wide variety of activities to stimulate the young imagination there, from making rubbings of African totems to dressing up as a seventeenth-century Dutch merchant and provisioning a sailing ship.

Kids can paint, draw, play with a variety of architectural building blocks, and since one of the current museum exhibits was a set of Andy Warhol prints, make your own print of a mythical creature.  The GC chose this unicorn. (The mirror-writing is original.)

She also posed in front of this icon.

But what was probably the biggest hit was a room which made strobe-light silhouettes of your body as you moved around.  Here are grandma and GC enjoying themselves.