Thursday, February 26, 2009

bald eagles





A trip to see mom and dad now includes eagle watching. At least during the winter months the eagles seem to like my mom and dad's little town of Havana, IL. We spotted two eagles. I don't know if you can see the eagle in the pictures, but it's there.

For someone who grew up being reminded that the bald eagle might be extinct someday it is nice to see them thriving.

Wednesday, February 25, 2009

ice







What would it have been like to live in a world your entire life without any knowledge of or access to ice? Jungle living is not for me. I'm glad to live in historic times rather than pre-historic times when ice had not yet been discovered.

I like ice. When I'm on a long road trip the lingering pieces of ice in my Panera cup are often the only things keeping me company, and keeping me awake. Ice is such a wonderful improvement to beverages. Almost anything can be made better by putting it "on the rocks." A notable exception to that rule would be milk. There were many times as a happy child growing up in Nebraska when my mom, in an effort to maintain the coolness of the milk in our cups on a hot summer day would put ice in the cups. That was only slightly better than warm milk but not much.

The British don't care for ice in their Coke. Other than that one small detail, the British seem pretty normal.

Just think of all the fun times we would miss out on if we didn't have ice. Certainly, donning hats, coats, and mittens and plunging out onto a skating rink would be much less romantic without ice.