Touching a Ball Python at the Zoo

I presented a Ball Python today at the Herpaquarium for Visitors to learn about and be able to touch.  People, kids especially, love to be able to actually 'touch' a real, live, snake!  I had a few people I know drop by.

Here, Erin Tabler steps up and touches a snake.

And, Jillian Tabler steps up.

And, we have proof!  Here's Kim Tabler touching the snake.

And the third generation, Nana, Judy Bowman also touches the snake.


It's fun educating people on the Ball Python.  This Ball Python, 'Stevie', is very well behaved yet likes to explore his surroundings, so he moves around a lot.  I think he is more entertaining moving around than if he was still.  I'm constantly having to re-adjust my grip and make sure I keep his head away from the hands that want to touch him.  Not that he would bite anyone, but just like you would be, I'm sure he doesn't like people reaching for his head.

Golf at Shawnee GC on a Tuesday

This is a picture of me on the Front Nine.  Well, it certainly could have been.  I played golf like I'd never been on a golf course before.  There wasn't any part of my game that was good today. 
I shot a 43 - 44 = 87.  I'd really been hitting good drives lately, and I hit some today.  Just not as many as I had been.  I let the ball get away from me several times off the tee and it cost me.  My fairway shots and my putting was terrible today.   I don't know how many short putts I missed.  The only part of today that was good was that I found out my team won last Thursday and I got $5!
I believe my 87 today will be so bad that they may throw it out and not count it towards my handicap.  I'd really been feeling that I was just a few shots away from having a really good round.  Now, I think I've taken a big step backward.  My only hope is that the cooler than it has been temperature today, and the wind, may have bothered me more than I thought it did. 

Big Crowd at the Zoo today

With tomorrow being Easter and the family coming over here for Dinner, I thought I'd spend a little time at the Zoo today.  Judging from the cars in the lot I believe this was the largest crowd they've had this year.

I took our Rhino horn up to the Rhino Exhibit and talked to people as they came by and let them touch a 'real' Rhino horn while I told them a little about our Rhino's.  The horn we have the the smaller of the two horns, it came off one of our Rhino's when she damaged her horn.  I believe the people enjoyed it, and I know I did.  I find that to be a lot of fun.  I was at the Rhino exhibit for about an hour and a half.



When I took the Rhino horn back to the MetaZoo, I talked to two other Docents who had manned a table with a Tegu for about an hour and were getting ready to go up to the Glacier Run Exhibit.  They mentioned the Penguin exhibit, which has been closed for cleaning for about 2 weeks, and how nice it looks now.  So, I decided to swing by and see it on my way out of the Zoo.

They were right.  It does look nice, and I'm sure it's close to being open again.  But, I found it interesting walking through the Islands Exhibit, with my Docent shirt and ID tags.  Most people believe you are an 'Employee' of the Zoo, and ask "Do you work here?"  I tell them, "Well, I'm a Volunteer, not an Employee."  But people, seeing the shirt and tag, will ask you all kinds of questions.  "What kind of bush is that?"  "Is this statue Life Size?"  "Where are the baby animals?"  Plus, I think one of the most asked questions when you're doing an interpretation at an exhibit is "How old is she?", or whatever kind of animal it is.  But they always seem to be interested in the age.  So, I'll have to make sure I know the 'age' of the animal I'm going to be near.  They won't let me spin any yarns.  But, I don't care how much you study and know about the area you're going to be around, somebody will stump you with a question.

The Red Azalea Bushes are Blooming

Around my back walk I have Azalea bushes.  I alternated  red and white blooming Azaleas.  But they just won't bloom at the same time!  When my red ones are in full bloom, the white ones are full of buds, and will open up about the time all the red flowers fall off the Red Azaleas.  Go figure!

Wet Golf at Iroquois on a Thursday

While this picture is not Iroquois GC, a lot of the holes we played the fairways looked like this.  We had a downpour about a half hour before we teed off at 10:30.  It only lasted about 15 minutes, but the course was already wet, so this rain just helped to fill up the puddles.
I promised myself I'd be more aggressive today on my chips and putts.  But, that didn't happen.  Only a couple of times I ran the ball by the hole, but most of the time I was short.  The greens were wet and hadn't been mowed today, so they were always just a little slower than I was giving them credit for.  I would think I was being bold with my shots, but they just kept coming up short.  Also, I seem to never play very well on a really wet courses.  I find it tough to hit shots out of casual water.  I know, I'm allowed relief from casual water.  But, in most cases, there was no place to get relief.  Usually we just moved to 'shallower' casual water.
I didn't play  bad today.  Like normal, a couple of bad holes, or bad shots here and there.  I shot a 41 - 40 = 81.  I didn't stay around today to see who won.  I know I wasn't low man because I wasn't even low man in our group.  But, our foursome did pretty good so we may have won low team.  I'll find that out, probably next Tuesday.
I birdied #18 with a nice tee shot.  But that followed a triple bogey on #17 after '4' putting!  That was one of those holes that I had a long putt and left it about 6 feet short.  Then, got bold and ran it 3 feet past the hole and missed my putt coming back downhill.  So, the birdie on #18 helped ease the pain at the end of the round.

Picking up the Girls from School and going to the Park

Mary Lynn and I picked Erin and Jill up from school yesterday.  We had no plans other than doing what the girls wanted to do.  They decided they wanted to go to the Park.  So, we went to the Park down on River Road across from Cox's Park.  I don't know the name of it,  but it has a really nice playground.

Here the girls were playing 'Meerkat'.  Erin was the lookout while Jillian was snug in her burrow.

While I'm on the Meerkat subject, at the Zoo they follow a theme when naming groups of animals.  The Meerkats are named after commedians, mostly old time commedians.  Some of the names are:  Groucho, Harpo, Larry, Moe, Buster K., Chico, The Man, Chaplin, Stan, Ollie, etc.

I thought this was a nice picture of the girls sitting on the rock.  I can't get Jillian to pose for me very often, so this was a rare treat.  Usually, when the camera comes out, Jillian is out-ta here.

Working at the Zoo on Sunday

I went to the Zoo today.  I had signed up to work at the Lorikeet Pavilion from Noon til 2:00 today.  But, getting dressed in my Docent yellow shirt and sitting around waiting or the rain to stop, when 11:45 came I decided that there wouldn't be anyone at the Zoo today.  So, I decided not to go and went downstairs and changed shirts.
About 15-20 minutes later, it was clear and it looked like the sun was going to come out.  So, I figured I'd better get to the Zoo and see if anybody was showing up.
They had a pretty good crowd for such a poor start to the day.  Seeing quite a few cars in the lot I thought I'd better go inside, sign in, and get to the Lorikeets.  Well, the Lorikeets were closed!  So, because I was already there I thought I might as well make myself useful.
I decided to take our Rhino horn up to the Rhino Exhibit and talk to people about the Rhino's and let them touch a real Rhino horn.  It was fun, and I guess I talked to about 100 people.  They all seemed to enjoy it.  One of our Rhino's lost a horn a little over a year ago, so we have it to use at the Zoo.  Rhino horns are made of the same thing our hair and fingernails are made of, Keratin.  Rhino's don't normally loose there horns, but it will fall off if it is damaged much like our fingernails.  When we mash a finger, the nail blackens, and the nail will eventually fall off and another will grow.  Same with a Rhino horn.  The Rhino, Lulu, is growing a new horn.  This isn't a picture of her, just one I got on-line, but this is a White Rhino like the 2 at the Zoo.
It's fun to talk to the people, and I think it enhances their trip to the Zoo.  I always learn a few things myself that helps me the next time I do this.  There are always questions asked that I don't know the answer, so it makes me look them up when I get home so I'll have an answer next time.  One of the first things they told us in training was "If you don't know, don't make anything up!".  Mary Lynn says that it's taking away one of my best talents.