There’s something very strange about getting up in the morning and having the house be 70 degrees. In fact, at 4AM, it was still 63 degrees outside, which means it was about as warm as I was used to it being inside all winter. It has been a truly glorious week here, weather-wise. Of course, what with it being Friday and all, it’s time for that to end, and it looks like a wet (and cooler) trend is on the way. Oh well, that will give us time to see if the big vat of pea soup in the back yard can be turned into something to not be terrified of falling into. Thanks to Granny making a trip to the pool store yesterday, I was able to dump some chemicals in there in the evening, and I ran the pump all night (filter was pretty plugged when I got up). I have my doubts that it will ever get clean, but we shall see. I’d hate to have to dump the water out and fill it back up again. Oh, it’s a hard, hard life when you can’t afford a pool girl.
Meanwhile, in Georgia….
Authorities at Bangkok’s international airport arrested a first-class passenger Friday whose suitcases were filled with baby leopards, panthers, a bear and monkeys. The animals had been drugged and were headed for Dubai.
The man, a 36-year-old United Arab Emirates citizen, was waiting to check in for his flight at Suvarnabhumi International Airport when he was apprehended by undercover anti-trafficking officers, who had been monitoring him since his black market purchase of the rare and endangered animals, according to the FREELAND Foundation, an anti-trafficking group based in Thailand.
When authorities opened the suitcases, the animals yawned, said Steven Galster, director of FREELAND, who was present during the bust. There were two leopards, two panthers, an Asiatic black bear and two macaque monkeys – all about the size of puppies.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/05/13/baby-animals-thai-airport-suitcases_n_861495.html
According to WNYC (NY public radio) the redtail hawk, whose wildlife leg band has caused her leg to swell, will not be captured but will be closely monitored. The hawk, Violet, has a nest at NYU and the NY Times has set up a webcam for all of us bird nuts to watch. Violet and mate Bobby, produced 3 eggs only one of which hatched. The hatchling is a week old. The vet said there was evidence that the swelling may go back more than a year and that Violet is managing with it and appears otherwise healthy. They fear that capture might injure her, dislodge the nest and/or hurt the baby, so they are not going to do anything before the baby fledges.
Robert Fitzpatrick does not lack conviction.
The 60-year-old ex-MTA employee has plunked down $140,000, his life savings, to help spread the word that the world will end on May 21, 2011.
“I’m trying to warn people about what’s coming,” Fitzpatrick told the Daily News. “People who have an understanding [of end times] have an obligation to warn everyone.”
Fitzpatrick spent his money on 1,000 placards on subway cars and several more on bus shelters around the city. They read: “Global Earthquake! The Greatest Ever – Judgment Day: May 21.”
The retiree’s beliefs are based on the predictions made by Harold Camping, who claims the rapture will take place on May 21. Fitzpatrick said the cataclysmic event will happen just before 6 p.m. Eastern.
Camping made a similar world-ending prediction in 1994, but he admitted he got his calculations wrong that time.
Fitzpatrick said he has no doubt that Camping’s latest proclamation is correct.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/05/13/robert-fitzpatrick_n_861529.html
What to do? I thought we had another 586 days.
If the world is going to end, what’s the point of telling people?
On the plane, sat next to a birther/one world order/Osama was killed years ago/the end times are near/marshal law is soon upon us/go stockpile food/ but who otherwise appeared to be a regular type gentleman who said he was a venture capitalist. :billcat: When I asked him what proof he had Obama was born in Kenya, he kept telling me that the Grandmother registered him in the US, but he had no proof except some YouTube clip of Obama & Alan Keys debating years ago.
Christopher Columbus! What is happening here??
Guess I’d better go buy my case of garbanzo beans.
Because it’s never to late to accept Jesus Christ as your savior (although, were I the Almighty, I might be a wee bit suspicious of those last-minute Jesus Bandwagon jumpers; I think a millennium or two in Purgatory might be in order).
My only regret before the end cometh it that the pool will probably not be swimmable by next Saturday. Although the very large toad that was hanging out in it this morning seemed quite content.
Yes, a plague of toads. Well, a plague of toad anyway. Sure sign that the end times are nigh, heathens (and heathnesses)!
toad end times!
but only one toads worth?
i am confusederer…
Maron’s iPhone app is a little buggy.
Seems appropriate.
whatever
One toad over the line, Sweet Jesus. :jesus:
Mama toad me not to come