Three Thtories About Thursday

Um... I mean Stories.

At the Gas Pump

This morning, I had to fill out my gas tank. If you've filled up your tank lately, you may have noticed something... it's expensive! I drive a tiny Scion Xa, and it cost about $35 bucks to fill 'er up. There have been many times over the years when I've been happy to have a fuel-efficient vehicle, but this was one of the happiest. I know I won't have to fill up for a couple of weeks at least. I wonder what the guy behind me at the pump, in the extended-cab pickup, was thinking.

Food Web

Today I went on a classroom observation (it's part of my job). It was a seventh grade science classroom and they were studying food chains and webs. If you don't know about food webs (I didn't until recently), they represent the transfer of energy from the sun to plants and through different animal consumers. I asked one of the students why it's important to learn about this (another part of my job; I constantly ask kids this question). He explained that if one of the animals was removed from the web, the others wouldn't survive. He then said that would make him want to take better care of the Earth and conserve. Score one for science class!

(And no, he said that all on his own. I didn't prod him to say that.)

Thoughts at the Arboretum

Today after work I went for a walk at the arboretum. And as it usually does, the walk reminded me of my days working at summer camp, when we used to hike out to overnight spots (and you haven't lived unless you've hiked five miles with an eight-year-old who is lugging a sleeping bag bigger than her). So I went through this thought process as I walked:

Boy, this reminds me of camp and hiking out to where we would sleep under the stars > I can't believe some people have never slept out under the stars without a tent > but it was more fun when I was younger, because the mosquitoes got so bad over time > and it was always hot the last few years > we were never allowed to make fires out in the woods after that because of burn bans > mosquitoes, heat, burn bans ... oh wait. That's all because of global warming.