I just poured myself a little vodka drink (a substance I haven’t personally had in this house in ages). It’s amazing the memories that came rushing into my head just from one little whiff of vodka. I guess that will always be his cologne to me.
While cleaning and rearranging the office today I came across my box of Jared memories; notes and letters and pictures and silly things. I couldn’t resist sitting down and going through it all, and now I feel sad and a little weird and uncomfortable.
Besides the fact that Saturday night at Daniel’s Rocky performance, I got to see Charlotte (!!!), Nicole (!!!), and Kiersten (!!!), I also was presented with the most amazing gift from Whitney and Todd. It’s really a gift for Jared and I, but I was the lucky one to receive it that night. I do wish he had been there with me though, his tears would have been the best.
Not only did Whitney eye this guy for months, but she also decorated him, removed and presented key bones, and Todd made for him an awesome little coffin, complete with a cremation kit.
I was completely blown away. It’s one of the most incredible and thoughtful gifts I have ever received. I treasure it so.
(I just laughed at myself for the fact that someone gave us a dead turtle and I called it a thoughtful gift - but you know I’m totally being sincere. I’m crazy for dead art.)
Yesterday I had to venture outside to do some sawing and painting. I was out there for maybe 5 minutes. Upon returning to my safe haven, I discovered that I had at least 9 new bug bites. 9! That I could visibly see. That’s like a bite every 30 seconds.
I hate summer. I hate summer. I hate summer.
Jared has bought me so many different types of bug spray/lotion, and we have all kinds of repellent things around the yard, but nothing works. I get eaten alive no matter what.
I’m gonna try taking garlic pills and see if that helps any. I wonder if Keirsten gets bug bites.
I know, I can be quite a bitch sometimes, and my sense of humor maybe isn’t for everyone, but you must agree with me on this:
A past patron of the Naro recently committed suicide. None of us really cared for her. She was obnoxious and was too big of a fan of What The Bleep* (claiming it cured her diabetes even), but she was friendly with Tenchie, natch.
He came into today all dressed up and had just been at her wake. He had the little funeral flyer thingie with him and set it down in front of me while I was making popcorn. I noticed her name at the top and that it said “A Celebration of Life.”
A celebration of life.
For someone who killed herself. Someone who hated her life so much, she killed herself.
Now that’s funny.
* If you are fortunate enough to not know about that movie/pile of crap, please do yourself a favor and do not click on that link. Revel in the bliss of ignorance on this one. You’ll thank me, I’m sure.
Jared was very anxious for me to get home from work last night. He had found a dead opossum on the road on the way home from work and needed/wanted some photos. I wasn’t ready to jump right into the project when I got home, I needed to settle in a bit. Had some after-painting tidying to do. Some emailing. The usual.
I guess he got bored waiting for me, because when I finally collected my camera and went out back, I found opossum parts on the deck and Jared, axe in hand, about to chop off the opossum’s head.
Don’t ask me.
I’m trying to get the house clean and in order for a surprise party Monday, and he’s out back chopping up roadkill.
Dr. Jerry Payne’s time lapse movie of the decomposition of a baby pig. The technique of time-lapse photography is employed to illustrate the rapid removal of carrion (4 days reduced to approximately 6 minutes). The film demonstrates the sequence of tissue destruction and the role of insects in the ultimate dismemberment of the pig carcass and soil movement. The pink and purple beads were added to show the intense activities of the insects in moving the carcass and soil. Succession is the idea that as each organism or group of organisms feeds on a body, it changes the body. This change in turn makes the body attractive to another group of organisms, which changes the body for the next group, and so on until the body has been reduced to a skeleton. This is a predictable process, with different groups of organisms occupying the decomposing body at different times. In his landmark paper, published in the journal Ecology in 1965, Jerry Payne detailed the changes that occurred during the decomposition of pig carcasses that were exposed to insects, compared to the changes in pig carcasses that were protected from insect activity. This work built on and refined studies conducted almost 70 years earlier in France by Megnin. Megnin recognized nine stages of decomposition, but Payne recognized only six, introducing the system currently used by most forensic entomologists. Payne further emphasized the great variety of organisms involved in the process, recording over 500 species. Payne also conducted other experiments, including studies of submerged carrion.
Remember the dead raccoon we found in April? Well Julio dug him up the other day to see how he was doing. He was very soft and mushy. Note - If you would like to get the bones from a dead creature, do not bury the animal. The bones will decay away.
Science is fun.
