while waiting for the bus this morning, another guy showed up. he made the commuting mistake of waiting for the bus standing behind me. call me suspicious, but i don't like it when strangers do that, makes me feel sort of vuilnerable, so i quickly repositioned so i would be facing him indirectly. this fellow obviously doesn't understand the subtle rules of proper bus waiting etiquette. then something happened. a honking car pulled up to us, apparently friends of his, offering him a ride to harvard square. i watched as they drove away, leaving me to wait for the bus. sure, they don't know me, but would it be so hard for them to extend the hand of generosity out a little bit more? i mean, they're obviously in the ride giving mood, can't they make room in the car for one more person? i'm not a psycho. it's daylight out. i showered. i shaved. i'm clean. i'm not contagious. i won't even talk, but i will converse if you want me too. all i want is a ride damn it! this is something i would never do to somebody else, offer a ride to a friend waiting for a bus and not offer rides to the other people, if there are enough room in the car, if they are all going to the same destination. when he left, this old lady showed up and took his place. i've seen her many times before, in my mind she is known as the mean old crone. in the 6 years i've been commuting she had never smiled at me or said hi to me or even looked at me, even though i am totally friendly to her. she says hi to everyone else but me. it's obvious that she hates me. well you know what? i really don't care about her all that much either! and ah, nice costume, ma'am!

i got to harvard square and then took the subway to central square, where i waited for laurie (we were going to public transportation our way into chinatown today, saving $9 that would otherwise be used for parking). it started to drizzle slightly and i sat and waited in the rain with my collapsible umbrella drawn. a few minutes later the rain stopped and i put my umbrella away. that was the last time it'd rain today, even though for the rest of the day it was overcasted. when laurie arrived, we took the t into chinatown.

dim sum was a lowkey affair, we spent no more than $17 on our dishes, and i didn't even get tripe, which is usually what i get when i come to dim sum, china pearl and elsewhere. afterwards laurie went back to cambridge while i headed out to the franklin park zoo, taking advantage of the free admission this month through my fleet bank card. i took the orange line to forest hill and from forest hill i took the 16 bus to the zoo.

this was my first time at the franklin park zoo. the last boston zoo i went to was the stone zoo, and that was probably back in elementary school in the early 80's. since then, i have never been back. invited laurie to come along but she hates zoos. i have mixed feelings about zoos. i love seeing exotic animals live and upclose, but at the same time i feel bad about their captivity.

stilted horn beast

capybara

warthog

eider

i just want to say that capybaras are huge! they can weigh as much as 150 lbs, and they're about the size of a sheep! thems good eating i bet! there were a few in a closed enclosure, but i also saw one out in an opened enclosure, running across the grass, hauling ass. capybaras are just funny because they have very smug look about them. and that warthog, those stripes? those aren't stripes baby, they're out of control back hairs! yeeewww!

kookaburra

striped wild mules

spotted blue hen

kookaburras are kind of big birds, about the size of an owl. they seem too heavy to fly but they do it anyway. i caught one eating a mouse, clutching it in its mouth and then just swallowing the whole thing. i don't remember hearing the distinctive kookaburra laughing call.

there are peacocks everywhere in the zoo, they seem to be a big attraction because a lot of people want to get their photos taken with the peacocks. i only saw the more ostentatious male peacocks though, i didn't see any female ones. maybe they hide them somewhere because they're not as pretty.

unknown pretty duck

wood duck

golden breasted starling

i don't think apes and quite possibly monkeys should be kept in captivity. they're too much like humans, and it's painful to watch them caged. sure, zoos today try to recreate their natural habitat, but these animals are still confined to whatever space they have. the gorillas at the zoo broke my heart. their expressions, they all look either depressed or insane, like seeing people in a mental hospital. i took a few photos and then didn't have the stomach for it anymore. children screaming, parents taking flash photos, people knocking on the window to get the gorillas attention, it's just wrong. a little boy with his father was distressed, i overheard him saying, "the gorilla is sad." even little kids can see that this practice of caging our closest animal relatives is not right. spend that ape money and get some other animals, like lions and tigers. elsewhere at the zoo, i saw signs of ape defiance. in the cage of a sleeping mandrill, i noticed that it had thrown its own shit at the display window. a mother grimaced to her young daughter and said, "yeah, kind of dirty." mandrills are cool!

the franklin park zoo has a butterfly chamber. because it's still not warm enough in the season, not too many butterflies have hatched so the $1 admission into the butterfly landing would be waived. there were a bunch of newly hatched buckeyes clinging to the mesh walls of the butterfly chamber. a group of queens (Danaus gilippus) had also hatched, but they weren't doing too well, unable to cope with the temperature. i talked with a young lady who was in charge of rearing the butterflies and she opened up one of the chrysalis cages so i could get a closer look.

when i had enough of the franklin park zoo, i left. the only problem was i didn't know where to catch the 16 bus to take me back to forest hill. so i walked half a mile without seeing a single bus stop sign, then walked half a mile back. i decided to catch the bus where i was dropped off originally, letting fate decide where i should be transported to. after some waiting and no bus, i saw some people waiting at another bus stop and and went where the crowd was. i hopped on the first bus that arrived, 22, destination ashmont station. it's fun traveling around a place you've never been before! of course it helps to have nothing else planned for the day, to be able to go where the day takes you. this day took me to ashmont station, my first time, i hopped on the subway and waited for the train to start moving. maybe it was the three hours wandering around the zoo and neighboring vicinity, but i got real tired on the train and fell asleep intermittently all the way to harvard square.

from harvard square i took the 73 back home and from home i rode the motorcycle to klea's house in somerville, where she was having a barbecue party and where i was late for a change instead of coming early like i usually do. other than klea, the only other member of the illustrious screen house gang was julie, who left shortly after i arrived but then came back minutes later. rebecca and her alex showed up, followed by amanda and her missouri entourage. i left soon afterwards, for another barbecue party my parents were having for some family friends.

and finally, a calming image to end this entry...