your feel good news of the day

[intertribal]

Well, if you're like me, that is.

When I got back from Mission, Kansas (a decently picturesque town outside of Kansas City, full of extreme hills and winding paths, that I unfortunately couldn't get any pictures of because I was driving alone), my mom showed me this picture in the paper:

And said, "Where do you think that was taken?"  It turned out it was Holmes Lake - basically the suburban playground lake in the middle of our small suburban city (let's go running/let's go biking/let's go watch the fireworks/let's not look at the pond when we're in the middle of the drought).  I had no idea there was any wildlife of that size at Holmes Lake.  The photographer is Wayne Hathaway - the whole story (w/ more pictures) is here.

Anecdata from my experiences driving on the interstate: many people are assholes afflicted with road rage during in-town driving.  That is true in Lincoln and it's true in Mission and it's true in New York.  But as I see it, anyway, there is a much higher amount of care for others on the interstate.  Some of this is of course because an accident on the interstate is more likely to lead to death, but it's not just that - ex., something blew off the roof of one of the vehicles in front of me (and into the ditch) and the people in the vehicle next to it slowed down and rolled down their window and communicated this to the driver with hand signals.  People let other people in and out of the exit lanes.  There's no honking, and this weekend there wasn't even any crazy driving.  If people aren't paying attention to the road, it doesn't show.  I, at least, constantly think about how all the cars around me are doing, especially when new cars enter from a ramp on the right - are any of them going to need to go into my lane?  It's a nice (mental) change of pace.

Comments

[selfavowedgeek.livejournal.com]

Saw a bald eagle on the way to work. It was most frakkin' awesomely dope. If I had been a pagan suckled in a creed outworn, I might've taken it as an omen.

[intertribal.livejournal.com]

Wow, that is awesome! Damn!

[selfavowedgeek.livejournal.com]

It truly lifted my spirits. Every couple of years, I'll see one in our neck of the woods, which is twenty miles from my school. This particular eagle, though, wasn't too large and was probably only a year or two out of its juvenile stage. That's a great sign for the ecosystems here 'bouts.

[asakiyume.livejournal.com]

If I had been a pagan suckled in a creed outworn, I might've taken it as an omen.

:D

[asakiyume.livejournal.com]

(1) That is a wonderful photo

(2) I had never heard the word anecdata before today.

(3) I at first misread the word and thought it was anedacta (transposed the "c")

(4) Now I wonder if the latter is also a word. Probably not, though, huh.

[intertribal.livejournal.com]

Haha! Maybe at some point you learned anecdata as anedacta (spell check doesn't believe in either word)? Anedacta also reminds me of pterodactyls, which is automatically awesome. I'm not sure anecdata is actually a word either, or just slang I see around online communities.

[royinpink.livejournal.com]

Actually...usually seeing wildlife in the city is a bad sign, meaning they're being forced out of their natural habitat.

[royinpink.livejournal.com]

I didn't read the story, though, so this might not fit the situation, idk.

[intertribal.livejournal.com]

You raise a good point though. The impression I got from the article is that this is their natural habitat, and only cuz this guy hung out at Holmes Lake for a year did he get them on film. But yeah, good point.