#32 Boston - A Rat A Day - January 12, 2006

A Rat A Day - that would be the diet for the Great Horned Owl, at least the specimen that lives in the Blue Hills Trailside Museum not far outside of Boston. In nature they are know to eat animals the size of raccoons, but this one here has switched to smaller portions on account of his cushy lifestyle. The owl was presented to us this past Sunday by rangers from the Department of Conservation and Recreation (DCR) during a hike where we were supposed to learn about animals and how they survive in winter. The walk itself was a bit of a wash, since the group consisted of approximately 60 people (a majority of them bratty kids) and so any animal that we might have spotted had probably hightailed it all the way to the Cape by the time we barged into their habitat. At the end of the "hike" though we did get to see the owl and a possum, which made up for the disappointing start.

Here are some fun facts about the Great Horned Owl and the possum and some other tidbits that I know you will appreciate (thanks to Rick for taking notes):
* If humans had eyes in the same proportion to the head as the GHO they would be the size of grapefruits. Its eyesight is so good, it could read every word of a newspaper across a football field in the dark.
* Each of its claws can exert 200 pounds of pressure and could easily break every bone in your arm (or elsewhere)
* The horns up top are not the ears (see picture).
* It has two rear-facing hooks on its tongue to help them move food to the back of its throats - that way it can swallow whole mice (or rats that is)
*The possum is a marsupial, not a mammal - http://www.kiva.net/~kiwi/opossum/opossum.htm) and has opposable thumbs. It was rather cute, I have to admit).
*Bears do not hibernate (Ha!) - if the weather is decent, they might get up and roam around. The only three species here in New England that hibernate are the woodchuck, the little brown bat and the jumping mouse.
*We visited a deer yard (that's where they hang out when it's cold), learned that snakes curl up in a ball for warmth in winter (don't want to stumble upon one of those) and that the gray fox can climb trees (the red fox can't).

There you have it! Exhausted from paying attention to the rangers (yesss sir!), we decided it was time to get going, and so we headed toward Ponkapoag Pond (http://www.kellscraft.com/photos/2005photos/20050321_12.JPG) determined to zip once around the lake before the sun went down (about 3.5 miles or so). We toasted our success and this wonderful day in the Blue Hills with a nice beer and some decent meals (including dessert) at the swanky establishment "Ground Round" (http://www.groundround.com/home/) in Nedham, which for a chain restaurant offered some pretty tasty treats.

The weekend rang in the New Year with a whole slew of activities starting out Friday night with a visit to the Huntington Theater for the play "Dangerous Liaisons" (http://www.huntingtontheatre.org/season/production.aspx?id=1323&src=t). In the play originally written by Choderlos de Laclos, a beautiful, but devious noblewoman enlists her former boyfriend Vicomte de Valmont (actually I think she still has the hots for him) to seduce a former lover's fiancee. It was a worthwhile and amusing performance - the part of the Vicomte was played convincingly by non other than Michael T. Weiss (http://mtweiss.piranho.com/ ) who some of you may know from the TV drama "The Pretender". I can also tell you that he can accurately name each of the US states in alphabetical order without thinking about it in less than a minute and he can wiggle his ears (although not both at the same time, eh?).

On Saturday, I was invited by my friend Ana to participate in the Associate Member's Kaffeekraenzchen (my name for it) at the Boston Athenaeum (http://www.bostonathenaeum.org/), one of the largest private libraries in the country. It was founded in 1807 by the Anthology Society. It is bar none one of my favorite places in Boston, bursting with books (half a million volumes), fine arts, and some very comfortable leather chairs. If there is a heaven for libraries - this is what it would look like! It houses books of stunning value, including George Washington's private book collection.

In other news: It would be easier for me to get a seat on the US Supreme Court than to get a German passport! Unbelievable! As you know, I have reclaimed my maiden name, and all the paperwork here in the US including the renewal of my green card has been as smooth as can be. I have to give a big shout-out to the US Immigration Service - they sent my green card in the mail within 2 weeks! Wham Bam - thank you mam!! D-O-N-E. But (and I mean this in the most heartfelt and kindest way) here comes the determinedly uptight German Consulate!! The paperwork to get my passport (with the maiden name) was thicker than when I bought my first home, including notarized copies of every piece of paper that ever had my name on it - green card, passport, paychecks, divorce certificate, marriage license, you name it. To make it even more fun, they added their own documents, where I had to state that "yes, I do want my name changed" (duh!) and answer a whole litany of questions relating to my divorce - where did you live before you got divorced, after you got divorced, during your divorce, where is your husband now, is he dead? How the hell should I know? Bunch' of turkeys! When they then send me to get new passport photos because my head was not big enough on the ones I brought in, I literally had to turn around, take a few deep breaths and go very quickly to my happy place. Of course, in all the time (and the two visits) it took me to get this straightened out, I owed the Copley Square Parking Garage a small fortune, and will henceforth live off peanut butter and crackers that I am stealing from the kitchen on my office floor.

Back in the real world, where the normal people live, the week has been speeding by at quite a pace, and I am looking forward to the three-day weekend coming up. No snow in sight - just the opposite as Boston has been experiencing spring-like temperatures all week. All is good on the toe front, and I have been hiking, jogging and even been wearing decent shoes for a change.

Hope this email finds you all healthy and happy.

pet:)