It's not unusual

With the cooler weather it seems harder and harder to get up in the morning.  This morning I just could not make it out the door for the early morning class at the gym.  Yoga's not really an option, my balance is not the best and I could take out an entire class with one trip.  Spin class? Yeah I'm so not ready for that kind of punishment.  Zumba?  Hmm Zumba.  I heard about this.  Housewives go to Zumba.  This I can handle!

So I get to the class and the music starts and I realize something quite quickly.

This is what I thought class would be for me being Spanish and all

Sadly it turns out I was a bit more like this

Once I got past the sad sad realization that being Spanish does not translate into being a great Latin dancer I got back to the business of the class.  The instructor is an insanely upbeat woman who bounces around the entire room and class like she's having the time of her life.  Don't you hate people who are having a good time while you are wondering what the hell you got yourself into?  

And then there she is in the front row. That one girl whos presence is both annoying and well annoying.  She is a size zero, she can dance and she can work out with her long flowing hair looking perfect.  I'll admit it, I'm not very evolved when I am sweating and in pain.  I wanted to trip her and her perfect moves.  I was mesmerized by the fact that this girl's hair never moved and she didn't sweat.   I have decided she is some sort of alien life form, it makes me feel better about myself.

The hour class went by quite fast.  Once you realize that everyone else dances like Carlton on the Fresh Prince of Bel-Air its actually kind of fun. 

I may just swap this out with the boot class Body Works class.

Anchor's Away

We have a new patient at the Riverhead Foundation.  He is a 25lb loggerhead turtle we got from Canarsie of all places.  Loggerhead turtles grow to be about 3 feet long and 250lbs and are considered an endagered species.

Poor Anchor managed to eat some food that was attached to a fishing pole and the hook got stuck in his throat.

Turtle phots and xrays are from the Riverhead Foundation's Facebook page

The hook has since been removed but he's not quite ready to eat on his own.  He's being tube fed a lovely slurry of herring.   If you've never seen a fish slurry it looks and smells something like this.....

Today I helped assist his feeds.  Basically that means my job is to hold him and keep him from whacking us to death with his flippers.  Lunch went rather well.  He was very cranky about being out of the water and held but he kept his lunch down.  Sadly it seems Anchor couldn't wait to pee till I put him back in the tank.  This makes it officially 3 sea turtle species that have peed on me.  I am starting to feel like a seasoned pro.



Second feed went a little differently.  First of all he spit back up some of his dinner.  On my shirt.  Then he pooped.  On my shirt.  Really dude?   I think he snickered at me when I put him back in his tank. 

Gymtastic

So I joined a gym.  The local LA Fitness to be exact.  I like this gym, its realistic.  There are people of all ages, colors, sizes and athletic abilities.  Its a pretty friendly place and I feel comfortable working out there.

To make it that much more fun I have a personal trainer there two days a week.  His name is Robin and I think he was raised by satanic wolves.  I started out just seeing Robin and attending Aqua Fit classes.  But now, after much prodding and suggesting, I have spread my wings to include other classes and activities.  Here is how my week falls out now:

Monday - Aqua Fit. 
Tuesday - Trainer
Wednesday - Body Works
Thursday - Aqua Fit
Friday - Trainer
Saturday - Step Class
Sunday - Gym day off

I am starting to get used to the feeling that everything friggin hurts.  I also apparently have zero flexibility in my handstrings and my shoulders.

I am heading into week two of my new schedule tomorrow.  Wish me luck.

Backyard Furniture

Or how I plan to spend my summer

Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds

Lucy, a female yearling harbor seal, was rescued in Westhampton Beach on November 9th (day after my birthday) showing signs of respiratory illness and with visible wounds on her body believed to be the result of a predator attack.   Her intake physical indicated that she was also carrying around a few parasites.  

That face!

Lucy was never one to let something slow her down, not a predator, not any parasite and not seal pox.  She was always very alert and feisty.  She always had a wave and a snort for me when I brought her food or cleaned her ledge.

Hi Diddly-ho neighborino

I thought, how cute, how sweet, she waves at me.  Then I learned that waving is the universal harbor seal sign for "GTFO NOOB".  

"Stop....Lucy time"

Lucy developed quite the reputation during her Foundation stay.    She is wicked nosey and just a bit aggressive.   Aggressive is good, aggressive can survive in the wild.  Aggressive not so good on our tanks and her toys.   She also developed a reputation as a big piggie and had to be put on a "diet".  

Lucy has been cleared for release!  She will be returning to the ocean on March 17th at noon.  The release we be on the south side of the Ponquogue Bridge in Hampton Bays (on the bay side of Dune Road)  Check out www.riverheadfoundation.org for directions and a map.

So long and thanks for all the fish

 There is no real firm data on how many harbor seals are left in the world, but the best educated guesses say they number about 500,000.  There are about 70,000 harbor seals making their home between Canada and New Jersey.   In all that number Lucy should be able to find herself a nice mate and start a family. 


Lucy is available for adoption.  Just click the photo for the link.

Click me, you know you want to

Make a call, save a seal

Nobody made a greater mistake than he who did nothing because he could only do a little.   ~Edmund Burke 

The Riverhead Foundation relies on just a few grants to help do what we do every year.  One of those grants is the John H. Prescott Marine Mammal Rescue Assistance Grant.  The John H. Prescott Marine Mammal Rescue Assistance Grant Program, or Prescott Grant Program, provides grants to eligible stranding network participants for:

• recovery and treatment/rehabilitation of stranded marine mammals
• data collection from living or dead stranded marine mammal
• facility upgrades, operation costs, and staffing needs directly related to the recovery and treatment of stranded marine mammals and collection of data from living or dead stranded marine mammals

Rescue and stranding programs all over the US apply for portions of this grant to subsidize their budgets.   

The President's Fiscal Year 2013 budget request concerning NOAA did not include funding for the grant at all.  Congress makes the final funding decision when passing funding bills, and that process is just getting started

Please take a moment, whoever you are and wherever you are, to call your Congressperson and tell them to reinstate this portion of the NOAA budget and allow these rescue agencies to continue doing the work that needs to be done to protect and save these endangered species.

Here's some incentive.  Seriously how can you not want to help that face.

I'd call Congress but I don't have opposable thumbs

Endangered Noms

One of the first things I do when I get into the rescue center every week is feed the turtles and the seals.  People tend to think that its just dropping some food into the tanks but its a bit more involved.

First thing is to get the meds tray.  All of the seals and turtles are on vitamins, some are on medications for one illness or another.  Each bottle belongs to a different seal or turtle.

Second feed is vitamin time

Next step is to set up the feed area.  Each "patient" in rehab has a feed chart.  On it lists what they can eat, how much, how often and what meds or vitamins are included with the feed.  The day of this feed the turtles were getting clams.  In the wild they eat a wide variety of things so other days they will get squid or lettuce.    To round out the supplies I grab scissors to cut up the food into turtle sized pieces and trays to carry the food to the little monsters.

Setup for a vitamin feed

I weigh out the clams based on each turtles chart and then check that the pills in their bottle match their charts.  

Clams and squid and vitamins, NOM!

The pills get stuffed inside the food so they take them with little interaction from us.  Once that's done we head to the tank.  The med food gets dropped in first then once they eat that the rest goes in.  I'll go back to the kitchen and note their eating habits (eating well, not eating, etc) then its rinse and repeat for 4 more turtle tanks and for the moment 5 seal tanks.  

Seal Feed

The turtles eat once a day while the seals eat four times a day.  Our seals eat herring usually, but now and again they get mackerel.  After the feed is off to do a large list of chores that one day I'll post.  But for now I have to get ready to head out and feed the turtles!

Say Ahh

 I'd like to introduce Angelina.

Now that may not be her actual name in two weeks but its what we were calling her this week.  She's a cute little gray seal pup who came in with a high white blood count, a fever and a repsiriatory infection.  Because of everything going on she was being hand fed for almost two weeks.

Lucky me I get to feed her when she's just starting to eat on her own.  So its time for the last feed of the day and I get to the back of her tank and there she is sitting on the ledge as pretty as can be.  I toss her medicine fish into the water  and as the fish is flying she opens her mouth a bit then shuts it as the fish disappears under the water.  Then she looks at me.  I looked down at the water a few times, hoping she'd understand that's where her fish was.  After a minute of staring at me like I was mentally unwell she stuck her face into the water.  Then she looked at me again.

I figure okay she's a little confused let me try tossing one more fish closer to her ledge.  This time she opens her mouth wide.  Fish is no where near her and hits the water sinking in her tank.  Now I'm forced to explain to her that she and I are not a circus act and I will not throw the fish into her mouth.  She looks underwater a few more times and then just stares at me.

I'm not wasting more fish until she proves she's going to eat so I just stand there watching her watch me.  Finally after the longest 2 minutes in the history of man and seals she sighs, not a little sigh either, a full blown "god I am so discussing this with her manager" sigh and dives in to eat.

Adding fun to the seal feeding day, the seal 2 tanks down from her thought it'd be fun to spit at me.  Good thing he has an eye infection because he missed me by a wide margin.  This seal was my very first time as a secondary restrainer and it was an amazing learning experience.

This was my first time handling a wild animal (not countting 12lb turtles) and he schooled me but good.    He was really not having the whole concept of an intake physical.  People can tell you these seals are really strong but I felt woefully unprepared for just how strong he was.  Its been two weeks and parts of me are still sore from his exam.  It was an amazing experience and now I'm going to work on making sure I'm in better shape for the next one.  Excuse me while I morn the loss of Oreo cookies from my "diet"

Welcoming the Light

So today is Groundhog Day and whatshisface Phil saw his shadow and ran back into his little groundhog house to wait out 6 more weeks of winter. 

Do you know the precursor to the groundhog story?  Today is the day that the Cailleach was said to go out and gather firewood for the rest of the winter.  Legend has it that if she intends to make the winter last a good while longer, she will make sure the weather on Imbolc is bright and sunny, so she can gather plenty of firewood. Therefore, people are generally relieved if Imbolc is a day of foul weather, as it means the Cailleach is asleep and winter is almost over.  Apparently we felt it was more important to torture small rodents then go with the whole witch that controls winter concept. 
 
Today is Imbolc, the Feast of Brigid, Candlemas a time to celebrate the first little stirrings of spring and the return of light and warmth.  Its a time to shake off those winter blues and prepare for the year ahead.   This is the time to set goals for the year, to come out of winter hibernation and greet the returning sun.

Imbolc is a Celtic holiday associated with the goddess Brigid.  Brigid is a busy goddess being the patroness of healing, smithcraft and the arts.  She brings fertility and inspiration, poetry and fire.  Seems to me this holiday is a far better time for "resolutions" then the dark cold New Years Eve. 

So tonight I'll take a nice quiet shower (in my house quiet is relative) to relax then sit down and put my goals of the year down on paper and probably make a focus board.   A little meditation and some hard work and by this time next year I'll be a better version of me!

I wish upon the stars above
And on the moonlight's gleam
I ask the gods to send their love
And help fulfill my dream
Hard I've worked to get here
This magic time and space
I know my dreams are drawing near
At Fate's own measured pace
Bring to blossom dreaming's fruit
I ask from heart and soul
As flowers spring from planted root
Let me achieve me goal

In solidarity with Reddit and other sites, this site is blacked out today (January 18th) in protest against SOPA and PROTECT IP laws. These laws are a threat to free speech and to the freedom of the Internet. Please contact your congressional representative and tell them to vote 'No' on this law.

#SOPA Protest