Get your ow
n diary at DiaryLand.com! contact me older entries newest entry

7:47 p.m. - 2004-01-06
Dr. Bruce and tarantulas?
School's about to start again for me, Dr. Bruce, so here are my burning issues of the week...

I've been given a 130 gallon aquarium set-up. The tank is 6 feet long. I plan on setting up a theme tank of fish from a tributary of the Black Warrior River in north 'bama. The Sipsey Fork runs off a limestone plateau in a beautiful gorge through the Bankhead National Forest. It's one of my favorite stream systems, with clear, cool water flowing quickly through sculpted limestone. Fishes suitable for an aquarium include the Tuskaloosa Darter, Redfin Darter, Burrhead Shiner, Blacktail Shiner, Silverside Shiner and Blackspotted Topminnow. All I have to do (really!) is figure out how the super filtration system built into this tank works. And on Friday I hope to actually move the tank to my lab space; the elevator to that floor is too small for the tank to fit into easily, so I'm calling in outside help to wrestle it up a flight of stairs. In particular Dewey the diver is coming over to help. He's 6'8" and 390 pounds, so with 3 or 4 other people we should be able to move this tank upstairs.

Today I received a call from the President's office at school. It turns out that the chief assistant to one of the more prominent Trustees of the University is looking for a good home for two tarantula spiders, and word on the street is that I'm an authority on spiders(!!). (A side note from Ruth - Well.....he has been known to yell "Stop Killing Spiders!" at random pedestrians while driving in the car.) So I've agreed to adopt these two, a birdeating tarantula and a pinkfooted tarantula. The birdeating is named Goliath, and is bigger than my fist. The pinkfooted has on occasion been tame enough to walk around on people. Both are 12 years old, and really only need a few live crickets every other week. So sure, I'll take them on.

Recent music overplay:

--"Pink Flag" by Wire. I finally have a copy of this on CD. Talk about crucial Brit Punk, this is it, baby! It has "Ex-Lion Tamer" and "1 2 X U" of particular note.

--"Courts of Lulu" by Omar and the Howlers. This is growling, inyourface Mississippi swamp rock. The song "Rose Tattoo" will always put me in motion.

--"Honorary Citizen" by Peter Tosh. A 2-CD "best of" set by my favorite old-school reggae dude will make everyone happy. It includes his early ska and rock-steady material as well as his better-known songs from the LP "Equal Rights" such as "Stepping Razor". Here's the spliff, you know what to do.

And finally, Ruth has started her "Bat Eye for the Straight Guy" program. She figures she can help out deserving straight guys (like me) without insulting them behind their back, as on "Gay Eye...". Today I promised to secure the top button when I hang my shirts on hangers, so the shirts hang better. Capice? More will follow.


0 comments

 

 

previous - next

about me - read my profile! read other Diar
yLand diaries! recommend my diary to a friend! Get
 your own fun + free diary at DiaryLand.com!