December 18 - Australia: Cairns
Where are all of these smooshed frogs coming from? - Run #31
So this morning's profound thought of the day: where do all the these smooshed frogs come from? Somewhere in the middle of this morning's run I realized that for the past several days I've noticed smashed frogs on the shoulder of the road. Not just flattened but sundried as well. I thought it might be noteworthy to figure out how many little froggies won't be making it home for Christmas...for most of the run I saw at least one or two every kilometer. This means that if I ran 10k to day I saw somewhere around 15-30 flattened frogs. What's the problem here? Should frogs have little crosswalks with little frog crossing guards? Should there be little froggie overpasses over the roads? By now I'm sure that most people are aware that my most profound thoughts for the day occur on my morning runs!
The run was near the Gardens, turning right and heading along the trail that runs along the fire-break until it ended in a neighborhood. Pretty unexciting but I got my run in. I should say, though, that I sort of enjoy having a regular run--I think that's the thing I miss most about home, the little daily routines.
One week until Christmas! I just want to take this opportunity to gloat, and say that we finished all our Christmas shopping in August. Great planning, right? Sure, except that the big package from Nepal that had most of the gifts in it still hasn't arrived in DC. The best laid plans of mice and men...
A Big Thank-You to Greenpeace
So the funny story of the morning is about something interesting that happened in Sydney yesterday. Busloads of Greenpeace demonstrators dressed as nuclear waste drums stormed the Sydney Nuclear Reactor plant in a peaceful protest. They danced around the streets in their outfits (picture a black Halloween costume with petroleum symbols on it), climbed a radio tower and water tower to hang huge signs which read "Nuclear. Never Safe.", and even had a few parachuters drop in for effect. It was all very organized and peaceful, and Greenpeace - at the time - probably considered it a successful statement of their protests.
Whatever those protests were.
But I'm sure that Greenpeace is a bit chagrined after the fact. For them, the good news is that the event was all over the news this morning. The bad news is that the topic of conversation was not what the protestors were demonstrating against, but that the security at the Nuclear Reactor was so lax! The sheer volume of protestors obviously outnumbered the guards and they were able to skip (literally) past the gate. The tower-climbers used ladders to hop the fences along the perimeter. And the parachuters... well, they dropped in without any resistance at all.
So the morning shows featured "Sydney Security Expert Such-and-Such" and "Former Security Secretary So-and-So" and "Police Commissioner Whoever" to discuss how security should be tightened and what would happen in the event of a terrorist attack. Nobody from Greenpeace was invited to speak, and none of the demonstrators were interviewed to voice their obvious concerns about... Hmmmm... Uuuhhhhh.... Ummmm... What was it they were protesting again?
At any rate, we're all very thankful to Greenpeace for kindly pointing out that - if we're going to have Nuclear Reactors - we should obviously tighten security.
In celebration, we're going to have red meat for dinner tonight.
Jon's New Toy
Jon picked up the truck this afternoon. I think the the big grin on his face tells it all:
Our Toyota Surf
So we went out cruising in our new automobile and ran a few errands. We went to the library to check out the selection, and Jon found the CD selection. He also found a few more Elmore Leonard books, which he loves. The funny thing, however, is that they weren't located in the regular fiction section. They were in the "Large Print". So he got some REALLY BIG Elmore Leonard books. Very funny!
The Book Exchange
We also went back to the second hand bookstore (from yesterday) to exchange some books. The little old lady who runs the shop is an absolute gem named "Sue". She has a table set up in one of the aisles with a jigsaw puzzle and a sign that reads "Have a Go!". Yesterday, the puzzle had been half-done. Today, however, only the frame was completed. As I "Had a Go" at it, I wondered why it had been taken apart. After a few minutes, Sue came up to me and said, "Would you believe it? I had half of it done and some child came in this morning and mussed the whole thing up!!" We laughed about it for a while, and agreed that children instinctively tear puzzles apart. That's the only reason they put them together to begin with. So I spent some more time on the puzzle while Jon looked around.
Beer Run
We also went to the "Bottle Store" (Australian for beer/liquor store) to get some more Fosters (Australian for beer). This was a pretty interesting experience, seeing how there was a DRIVE-THROUGH! For a place that sells alcohol. Really.
So let me just get this straight: there are obviously regulations in place to prevent a supermarket from selling alcohol. Only specialty shops can sell beer/wine/liquor. That's fine. Very admirable. But it's OK to put a drive-through in the liquor store? Someone explain that to me.
Aside from the obvious deranged idea of a drive-through-liquor-store, it was actually very convenient. Jon and I pulled up in the new toy, rolled down the window, asked the nice guy for a "Slab of Fosters" (Australian for a Case of Beer), he put it in the back seat, gave us our change, and away we went. I belatedly realized that I should have a picture of this remarkable experience.
The Drive-Through
Not a great shot, but you get the picture.
For dinner, we made a beef stir-fry that was pretty good, but needed some chili peppers. We'll have to remember that next time.