Sunday, February 05, 2006

"We're going to the zoo today, and then...

"We're going to the zoo today, and then were going to the baseball game and after that were going to Japan..."

I can't help but think of Bill Cosby's jealously in his routine about the kids from special class from his 'WONDERFULNESS' album anytime a get near a zoo. Today was no exception.

The goal was to escape the madness that is Superbowl Sunday and to this end we headed out to the Fort Worth Zoo. It's a really nice zoo and in some ways better than its Atlanta counterpart, yet there's always something sad about seeing these animals restrained from doing what comes naturally, i.e. rending the flesh from my bones. One particular mountain lion was pacing and growling at the onlookers in front of his habitat. Had he the chance, I knew he would have had at me. In some odd way, it seemed wrong that I was able to lear at him from 6 feet away in his 'natural setting' and he could do nothing about it. Without the structure of 'zoo', it would be quite beyond my means to impose on this impressive animal in such away. It seemed like I was taking advantage of his situation through no effort on my part. It's not really an animal rights thing to me. It just felt... awkward.

As far as escaping the Super Bowl, the large crowd we found at the zoo was not what we expected at all. We thought it would be a ghost town! I guess 70 degree plus temperatures in February will draw people to such venues despite the big game. I also noticed a large number of the zoo patrons were Latino and wondered if the general disinterest in American football to those with a Soccer-savy background was a factor.

We avoided the Super Bowl until we stopped by Sam's Club shopping for printer ink.
There IT was! The Game! Blaring from several large screen TVs! We then headed over to Fuddrucker's for dinner and saw most patrons had positioned themselves in order to get a good view at numerous television sets which were all showing the Super Bowl.

None of this is a shock to us, knowing that in Texas there are two denominations:
Baptist and Football. So, I, being a Baptist, find the blurring of the two faiths somewhat of a mystery, but they seems to go hand in hand here, in ways I had never quite experienced prior to moving.

Texans really like football. I mean, they REALLY like football. So it seems you can run from the Super Bowl here, but you cannot hide.

Hey Bill! When's that trip to Japan coming up?

1 Comments:

Anonymous Anonymous said...

Hey dude. Sorry it's taken me so long to get to your blog site....

While not being quite the rabid sports fan you usually find in the deep south, I do enjoy the Super Bowl and usually make a night of it. For the first time, I found myself totally alone this year. Both kids were at their own party and Laura was at work, so no one was around except the two pugs. Let's see: I wanted to throw up after Aaron Neville's version of the National Anthem, the Rolling Stones totally reeked at halftime and the game was poorly played and poorly officiated. OK, so it wasn't a great night. At least the food was good.....

Speaking of places with animals, I was treated by family to a trip for my b-day last week to the new Georgia Aquarium. if you're ever back to GA, you must check it out. Granted, the place is built for the hoarding of the masses (and early on, the crowds have been rather large), the place is amazing. Laura and I niether one had ever been to an aquarium, so we really enjoyed it. I could sit in front of the Ocean exibit all day and watch. It makes me wish I could live in the ocean.

I hope you are enjoying Texas. Georgia is less of a place without you......

February 09, 2006 4:22 AM  

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