diary : october 2003

Sister Stephie & I hopped on a bus for a trip to Tijuana!  It was sponsored by the greyhound rescue group she volunteers with, and it was a chance to see the racetrack from which the group collects retired hounds for adoption in the US.  It was fascinating, inspiring, and unsettling.  The group has established a relationship with this track so that instead of euthanizing the hounds when they can no longer run, the track keeps them until the group can drive down, pick them up, bring them back to the states, clean them up, vaccinate & spay/neuter them, and adopt them out. (This involves an 18-hour day for volunteers like Steph every couple weeks.) They've even built a nice holding pen for them with big comfy runs.  It looks like the racers are very happy to be doing their "work" and are well cared for.  But, it's a very different culture, as was very apparent when we toured the private "zoo" the track's owner put together.  Every kind of exotic, in every kind of pen. Clean, but many were small & without frills like "habitat".  Unlike regulated US zoos, you could walk right up to the tiger cage & pet the fur (though this was not encouraged.) On a happier note, they had a margarita "fountain" where you could just stick your glass under the continuously flowing (and recycled - again, this was not the regulated US) alcoholic bounty and guzzle without discretion.

More travel - I finished off the month with a trip to Seattle for AWG's 25th Anniversary Convention. I moderated a panel discussing the creative streak that most geoscientists have, and chatted it up with a harpist (and geologist), 2 novelists (and geologists), and a sculptor (and geologist).  I crashed at my pal Matt's place, where I got to tour the Animale winery (currently in his basement, but not for long if the popularity of his wines continues to grow!)  I love the fact that the winery is named for his recently departed cat and the label is an abstraction of a photo of her yawning!