My sister requested a blog post dedicated to one of her favourite ducks: Cletus. So here it is:
My sister has loved her pet ducks for her entire life. One of my favourite photos of her as a baby shows her wearing a bathing suit and sneakers, squatted down next to a duck. She has her arms folded like wings, and she and the duck are staring intently at each other. Each one trying to figure out the other.
But having ducks is not always easy. I mean, they are low-maintenance when it comes to feeding and clean-up, but they are not good when it comes to self-defense. Hence the phrase "like sitting ducks." Over the years we have lost many to predators such as dogs, raccoons (NO, they are not cute!), opossum, and weird fungal infections. One time my sister came outside to find just a duck foot. No blood or feathers. Just a lone foot. After checking the rest of the ducks, she realized that one of them was perfectly fine yet missing a foot. The foot had simply fallen off. He lived many years more, but always had trouble swimming in a straight line....
Cletus is depicted below. This duck has the wildest hairstyle; like a giant cotton ball has been glued to its head. It is the best animal hair besides Hank's.
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| (Sister & Cletus) |
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| (In action) |
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| (In hiding) |
A good friend saw my post about Pinterest, and she sent me an invite. So I cheated. I didn't wait for the real invite. I'm sorry, but I actually don't feel badly about not waiting. :-)
And as I suspected, I really love this site. :-)
A huge THANK YOU to Steph S. :-)
(No, this is not about bathroom breaks on a roadtrip.)
My thoughts about holding the door for other people were stirred by this article on HelloGigles.com. Unlike a lot of people that I run into on a daily basis, I not raised by wolves; instead, I was raised by two parents who were sticklers for "the proper way to do things." As a teenager, my father took me outside on a sunny summer day and proceeded to teach me "The Proper Way to Wash the Car."
"The Proper Way To..." list should also include a section on holding the door for the person behind you.
Not so long ago, in college, my friends and I had to trick guys into holding the door open for us. Some of the academic building had really heavy doors, and I was usually carrying around 2 Norton anthologies (not by choice). When we saw someone (especially a guy) opening the door to go through it, the only way to get him to hold it for you was to dash through really quickly, throwing a "thanks!" over one's shoulder. Some men started to catch on, but not enough to make us stop doing it.
Having to do this sneak attack to get someone to help you out is pretty depressing. Many times I wind up awkwardly holding the door for someone who is kind of far behind me, or muttering "hey, thanks!" under my breath after those people who don't say it to me when I've paused in my daily commute to not slam a door in their face. Yet I continue to consider the person behind me.
I know it's technically February, but could more people make a resolution to not be an ass and hold the door open for others? Maybe this resolution could take the place of the one you've already broken? It's really much easier than going to the gym.
