Underwater creatures are cool
Jun. 26th, 2024 02:36 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
too_quietBusy last couple of days, including a Very Adventurous Monday which rather wiped out the contents of the spoon drawer.
On Monday my friend M and I made an Expedition to neighboring!city for lunch, a bit of a walkabout, and a visit to the aquarium. Which meant that Fuzzbucket ALSO made an Expedition to neighboring!city for lunch, a bit of a walkabout, and a visit to the aquarium.
Lunch was at an Aggressively German biergarten sort of place that played nothing but entirely-too-cheerful oom-pah music that gave me flashbacks to Fantasyland at Disney in the 1990s. I kept expecting to look up and see bearded men in lederhosen and little hats sitting at the bar with steins the size of their heads singing drinking songs.
Fuzzbucket’s rating: 8/10 stars. Everyone ignored him, he got to snooze under the table, and occasionally The Human slipped him a piece of bratwurst on the sly.
With an hour and a half between lunch and our aquarium entry, we took a little stroll around the downtown area. Upon discovering that our intended destination for the stroll was closed, we adjourned to an indoor shopping and entertainment venue which was nice and cool but disappointing in terms of window-shopping options.
Fuzzbucket’s rating: 4/10 stars. Too hot outside, also too many joggers and bicyclists that he couldn’t bark at because he was On Duty and In Public. Very disappointing. Tile floors in the shopping center were nice though.
The aquarium was amazing. Absolutely as many huge pufferfish as my little puffer-loving heart could possibly desire, plus stingrays, weedy sea dragons, and cuttlefish that actually changed color while we watched (!!!!!!). M got her seahorse fix in spades. M is the perfect aquarium companion - she’s no more of a talker than I am, and ALSO wants to stand in front of an exhibit until we’ve identified every. single. species. listed on the information placards.
Fuzzbucket had an adorable encounter with a stingray through the glass of an exhibit. It seemed to be as fascinated with him as he was with it.
Fuzzbucket’s rating: 9/10 stars. The Human was mostly relaxed and happy so his job wasn’t particularly difficult, the fish were interesting, and the rest of the human-type people ignored him and let him work. Would have been 10/10 stars except that the sharks were mildly concerning and he had to ignore some shrieking children.
And here is where I note that while a certain corner of The Socials would have you believe that service dogs and their handlers are constantly battling People In Charge trying to deny them access to venues, inconsiderate randos trying to sneak illicit pets, and aggro, attack-y pet dogs dressed up in service dog vests bought off of Amazon, that has not been my experience at all. Outside the occasional clueless person making kissy noises at Fuzzbucket in the grocery aisle, folks are generally super respectful and not at all weird about him, and we’ve only ever had one pet dog encounter (in the Apple Store of all places; IDEK). And as far as access goes, Monday was actually kind of an exciting day - the first time I’d EVER been asked the Two Questions businesses and institutions are allowed to ask service dog users before granting them access (‘Is this a service dog required for a disability’ and ‘What tasks does the dog perform?’). Prior to this point, the closest I’d ever come to the Two Questions was the one time the security dude at my polling place asked, “Is that a service dog?” when I went in to cast my ballot. [Now I will ALSO note for the record that I live in a college town, I carry a number of layers of privilege - to wit: white, cis, middle class, professional, and solidly in the middle part of middle age, and that Fuzzbucket is really, REALLY cute. But I also think that The Socials aren’t always the most reliable place to go for information about the world, and that most people are generally trying to be pretty decent humans even if they get it wrong sometimes. So.]
Yesterday I sat down and wrote 1,200 words on a new fic. My muse has been really shy since covid lockdown, so I’m trying to move very slowly and not scare it …
On Monday my friend M and I made an Expedition to neighboring!city for lunch, a bit of a walkabout, and a visit to the aquarium. Which meant that Fuzzbucket ALSO made an Expedition to neighboring!city for lunch, a bit of a walkabout, and a visit to the aquarium.
Lunch was at an Aggressively German biergarten sort of place that played nothing but entirely-too-cheerful oom-pah music that gave me flashbacks to Fantasyland at Disney in the 1990s. I kept expecting to look up and see bearded men in lederhosen and little hats sitting at the bar with steins the size of their heads singing drinking songs.
Fuzzbucket’s rating: 8/10 stars. Everyone ignored him, he got to snooze under the table, and occasionally The Human slipped him a piece of bratwurst on the sly.
With an hour and a half between lunch and our aquarium entry, we took a little stroll around the downtown area. Upon discovering that our intended destination for the stroll was closed, we adjourned to an indoor shopping and entertainment venue which was nice and cool but disappointing in terms of window-shopping options.
Fuzzbucket’s rating: 4/10 stars. Too hot outside, also too many joggers and bicyclists that he couldn’t bark at because he was On Duty and In Public. Very disappointing. Tile floors in the shopping center were nice though.
The aquarium was amazing. Absolutely as many huge pufferfish as my little puffer-loving heart could possibly desire, plus stingrays, weedy sea dragons, and cuttlefish that actually changed color while we watched (!!!!!!). M got her seahorse fix in spades. M is the perfect aquarium companion - she’s no more of a talker than I am, and ALSO wants to stand in front of an exhibit until we’ve identified every. single. species. listed on the information placards.
Fuzzbucket had an adorable encounter with a stingray through the glass of an exhibit. It seemed to be as fascinated with him as he was with it.
Fuzzbucket’s rating: 9/10 stars. The Human was mostly relaxed and happy so his job wasn’t particularly difficult, the fish were interesting, and the rest of the human-type people ignored him and let him work. Would have been 10/10 stars except that the sharks were mildly concerning and he had to ignore some shrieking children.
And here is where I note that while a certain corner of The Socials would have you believe that service dogs and their handlers are constantly battling People In Charge trying to deny them access to venues, inconsiderate randos trying to sneak illicit pets, and aggro, attack-y pet dogs dressed up in service dog vests bought off of Amazon, that has not been my experience at all. Outside the occasional clueless person making kissy noises at Fuzzbucket in the grocery aisle, folks are generally super respectful and not at all weird about him, and we’ve only ever had one pet dog encounter (in the Apple Store of all places; IDEK). And as far as access goes, Monday was actually kind of an exciting day - the first time I’d EVER been asked the Two Questions businesses and institutions are allowed to ask service dog users before granting them access (‘Is this a service dog required for a disability’ and ‘What tasks does the dog perform?’). Prior to this point, the closest I’d ever come to the Two Questions was the one time the security dude at my polling place asked, “Is that a service dog?” when I went in to cast my ballot. [Now I will ALSO note for the record that I live in a college town, I carry a number of layers of privilege - to wit: white, cis, middle class, professional, and solidly in the middle part of middle age, and that Fuzzbucket is really, REALLY cute. But I also think that The Socials aren’t always the most reliable place to go for information about the world, and that most people are generally trying to be pretty decent humans even if they get it wrong sometimes. So.]
Yesterday I sat down and wrote 1,200 words on a new fic. My muse has been really shy since covid lockdown, so I’m trying to move very slowly and not scare it …
no subject
Date: 2024-06-26 07:53 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2024-06-27 03:42 am (UTC)Thanks for reassuring me that Actual Germany looks about as much like German restaurants in the US as Actual Mexico does like USian Mexican restaurants. But somehow I am entirely tickled by the fact that folks actually wear lederhosen. :D
no subject
Date: 2024-06-27 01:38 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2024-06-27 03:36 am (UTC)Thoughts
Date: 2024-06-30 01:09 am (UTC)They are cute.
>> plus stingrays, weedy sea dragons, <<
I'm charmed that you even know what weedy sea dragons are. <3 sargasso species.
>> and cuttlefish that actually changed color while we watched (!!!!!!).<<
Oh that's awesome.
>> M got her seahorse fix in spades.<<
They are adorable little creatures.
>> M is the perfect aquarium companion - she’s no more of a talker than I am, and ALSO wants to stand in front of an exhibit until we’ve identified every. single. species. listed on the information placards.<<
LOL yes, been there done that. :D
>> while a certain corner of The Socials would have you believe that service dogs and their handlers are constantly battling People In Charge trying to deny them access to venues <<
I would bet that, like other diversity issues, that depends a lot on where you live and who else is there. Some places are really laid-back and inclusive; others really are not. And "the law says we have to do the thing, but we don't have to make it comfortable" is a very common means of discouraging people. It can be surprisingly subtle. I once went into a clothing store and realized that literally 0% of the contents were tolerable to anyone with sensitive skin, like many neurodiverse people have. Everything I touched had lace, seams in bizarre places, sequins, or some other inanity that "normal" people could ignore for sake of fashion but a neurodiverse person couldn't. Why go in the store if it has nothing you could buy and is uncomfortable to be in? 0_o