Ladybugs!

Tuesday was a good day. First, I went for a jog along the River Parks trail. Plan A was to go three miles and call it a day, but as I was crossing the 23rd Street bridge, I decided the pedestrian bridge at 31st Street looked so cool and shady that I just had to run it, so I added another mile to my workout.

When I got home, I discovered that the ladybugs Ron had ordered from Gardens Alive! were in, so I insisted on taking pictures of them while he was putting them on the rugosas:

I like the little one on the left, perched on that piece of excelsior that’s sticking out the side.

Ladybugs are hard to photograph up close, as they move too fast for me to keep them in focus long enough to take the picture, but I managed to get a couple of usable shots.

Notice the feet. I love itty-bitty bug toes.

We went to dinner at Hickory House Bar-B-Q in Sapulpa, which has a great salad bar that includes plenty of tabouli and pasta salad — perfect for refueling after a run — and then headed over to Best Buy to play with iPads. When we came out, I discovered that a random stranger had signed the chalkboard on the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcar. I’d been hoping that would happen, and it finally did. Yaaaaaaaayyyyyyy!

Speaking of the car, we took it out to the Sidewalk Highway on Sunday. Ron got a photo of Riggy and me hanging out on the road.

Riggy does not enjoy traveling as much as Scout did, but he hasn’t had as much practice, either. I imagine he’ll get the hang of it one of these days. I try to make sure he gets a special treat wherever we go so that he’ll learn to associate the car with fun road trips and nice things to eat. Right now, he just gets nervous. He’s much more pack-oriented than Scout was, and I think it just freaks him out to be away from the other dogs.

Have I mentioned lately how much fun I am having with this car? Kids keep walking up to me in the hall at school to tell me how much they like it, and even trips to the grocery store and the gas station are more interesting now that random strangers stop to ask me about it. I’ve always loved art cars, but I never imagined so many other people did, too.

Emily

Folk Tuesday: Kent State

Forty years ago. I’m still trying to process that.

If you’re interested in the history of the Vietnam protests (and you should be, regardless of your position on the issue, because it’s much easier to learn vicariously than it is to repeat the mistakes of the past), I highly recommend the book Who Spoke Up? Fascinating stuff. I think it’s out of print, but you could probably rustle up a copy online.

Emily