Not routine

[altivo]

Nothing routine about this Saturday. Well, except we still had to feed and care for animals. But the day started off with some rather freakish thunderstorms, really isolated little pockets surrounded by clear skies at least as far as the radar was concerned. There was heavy hail, though no tornado threat, and sudden intense rain. The storms moved slowly, and the rumble of thunder continued from various directions for almost two hours, sometimes continuously for several minutes.

Then we went to the Harvard Expo, where I had offered to appear for two hours as the Book Wolf at the library booth. That went well enough. Gary came along to help and did get some photos.



Believe me, it was warm under all that fur for two hours. By Gary's count, one in five younger children was terrified of me, though the others were eager enough to come up and get a cookie at least.

Barely got the costume dried and myself showered before it was time to run off again for a St. Patrick's Day musical performance at the local banquet hall and restaurant. Gary's Wednesday session group was down one violin and they asked me to sit in on flute, as I mentioned before. It went reasonably well. The group was paid something, I'm not sure how much, but we also got dinner out of it. The corned beef was good, with red potatoes, carrots, and cabbage. And they had malt vinegar and horseradish, not just the usual ketchup and mustard for condiments. We played from 5:30 to 9:00 pm with a break for dinner. Some of the audience were quite enthusiastic about it. At least no one threw anything at us. ;p

Comments

[avon_deer]

Sounds like you had a busy one. I don't have the energy to do much at weekends these days. Might have something to do with work driving us to coronaries.

[altivo]

Is there nothing that can be done about that? Here there are federal offices to which a complaint can be made, and they are fairly tough-minded about keeping work safe regardless of industry.

[avon_deer]

The advice would be "find another job." Although to their credit out director has taken this very seriously. Things might start changing here.

[altivo]

The idea of a health care institution (especially one operated by a public agency) creating unhealthy working conditions for staff would cause tremendous scandal and outrage here.

[schnee]

Sounds like a pretty packed day — but fun, too.

And if one in five kids was terrified, that means that four in five loved you, right? :)

[altivo]

Well, four in five tolerated me. He only counted as terrified those that screamed and ran away, I think.

[shadow_stallion]

Looking good there Tivo...err...Argos. :D

One if five scared of you? Really? I would think it would be much less than that.

Storm

[altivo]

Yes, and it was about like that with the horse costume in the past. What he didn't count were the ones who apparently couldn't see me at all. Like I wasn't there, and that was probably another one in five.

The latter phenomenon I've experienced before in a different context. Back in 1988-89 I was making a lot of custom toys, mostly stuffed toys but also hand puppets, and selling them at street fairs. A disturbing number of kids seemed unable to focus on a puppet, no matter how brightly colored or "cute" it might be.

[shadow_stallion]

I can almost see how a kid could overlook a puppet. I sometimes walk around almost as if I have blinders on and I know I overlook things now and then. I do find it hard to believe that someone would miss a big white wolf or a horse for that matter. Even if I did not acknowledge that I saw them or took the time to interact with them I don't think I would not see them.

[altivo]

With the puppets, we had situations where the kid was in a stroller or being held by a parent and was only 3 or 4 feet from the puppet. Gary was actively trying to get a reaction, and nothing. Their eyes didn't even track the motion. This seemed pretty extreme to me. The reaction of these kids (age 5 and under) to a six foot wolf squatting down to face them and wave a paw at them is similar. They stare right through me as if they don't even see me. A fellow librarian who has a very perceptive and reactive 5 year old daughter herself wondered if it was because I was not a recognizable television character. That was what we wondered years ago with the puppets too. Pat's remark was "Probably because you're not Sponge Bob Squarepants." Maybe it has something to do with the high incidence of ADHD and autistic disorders in kids these days.

Sure, teens or adults might deliberately ignore something like that. In fact, I do see some who are making a conscious effort to ignore me in suit, also. It's amusing how adults will say things right under my nose that make it clear that they somehow don't perceive me as being sentient and aware. ;p