appreciation

I did a good thing, today. I took my beloved child out of his bed this morning, packed supplies to last two weeks into the car, including GPS, DVD player, food for 12, change of clothing, and an array of toddler survival items. I loaded him up in the pouring rain and drove him miles and miles through Pittsburgh traffic to reach our destination: the Pittsburgh Zoo. We had a really good time. I showed my son everything. I showed him endangered snow leopards and baby African elephants. I talked to him about fish and the aquatic life cycle. We watched the severely-threatened polar bear playing in his new PPG Aquarium habitat. He crawled through a stingray tunnel and watched a scuba diver in the tank containing huge Amazonian rainforest fish. He touched fingers with a Mountain Gorilla through the glass.

When the day ended I fought my way back through 4pm Pittsburgh traffic, risking life and limb to get my progeny safely home to West Virginia. I even stopped and bought him a caramel sundae at Sarris candy factory.

As we were leaving the zoo, tired, happy and environmentally educated, I asked said, "Andyboy, we saw a lot of really neat animals today. We saw baby elephants and penguins and lions and sharks....what was your favorite thing we saw?"

He said, "The train!"

I show him the rare and beautiful world of nature and his favorite part is the broken down diesel parked along the Allegheny River.