Moving along in Feb.

Everyone seems to be enthused because we're almost halfway through February.  Almost  halfway.  February.  It sure doesn't sound good, but I'm one of the few who thinks winter sort of ends at the end of February.  Meanwhile, January and Feb. have been a little unkind here.  I can't complain much about snow because my Midwesterners may have more than we do.  It just snows every day in Hawkeye--2" last night, another inch or so during the day.  Someone could have told me that it would be 0 this morning.  We've had our share of sub-zero temps, the coldest at my house was around -20, which isn't really that extreme.

I have a lot of snow.  I'm sick of it.  I have to tromp through waist-deep snow to get to the firewood.  I have to tromp through snow to get into the house.  My deck stairs are like a bobsled run that you can just slide right down.  Except you land hard on your butt when that happens.  I forget to warn people, and sometimes friends will slip on a stair and away they go.  Not very hospitable, is it.  Will I complain this much when mud season comes?  Not in the beginning, but that gets tiresome too.  Oh whine.  This is where I chose to live and this is what it's like.  I love it here.  It is what it is.  I'm lucky to have a wonderful life.

I watched some interesting stuff about animals last night.  Those of you who find reports of television shows boring should skip this part.

There is a border collie named Chaser who knows 1000 words.  Well, I'm not so impressed because the words are the names of her toys.  She has Seal, Octopus, Ice, etc. and can pick them out when asked to get a specific one.  OK, that's good, but my dog has Teddy, Pony, Roadkill, etc., and she can pick out the one you ask for (sort of).  The word she loves most is SOCKS.  Anyone who knows her can recognize her obsession with socks.  My dogs, like most domestic dogs, know phrases and words.  Mine are even multi-lingual about dog biscuits.  Biscuits in RI.  Milk Bones at home.  Treats at a friend's house.  They perk right up when you say one of those words.  It's true, though, that mostly that works in the context of the location.
 And of course they know Let's go for a WALK, Get in the CAR, Get in your CAGE, MOVE!!!, and even LEAVE ME ALONE.

Another part of the show (this was Nova) had great information about dolphins.  We all know how smart and trainable dolphins are, but this showed how really remarkable they are.  The trainer signalled them to make up a new trick, and they did.  They figured out how to make a task simpler: there was a box with a fish in it, and when a certain number of weights were put in the cage the door would open and the dolphin was rewarded with the fish.  At first the dolphins put weights in one at a time, but they figured out that if they put all the weights in the cage at once they'd get their reward.  I think this is really great.

There was a segment about an octopus that's been trained to open a jar with a treat in it.  That was way cool.  Lots of footage of an octopus' ability to change colors to blend in with its environment, as camouflage. 
OK, enough about smart and trainable animals.  But really--who knew you could train an octopus?  And what made someone think of doing it?

Ah, the wonders of life.