Gloria and I went to the 10:30 Mass this morning. It was full to the gills with little children. If the little children to adult ratio had been any higher, I would have suspected that I was among a bunch of Catholics! It was hard to hear a lot of what was said over the dull roar of crying and muttering. The homily was clear, at least. It was also fairly good, I thought. It got bonus points for including the word "obeisance."
On the way home, Gloria and I talked about the problems with Catholic service: its intricate structure lends itself to deadpan responses. She said, "You should go to church because 'Woo, I love God!' and not because it's an obligation." I agree! I really like the intricate structure of the liturgy, and I think it serves as a kind of ongoing study guide, constantly providing rich symbols that provoke thought and enrich one's spiritual vocabulary. The problem is that so many of these symbols and liturgical traditions seem to be rote to the congregation. I read somewhere recently that the best cure for this is good apologetic in the homily, and that seems to be a good idea. The meanings behind the sacramentals and liturgy usually strike me as profound and motivating; that's probably why they were chosen in the first place! To let them become just weird habits is a shame.
I wonder whether the origin of the Stations will be discussed when they're held, this season. Anyway, it's confusing and depressing, but I want to try to help, if that's possible.
After Mass, we watched some SVU and relaxed for a while. Gloria read the paper, and found an add for Superpetz. They were advertising a sale for guinea pigs, and the photo was super-cute, so Gloria suggested we go look at them. My geek nature got the better of me, first, and I started reading a bunch of web pages about guinea pigs. In Peru, they're called cavies. They are apparently not as dumb as most people think, although they're still pretty dumb. They don't smell, they don't usually bite, and they produce a special kind of feces that they need to eat for nutrition. When they're very happy, they run around jumping up and down, which some owners call "popcorning." When they're unhappy, they make a weird grumbling noise. They get stressed out easily, and it makes them unhealthy. They live for three to eight years. I bookmarked a few useful sites.
We didn't buy one, but I am feeling pretty tempted. I ordered a book about them from Amazon. It had eleven reviews, all five stars, and was the top recommendation from one of the sites I had found. Maybe if we still feel like we'd like one, in a few weeks, we'll become guinea pig owners! Also, I should probably check with the landlord.
Between two of the pet stores we looked at, we stopped for lunch. Since we were in the right part of town and I was feeling the urge, we went to Maryland Fried Chicken. I love that place! The food is pretty good (but not great), and the whole joint seems like it's stuck in 1974. The menus are big black boards with plastic letters lined up on them. There's a shiny chrome microphone for placing orders, and if you want a soda, you have to buy it from the vending machine. It has a strange sort of charm.
Once home, we relaxed a bit more. I worked my way through a backlog of articles I'd wanted to read, and then we watched Touch of Evil. It wasn't really a great movie, but it had a few great shots. The opening was really nice, as was a shot of an oil rig near the end. I guess I felt the same way about Touch of Evil as I did about The Third Man, or Citizen Kane, although I think Touch of Evil was probably the least of those three movies. I was mildly annoyed, too, that as usual the heroic Mexican was played by an American in brownface (Heston) while the evil Mexicans were played by Mexicans. This never occurred with black heros -- not because a white man in blackface would have looked too ridiculous, but because a black man would never have been the hero.
I am 46 years old, but just last week I bought a guinea pig to keep me company at the office. He's a white Abyssinian (the kind with the sworls, not the short-haired English or the long-haired Peruvian varieties). I've named him Albus (Latin for white).
Albus lives in a rabbit cage, but I took out the wire bottom because they're too hard on little pig paws (four toes in front, three toes in back). Instead he lives on the plastic tray that used to go under the wire bottom, among generous hands-full of cedar shavings. My wife and son put together an 8-inch high "fence" of window-screen that keeps the shavings from being kicked out.
You probably want at least 4 square feet of floor space per pig; my rabbit cage is about 2 by 2, and Albus seems content.
Like most pigs, Albus' major activities are eating, drinking from his rabbit-sized water bottle, and squealing.
Unlike hamsters, guinea pigs almost NEVER bite. You've got to put them on their backs and poke around their mouths to get them to nip at you. (I did this once with another pig, when I was looking to see whether he was having a problem with his teeth.)
Like cats, they "purr" when they're especially pleased. Males will do this when placed into cages for the first time with females <g> But if your pig trusts you and you scratch his sides near the belly, you often can get a purr for a coupla seconds.
Especially when kept in a cage with cedar-shavings, pigs are quite clean. They don't lick themselves like cats, but they tend to use a particular part of the cage to whiz and poop, and they don't hang out in that part of the cage.
They love to have a little house into which they can scamper for privacy.
Carrots, alfalfa, timothy hay, tomatoes, celery, and even your basic yard grass are all treats. There's nothing to break up the monotony of programming like taking the pig out into the yard to sit in the sun and the grass for about a half-hour. The pig will stay close to your jeans, eating grass like there is no tomorrow. The leftovers from preparing a salad are the pig's idea of a gourmet meal.
It's a good idea to put some wood into the cage for the pig to gnaw on; their teeth can become too long unless they have something to sink their teeth into. But they're not voracious gnawers like gerbils.
They need much more vitamin C than rabbits, so it's important to buy pellets made especially for guinea pigs rather than just buying rabbit food pellets. They like a salt lick, just like rabbits do.
When I was in 5th grade, I got my first pig. Myron was my best friend. I cried and cried when he died in my 11th grade. He had a good life. He was a short-haired, red pig.
Try to get a pig with a nice round nose; some pigs being bred nowadays seem to have a more sharp, rat-like face.
There is nothing like a guinea pig! Let me know if I can help you with anything in your decision-making process. Will trade perl tips for pig pearls of wisdom <g>
Re:Happiness is a Warm Pig
rjbs on 2005-02-14T11:06:43
I will definitely let you know if I have questions. I have been collecting links in my Rubric, here:
http://rjbs.manxome.org/rubric/entries/user/rjbs/tags/guineapigs
A number of sites strongly suggest avoiding cedar, as the oils in it can cause respiratory problems. Also, they say, the oils can cause the piggy urine to crystalize, causing blockages in the males' genitalia.Re:Happiness is a Warm Pig
davebaker on 2005-02-14T15:15:25
Yikes -- never knew that about the cedar shavings! I must admit that I'm using them for the first time with the new pig. Always kept my pigs outside in a wooden pen before (in Florida), using newspaper over hardware cloth. Here in N. Carolina it's too cold (I think) during the winter, so I was trying the rabbit cage/cedar chips thing.Thanks!
