The Drowning of Aquarius

Today was a couple of things. It was Veteran's day. It was a Wednesday. The ghost of Ida visited, bringing lots and lots of rain. Wednesdays I volunteer at the aquarium. Veteran's day is a free day at the aquarium. We had a lot of visitors, most of them bringing primary-age children with them! It was a busy day for the aquarium and a trying day for me.

Being a professional Grumpy Old Man, I don't get along with children all that well. My first hour was at the craft table, helping the little munchkins make jellyfish -- excuse me, sea jellies -- out of pieces of egg carton and sections of yarn. We used a hole puncher to put holes in the egg carton sections and tie yarn in the holes. The yarn was the tentacles. It was not something that I would EVER have chosen, but I survived and even enjoyed it a bit.

The second hour I was the wandering break guy. I was supposed to check with the volunteers and take the place of anyone who needed a short break -- water, bathroom, etc. That was easy except that only two stations needed my services -- the sea jelly craft table (which I thought that I had escaped!) and the amphibian room.

The amphibian room did not have amphibians, it had munchkins coloring, gluing, and other crafty stuff to amphibian-like things. The good part was that each munchkin had a mommy, so I could just stand around. It seemed to take FOREVER for her to get back. In the meantime I felt obligated to wear the funny frog hat she had! I must have looked very silly. I scared one small child!

The next hour was on the touch tank. I took a spot by the deep end where I don't need to get my hands in the water much. I am usually at the shallow end where I am holding sea stars, sea urchins and sea anemones for visitors to touch -- and explaining that the sea anemone is where Nemo lives. My hands turn into pink prunes! Today my main job was to make sure the visitors know the rules -- touch the critters with one or two fingers, let the volunteers handle the critters, and use the hand sanitizer when you are done. The rest of the time I get to show off what I know. My favorite part! :-)

I was at the sea turtle exhibit for my last hour. It is usually my favorite as I get to sit down, show off, and some of the visitors are familiar with sea turtles so I get to have some interesting conversations and actually learn something. Today though, there were a lot of loud boys, yelling questions at me. I did well, I think, but it was wearing. The worst is when there are siblings rivaling all over the place!

Today I made the 100-hour mark. 100 hours of volunteering. I will get a free membership in the aquarium and get to wear a blue polo shirt with logo instead of a white tee-shirt with logo. Yea!

In case you haven't noticed, there are some name changes. Since jellyfish and starfish are not true fish (no backbone) they are now called sea jellies (or just jellies) and sea stars.

And that is the story from Cape Fear.