Infinite Universe: May 20th, 2009

This is the least favorite part of my workday. Stuck in the tunnel getting on to "94." Things are lit up like a Christmas tree. Actually it reminds me of Christmas traffic, without the snow.
I miss bike-commuting.
It doesn't always back up this far, usually only on Twins baseball day-game days, but this wasn't one of them. 3:30 PM on a weekday. Hunh. Thank god for audiobooks and punk rock. Why anyone would want to sit in this on a motorcycle or in a convertible is beyond me.
Our highways are stuck in 1967.

Ahh, then arriving at "work" at Springbrook Nature Center, it's time to move the Painted Lady butterflies from one cage to another. Bliss. All is forgiven. Just stick your finger in front of them and they climb aboard.

Note the awesome Gothic tongue sensing apparatus up front. Boioioinnngggg.

Placidity.

Talk about a back-hair problem. Yiy.

Then last Thursday I checked the cages as I came in to determine the priority of poop-scooping and lo and behold the gray corn snake had just dropped twelve eggs and was in process of pushing out number 13! Nyarg. Cleansing breaths, cleansing breaths... We'll get you through this...
I was secretly hoping one would tumble down as it came out so I could get sort of a sequence shot, but snake eggs don't usually "tumble." Actually, they are normally connected together with sort of a "umbilical string", as some of these were. Plus they're sort of rubbery and sticky.
The amazing thing (well, ANOTHER amazing thing) is that she pushed out another five eggs while I was there to make eighteen, then by the end of the next day there were twenty-seven total...! Phew! Take a breath!