Madeleine Monday

Our little escape artist at the City Museum before the trouble started. She likes the ball pit and loves all the slides. After this first trip down she of course wanted another. We watched her climb the one flight of stairs. Instead of turning right to the top of the chute, she turned left and headed to the outdoor area, resulting in a twenty minute search. So these are all the usable pictures I got. Pretty much out of material and need to do some hunting.     

Seeing eye dogs, eyes, and balloons

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It's not every day that you see a guide dog; but today I saw TWO.
This beautiful mature one stayed quietly at its master's feet in the Wilhelmina Auditorium from 9:00  to 2:30.

Beer Sheva's Soroka Hospital gave a study day about various eye problems and treatments.
How the dog sat through all those lectures I don't know.
Poor thing was too low to even see the slides on the screen.

One of the talks included videos of eye surgery, including sticking needles into the eye.
Oi, not for the faint of heart!  But amazing what the surgeons can do to save vision.

Comic relief came unintentionally, haha! 
At the end of the day the Eye Department balloon decorations had somehow gravitated to the EXIT stairwell and the old folks were trying to climb through them.

Then at my bus stop a sweet younger dog was waiting for the bus.
Her jacket says she is a guide dog for the blind puppy in training.

The bus stop is right outside Ben-Gurion University of the Negev.
Many students there volunteer to take such puppies into their homes for a year and go everywhere with them in order to socialize them.

You can see how the Israel Guide Dog Center for the Blind works in my earlier post.
And this post shows some playful puppies at the President's open house.
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(Linking to Camera Critters.)
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Tough Day At The City Museum

Here and there I've had posts about  St. Louis' City Museum. There is nothing like it in the world and it's hard to describe. (The Wikipedia article gives it a good try.) Mrs. C and I took Ellie there yesterday. She gave us a hard time and I got little shooting done.

The child is four and a half. She has complete social confidence and little sense of fear. The building is a maze of tunnels and big climbing things, and on three occasions she ran off from us to explore on her own. Each time we had to get museum staff to help find her. Each time we gave her a stern lecture but to no avail. She needs to learn some limits.

The bottom two pictures are from a new area that has a large net suspended over giant Legos. Ellie spent twenty minutes bouncing around the net (that's her, just up and to the right of center, in the sweater with horizontal, brightly colored stripes). I walked under the edge to get some video but some kid kicked me in the head. Time to go home.                

Why A Duck?

Well, you can find out here.

Some creative person got permission to erect this waterfowl in a pocket park on South Grand Boulevard. It is made of scrap cardboard, tape and varnish. What's it all about? A writer once said that a poem should not mean, but be. Same thing here. The artist intends to let it stand until it falls apart through weather or vandalism. (No sign of the latter, happily.) Another reminder of impermanence.

It's Not All Pretty

Not everything in the art museum during the flower show was cheery and colorful. I turned around from one arrangement and found Auguste Rodin's Despair. No crowd around this piece. Note the curled toes and characteristically large hand covering the head and face. The smooth, muscular body lies on rough rock. But, if you chose to, you could move on the the next group of blossoms and whistle a happy tune.