Blog Action Day

A memory to commemorate Blog Action Day. There are things that I remember from my childhood that often make me go "hmmm". For instance, as a child (around 5 years old and painfully shy) I would not hug my grandmother's brother because he could not talk due to a stroke and to this day I regret it. In middle school, my mother arrived home to me crying uncontrollably about a commercial I had just seen. I believe the commercial was for a telephone company but it had a elderly man asking his daughter where his hat was. "Dad its on your head." Looking back, the man had Alzheimer's Disease. The "hmmm" of this story is that my first job out of college and for the next eight years was working with elderly individuals in a adult day care. Many of them attended the center due to strokes and Alzheimer's Disease.

How does this relate to Blog Action Day? Here is my next "hmmm" story. To those of you who know me, know I love whales. I have a tattoo of one. I have gone on whale watching tours. I adopted one. I own Free Willy and the Life magazine about Kiko. I yelled very loudly for my boyfriend to hurry up on the Oregon Coast because I saw one. I admit I cried after watching the orca show at Sea World.
I grew up in Tazewell County, many miles from an ocean much less a whale of any kind. I don't know what triggered my whale obsession. I remember having a book but not what it said. I don't know if Mutual of Omaha's Wild Kingdom had a special but, I remember a time when I was in elementary school where I decided to make flyer's and post them around my neighborhood (a dead end dirt road with thirteen houses on it, two of them being family in addition to my neighbors). My flyer's were to "Save the Whales" with a crude drawing of a sperm whale on it. I am sure I drew the spout also. I wonder what my neighbors thought?! It's amazing that these animals are still such a fascination for me: ask Todd about my excitement in Oregon. They also still need my (our) help. There are nine species of whales on the endangered list. Currently there are 936 endangered animals on just the vertebrae list. It is us who is taking away their habitat, needing makeup from their fat, or polluting the waters that are endangering these animals (and plants). Research how you can help. Look at other blogs that participated in the Blog Action Day. Make a contribution. Any small amount is a step in the right direction.