Now that I’m back, I feel comfortable telling you that I spent all last week on a Florida beach. At the time, even bringing it up felt, well, cruel. But now that we’re all suffering together (again) through an extended extreme weather moment, let’s pause to consider the lives of our brainy sea-going fellow mammals, the dolphins.
Dolphins do not have to shovel snow or shiver through a -40 degree wind chill at a Metro Transit stop, and no doubt they would be grateful for that if they had any concept of what it means to wait for a bus.
The closest thing to it may be represented by this video I took with my phone from the back of a Sanibel Island tourist boat called “The Thriller”. I’m more of a casual sailor who is most comfortable on a boat of the putt-putt variety, but when you operate a vessel called “The Thriller” you’re not really expected (or permitted) to take it easy. We had some very intense wind-in-your-hair stretches that the people with hair told me were quite exhilarating. Although the most exciting moments came when we slowed down enough to allow a pod of dolphins to ride our wake across the bay.
I consider this the marine mammal equivalent of waiting for a bus because experts say that dolphins are inclined to ride boat wakes as a way to save energy during travel, and also because they are naturally curious creatures who want to have a good look at what’s going on.
Which makes them somewhat like tourists.
As a tourist, I understand why we enjoy watching dolphins jump, but I’m puzzled at what possible satisfaction dolphins might get from watching us. Yes, it’s natural to come have a look because you’re curious, but once you see it’s yet another boatload of plump, pasty Midwesterners waving their smart phones around, why linger?
What makes you curious?
Trail Baboon 
Good morning. With the wind blowing 30 mph or more and the temperature at well below zero, I think you should have stayed in Florida, Dale. Do you think we really want to hear about your vacation there even thought you are now back here? I guess it is good that you spared us from knowing that you were in Florida while we were here in deep freeze hell.
I wonder about about all kinds of things. I am sort of a generalist who wants to know about lots of things. With wikipedia and the internet available I can find out about just about anything that comes to my attention. Looking up information about stuff on the internet has become something I do frequently.
I am not excessively interested in what other people are doing. Like most people, I do like to do a little gossiping to satisfy my curiosity about other people. I don’t get carried away with intruding on the privacy of others. I can’t resist being a bit of a snoop.
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I’m mortified to learn that Florida’s only in the low 60s because three months ago, I spent a fortune booking a 4-day cruise and paying for airfare for me, my daughter, and two of her daughters. If we can’t lay out in the sun and come home with a mid-winter tan (not to mention having little to do during daylight hours!), it’ll be such an expensive disappointment. As is my MO, I screwed up the airline bookings and wound up paying over $500 per person. We’re leaving this Thursday; home on Monday. Please pray to the weather Gods?!
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Cb, I don’t know where you’re getting your information about the Florida temps. My sources tell me that at the moment it is 79º F in Miami, and that the temperatures for the next ten days will be in the high 70s low 80s. I’m sure you’ll be just fine. Have a great cruise.
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I love, love, love reading this! Thank you so much. I’ve been googling Miami-area weather every day. The cruise trip almost had to be canceled today – my daughter lost her purse with passport, license, credit cards and cash for the trip. Thankfully, the restaurant she’d eaten at last night called to say that they had it!!
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Heck, low 60s sounds downright hot to me. I have to say I’m not too motivated to pray you have warmer weather! (nothing personal.)
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I agree compared to our state, but Florida is normally 25 degrees higher that here and a breezy 60-degree cruise would be a huge disappointment.
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Yesterday I had the refrigerator repair man come out. I made the appointment two weeks ago but they were busy so he called in advance but I was out in the garage trying to figure out how to get my snowblower working again do I could clear the driveway when down the driveway comes the home service plus guy in his Chevy van ready to do his fifteen minute appearance before zipping in and out of as many of life’s problems as he can before the day is done,
I live at the bottom of a football field length pretty steep hill so when he was done my wife came out to the garage to tell me he was having a hard time getting up the driveway. I went out to him and he asked for a bag of kitty litter. I told him I didn’t think that would do anything but provide traction for the next 3feet and handed him the bag. He proceeded to dump the entire contents out within 3 feet of his starting point and asked how many more bags I had . I told him that was it I suggested he call for the tow truck and he complained it would take hours to get the truck out. I pointed out that an hour ago it would have been true too. He called the truck and it pulled him up the hill and away it went. I was curious… Was this guy new? Did he not understand a van with no weight ans no tire tread may have difficulty climbing a hill?
I could believe this of a 10th grader and I would have sympathy as we waited for the tow truck. For the repairman not to understand the way the world works makes me wonder.
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What makes me really curious is what goes on in the minds of people with radically different world views from my own: conservatives, evangelicals, homophobes, gun nuts. I just can’t put myself in their shoes to imagine a coherent perspective, one that could be considered reasonable without making some preposterous leaps.
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I see them as living in dichotomy – black/white; good/bad; right/wrong – and wholly incapable of nuanceing anything at all.
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A subtly tough question for a Monday morning, Dale. I pondered a while and decided I’m with Jim. I’m curious about all the things I don’t know about the world and could spend hours or days perusing the internet, encyclopedias, dictionaries, and non-fiction books.
And my curiosity is a congenital “defect” because I started perusing encyclopedias to pass the time when my older sister started kindergarten and I didn’t have anyone to play with during the day. We had the coolest set of illustrated encyclopedias and US history books designed for children. Although I couldn’t read, I loved looking at the gorgeous pictures on almost every page. What still stands out in my mind are the WW II jets on one page, dinosaurs on another page, and exotic deep sea creatures on yet another page.
Hmm, I suddenly have the urge to go to the library and sit down in front of the encyclopedias. 🙂
Chris in Owatonna
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I have been known to pause and admire the encyclopedias at my local library. Was delighted to have an excuse to introduce them to Daughter last year for a school research project. And, darn it, I made her look at 2 different sets. I loved our red World Book (for kids) encyclopedias when I was a kid.
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Good for you Anna. Maybe setting our kids into the middle of a pile of illustrated encyclopedias will introduce them to the idea that the world has a near-limitless amount of knowledge to be learned. Even better, to be discovered!
Chris
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Darling Daughter has already figured out that if she doesn’t know something, she should ask about it or look it up. Some things she wants my help finding out about, others she has started looking up on her own. What’s rather dear is that when I admit that I don’t know something she admonishes me to look it up (so then I can share what I learn).
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Speaking of “mental defect”, I want to thank those of you who responded so lovingly to my Saturday post on baboondocks. I am indeed having quite an emotional struggle with this stunning information. Just as Renee’s son was helped by going into ballet classes, I’m suspecting that my week end free style dancing is somehow providing the only outlet for “over-expressing” myself. For now, every phone conversation or email I write is done with trepidation and self-consciousness from now knowing that I miss cues as to when to pull back. This is also generating self-doubt, especially after so many years of thinking I’d finally “gotten it right”. Truth be told, I feel like crawling into a hole, but to isolate even more than I have been would be caving into the very aspect of NLD that I must challenge.
I recall an old former supervisor’s notion about the “purpose of life” being to “perfect your personality disorder” and make it work for you rather than against you. In many respects, and without knowing about my NLD, I have indeed “polished” some of my skills and made of them work for me. I am not a quitter after all!
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tim was right; you’re the best CB we got and we like you that way.
And I find things are more scary when we don’t know or understand them. So curiosity sounds like a good way to begin to handle a diagnosis.
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Encyclopedias are fun!
We had a blue set that I think came w/ our 1967 set of Groliers. Book of Popular Science? I read every volume of that set and knew all the pictures. I regret loosing that and curiously was just looking them up on Ebay. I can find another set cheap!
The old ‘Funk and Wagnalls’ set wasn’t as interesting…
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I’m guessing that TBers on average think much more highly of encyclopedias than the average American. Heck, we even have people who can SPELL encyclopedia! 🙂
Chris
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with spell checker
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I’d like to offer that my curiosity is the primary way in which I’ve coped with all these exotic medical challenges for the last four year. Rather than becoming frightened or anxious, I research, ask hundred of questions, and generally go into a detective role. Curiosity is a much, much more productive response than any other. It also helps to remain objective and preoccupied with something other than fear. When people ask me how in the hell I could handle being diagnosed with cancer, my immediate answer is CURIOSITY.
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I am mostly curious about people and what makes them tick. Because of this, I started out majoring in Psych in college, only to find that we weren’t going to be talking about that for many courses – first on the list was Experimental with the rats in the maze. I dropped it and majored in French, another mistake that I won’t go into here!
I wish I’d been as curious then as I am now. Husband has started to order these DVDs – Great Courses – about various topics, and as I read the catalog, I find I’d love to know about… anthropology, opera, anatomy, world religions, various countries’ histories geography… I even watched one of his math programs about Fibonacci numbers. Where’s the best ice cream in the Twin Cities? I heard on the Splendid Table yesterday that there are four distinct regions for what we think of as Thai food – I want to experience them all.
So much to know, so little time!
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I love the Great Courses. I can spend hours perusing their catalogs trying to figure out what to investigate next.
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What piques my curiosity is inconsistencies. Inconsistencies are curious, nagging facts that compel my attention until they can be explained.
Inconsistencies occur in many different forms. There are inconsistencies in what people say, like the person who claims to be happy and yet grumbles and whines nonstop. There are inconsistencies between conventional wisdom and the facts we know about something. There are inconsistencies between what people say they care about and what they actually seem motivated to pursue. There are inconsistencies in the way people behave toward others, treating some with great deference while being rude to others. One of the most common inconsistencies is between the way a person describes himself and the way he might behave. Many people exhibit strong inconsistencies between the values they claim to support and those they actually support.
An inconsistency is a puzzle, an enigma, a mismatch of competing realities. Sometimes the search for the greater reality between inconsistencies leads us to a more complex understanding of the world or of people. Sometimes it leads to simplicity. You cannot know something until you have resolved the most egregious inconsistencies.
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Like Jim, I am a generalist when it comes to curiosity. History, anthropology, physics, art…how math might intersect with something, how does this thing work, what happens when I add this to my cake…If there is any one theme, it is the “how does this work” notion – whether it be an engineering question or a cultural anthropology question. I like what I do for work because I get to do a lot of “how does this work” kinds of thinking and investigating – where does the data come from, how does it interact, what happens if we add this in to the data set. Today I am mostly curious about my ability to stay in my monkey slippers all day – I did get as far as moving into comfy pants and a warm sweat shirt and out of my footie pajamas, but only because at some point Daughter’s friend will get picked up from the “hey, school is closed tomorrow, let’s have a sleepover” day and it seemed somehow more socially acceptable to at least be in yoga pants instead of jammies.
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I don’t know about that, Anna. I go to the store, and I see people what look like pajama bottoms to me. It’s probably a fashion statement of some kind, but what do I know?
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Granted, they aren’t the footie type pajamas.
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I bought some things that I thought were casual pants and wore them around everywhere for a while until I read the inner tag that identified them as pajamas. So much for those comfies.
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Well, okay, so sock monkey slippers might not project, “responsible adult” any more than penguin footie pajamas do. Mostly it was projecting, “hey, I bathed today”…
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My job as a computer programmer and especially as a sometime helpdesk support person requires a good deal of curiosity. Why THIS ONE TIME was the cost calculated incorrectly, why THIS ONE TIME does the inventory reflect the wrong amount? Often it’s not just the one time but it takes an odd confluence of rare events to make it happen. I can really dig deep to try to figure it out.
I have a co-worker who seems very ill-suited to the job. She combines a lack of curiosity with laziness and lack of aptitude. (I could go on about her uselessness for days). I just don’t understand how she can not want to know how/why something works. Then you add in her shorting the company on the hours she works, the 17 sick days per year (when we are allowed 5) and work avoidance and you wonder why the company puts up with it.
I guess I’m curious about that.
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🙂
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The combination of lack of aptitude, with a horse-shit attitude and laziness is deadly.
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It takes the right sort of person, and right sort of curiosity, to figure out tech problems. The QA lead on my team at work has this sort of curiosity, which makes him really well suited for his job. I like to figure out those edge-cases, too, for why this one time the data went astray on its path from point A to point B. Anyone who doesn’t have that sort of curiosity shouldn’t be in tech support.
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The right sort of person with the right sort of curiosity and endless patience. The thing about tech problems is that you know, ultimately, the answer will be logical, because the machine cannot be whimsical. But sometimes the logic is elusive. As someone who relies on his computer for his business but can’t really afford the cost or the time of a professional to troubleshoot and solve his tech problems, I have spent many hours scanning the forums and discussions looking for others that have had similar problems. So far, I haven’t had to call in an expert, but I have on occasion had to spend 6-8 hours figuring out the problem.
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I have done a little entry-level programming on the Mac. Because of that, I have always liked this definition of a computer: a machine that frustrates you to tears by doing what you TOLD it to do instead of what you WANTED it to do.
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You mean to tell me, Linda, that if I pound harder on the keyboard, and do the same thing over and over again, I’l continue to get the same result? And using foul language and throwing things probably doesn’t help either!
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Except when it’s THAT ONE TIME that pounding and cursing actually work.
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The big question today is “why do I live in a place with extremely cold winters?” There was a time when I even thought I might want to try winter camping in a tent out in the snow. Why did I ever think that would be fun?
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With the right gear,Jim, it is fun. Getting out of the sleeping bag in the morning, not so much, but sleeping in the snow is.
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I would be alright with the right gear if I am allowed to bring an electric generator and heater. I would also need some kind of small motorized vehicle to carry the gear. Is that allowed?
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I was never convinced that winter camping would be fun but it would have been MORE fun in those days when we didn’t drag on and on with school-closing-temperature days as we have this winter. A string of 15-30 degree days sounds wonderful about now.
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I have a lot of curiosity about people that are creative. I love to go to art fairs and see what the artists have done with paint, pottery, metal, glass, found objects, or whatever. Some people can make the most beautiful things out of old watch parts or shards of broken ceramics. Even if the artwork isn’t necessarily something that I’d want to purchase, it still stops me in my tracks.
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I am always curious how things work-expecially machines. Loved encylopedias when I was a child. I also am curious about the history of people and things.
I am currently curious about the future for my parents. Three days after our visit last week my mom’s legs gave way as she was walking into the house and she fell brusing up her knees and shins. She is in the hospital. She can’t walk or stand without help. I suspect a massive MS flare up. She will be in swing bed as long as she makes progress in walking and standing. She may need nursing home placement for longer but temporary rehab (or permanent placement) if she can’t go home when she is done in swing bed. My father is angry and irritable with her, trying to hold it together, and, I suspect, pretty scared. I will fly home on Feb. 14 for several days to see what needs to be arranged for the both of them.
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That sounds pretty stressful, Renee. Good luck on your February 14th trip. It’s pretty difficult to have to deal with such a situation long-distance.
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Thanks. This only child with very elderly parents thing really sucks.
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Looking on the bright side, Renee, you won’t be in conflict with siblings over who’s carrying the heavier load. But yes, it can be a crushing responsibility to have to make decisions on your parent’s behalf, especially if they’re not onboard or OK with the decisions you make.
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Too true. I think I feel the worst for my father, who likes to pretend he is in charge but who relies so heavily on my mom for stability and structure.
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set to work with worst case scenario hoping not to have to use it but prepared to plug it in if needed. i hope it all comes around. the loss of ability to live on your own is a huge transition. i hope they are able to make it work.
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Oh, Renee, I wish you the best with all of this.
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Good luck Renee–
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i sure hope you can find some peace renee. it is an impossible position to be comfortable in for all concerned. my heart goes out to you. nothing is harder than acclimating to unwanted choices.
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i have always considered myself lucky to be interested in so many things. virtually everything. if i were able to sit and study things of interest and then move to the next i would be content as could be. making all those decisions that are responsible keeps me form enjoying this on a regular basis,. wouldnt being a dolphin be a trip. zipping around daily to your hearts content and waking up tomorrow to do the same. a mile wide and an inch deep is different than waking up and following the sunshine and the food and the warm water for the days focus. i would be happy as a clam with a life to follow my nose my curiosity and my instincts and desires. it may not be good for me but id be willing to give it a try for a decade or two
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Enjoyed the dolphins, Dale – it’s nice to have you back…
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OT – A couple of musician friends have informed me that Pete Seeger has passed away from Kidney failure t the age of 94. I have this from two reliable, independent sources but have not been able to confirm it. Will miss him, but consider myself very fortunate to have seen him perform live several times. R.I.P. Pete, you so amply deserve to.
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