life gets in the way and shows the way!

i can't believe it's been a couple of months since i've updated this 50@50 blog and only a month a half to go before my 50th year is over!!

believe it or not, i have done some stuff, but damn if i can remember what they were. old age?

one of the most interesting and fun, however, was witnessing (via webcam) the live birth of a baby giraffe!

what?? i know, right? get out! shut up!!

background: i live very close to the greenville zoo which is home to autumn and walter, two masai giraffes. well, it seems as though walter and autumn got jiggy, and autumn became pregnant.

giraffes take their sweet time about birthing . . . 15 months to be exact.

a couple of weeks before autumn was due, the greenville zoo sent out an announcement about her pregnancy and that she would be due "any day." they even had giraffecams set up so you could watch autumn and walter in their barn and in their paddock outside.

well, "any day" stretched into two weeks. two weeks where i became enamored with autumn (i'm a BIG giraffe fan) and started monitoring the webcam constantly. yes, this also meant work productivity suffered, but really, productivity is a relative term.

well, fast forward to a monday night. normally, as you know, i would be watching monday night football. well, the game was of no interest to me, so i meandered over to facebook where my friend dottie was talking about the giraffecam. which reminded me that i hadn't checked in. and, lo and behold, AUTUMN WAS IN LABOR!

i was hooked from that moment on, until shortly before midnight, when a baby giraffe was born, live, on the webcam, in front of my eyes. he was little...and blue...and not moving...and the suspense was palpable.

then, some breathing. then, a twitch. and another twitch, and then a leg moves. then another. and the next thing you know, there's a moving baby giraffe. but the best part . . . then there's a baby giraffe who is trying to walk. and, within an hour, walk he did. to see that is just a reminder of the beauty and power of life.

 

[autumn, kiko, walter]