Tag Archives: observations

The Tiger King

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While we are all at home during this COVID-19 period, a lot of us are watching our streaming services and some of their original programming.  I am no exception. However, I would have been watching Netflix’s The Tiger King even if I hadn’t been in this “shelter at home” situation. Why?  Because this madness occurred just 30 miles north of where I live and I have actually been to the GW Exotic Zoo twice! Now for the rest of the story.

The GW Exotic Zoo has been in business for many years.  I have seen the signs on Interstate 35 any time I travel further than 30 miles north.  I always wondered what was actually there, but never went. Over the years I learned from others in our community that it was supposed to be a place that took in wild animals that had been in circuses, surrendered by people who had them in their homes, or other bad situations.   Awe, now that was a wonderful thought for me and something I could definitely get behind. A place where these abused or neglected animals could be cared for and be safe for the rest of their lives. Well, that indeed is how it started, but certainly not the end of the story. If you haven’t watched I certainly don’t want to tell you all the gory details, but I would like to share a few of my thoughts and experiences of visiting the Zoo and watching the program.

My first trip to the Zoo was in the summer of 2011.  My grandson was 3 years old and he and his mom were coming for their annual summer visit and we were looking for things to do while they were here.   My daughter and I both have very tender hearts when it comes to animals and we decided to go see this animal rescue zoo. Quite frankly, it was a wonderful experience.  Now remember, we went thinking these were all rescued animals being cared for. The place was clean, the staff seemed very knowledgeable and you could really see the animals up close.  They even had another area at the back of the park that you had to pay extra for, but it was a guided tour by a staff member. They talked to you more about each animal, where they came from and the things they did to care for them.  

I think what surprised us the most was the fact that they had way more than just tigers.  There were lions, bears, monkeys, wolves, alligators, and ligers, just to name a few. There were also interesting looking chickens wandering the grounds which was fun to watch.  It was almost like being at a farm. The enclosures were of varying sizes and some were very spacious. We were told that they were able to feed all of these animals with the help of Walmart who provided them with meat & chicken that was about to expire.  I even thought, great job Walmart. As we walked through the Zoo at our own pace, periodically you would hear a lion roar. And let me tell you, that is quite a sound. The entire park seemed to rumble. At the end of our experience, you could pay to hold a baby tiger, which we did.  My naive self just assumed the baby tigers came from a rescued animal that just happened to be pregnant. When we returned home after our visit, we were very impressed and decided we would go back again someday. My husband and my son also wanted to go with the next time.

Copy of IMG_3943Fast forward to the summer of  2017. According to the show, Jeff Lowe was now the owner of the Zoo because of all the money problems Joe was having.  Two grandkids now coming with their mom for their annual summer visit. We decided it was time to go back to the GW Exotic Zoo with my husband and son joining in the fun.  While the kids enjoyed seeing the animals, it was a much different experience for me and my daughter this time. The place was not as clean and the smell of animal feces in July in southern Oklahoma was overwhelming.   Of course, the kids wanted to play with a baby tiger, so we again paid for them to do that. That was a bit different too. Last time it was outside in an enclosure with fresh air and a breeze. This time it was inside of a non-air conditioned small room full of flies.  We, of course, had a zoo staff member there with us but our “baby tiger” was too mature for that experience and way too “playful” if you know what I mean. Again, I didn’t question why they always had baby tigers…..

So I sit down to watch this program and think I know what I’m going to see, but I was not prepared for what I would see, what I would learn and how it would make me feel.  Let’s explore that:

First off, I knew the zoo owner Joe Exotic was an unusual guy.  I understand that on a completely different level now. I don’t believe I saw him on either trip to the facility.  My son saw him in the park in July 2017 and recalls he was running around getting ready to film something. I had heard he was gay but didn’t know he had two husbands until the second one accidentally killed himself 3 months after our last visit there.   I recall Joe running for President in 2016 and for our Governor in 2018. I just assumed it was just a publicity stunt. When you see him in the show riding in the nighttime Christmas parade while he was running for governor, that’s my town! That was the year I didn’t attend that parade.  Look what I missed. I also was unaware of the feud with Carole Baskin in Florida. I didn’t watch his internet show that was highlighted in the series nor did I even know he had a show. So when he was arrested in September of 2018 for trying to have her killed, I was stunned. I also didn’t realize they were suing each other and that he owed Carole a lot of money, that he did not have.    My emotions about Joe went from thinking he was entertaining to wreckless, desperate, dangerous and finally, just very sad. He is still an active topic for our state and local news agencies from jail.

Secondly, I never really noticed when visiting the park that his staff members were such misfits. I don’t recall the people working in the souvenir office to be unusual and I never noticed “unusual” souvenir items on the shelves as we saw in the show.  I guess I didn’t look very closely at all the items that were available for purchase. With small children in tow, we probably just looked at child-appropriate items. So when the show focused on several staff members who were close to Joe who had no teeth and appeared to have severe substance abuse issues, it was eye-opening.  Especially those walking through the park with guns on their hips. I think the show eluded to Joe’s second husband being under the influence of something when he accidentally kills himself, incidentally while the park is open with customers just 3 months after our last visit.

Thirdly, the animals.  I believe I cried at some point in EVERY episode about the animals. That was the real tragedy of the story for me. The show uncovers a lot of things I didn’t want to know about their care or lack thereof.    I love animals and it made me feel that my trip to see them at the zoo was helping to allow their abuse. I am sorry I ever went. On a positive note, one of our local news channels reported last night that 39 tigers and 3 black bears are living in an expansive habitat in a Colorado Sanctuary.  Well, that’s a start.  

In conclusion, Jeff Lowe, the current owner of the park is moving the zoo to a community 30 miles south of me near the Red River.  I will never visit his facility and I will encourage others to not visit his facility. Oh and now I have started watching Ozark Season 3 and I won’t be visiting the Lake of the Ozarks or Osage Beach.  YIKES.

Observations

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Bluebonnet 2Keith and I had to make a quick trip to Austin and back this weekend. His dad, a World War II veteran, has been selected to go on the Honor Flight, which takes WWII vets to Washington DC to show them their memorial, along with other military memorials. It is quite an honor and is a wonderful thing for these men who have given so much to this country. Keith is getting to go with his 93 year old dad as his guardian so off to Austin we go for a Saturday morning orientation.

Austin, Texas is about five hours away and any trip in the car for that long gives my mind the opportunity to wonder, think, ponder and observe. So here are some of my observations.

Observation #1: The traffic from Fort Worth to Austin is TERRIBLE. In addition to the traffic, there always seems to be road construction. So you are whipping along at 75 mph, then you are slowed to 60, then to 70 then to 65 then to 75. Kind of like a roller coaster. Then there are the concrete barriers on both sides of the road you must maneuver through.   When traveling through those areas on the highway with concrete barriers, it always seems that right next to you is an 18 wheeler. As you work your way through, praying to get through, you are wondering, is there really enough room between these two concrete barriers for me and this 18 wheeler? Apparently there is, but I’m holding my breath each time.

Observation #2: Bluebonnets are beautiful! From about Ft Worth all the way to Austin and all around are the most beautiful bluebonnets. It is that time of year when they are blooming and they were standing tall and were spectacular. They always make me smile when I see them. Some of them were so thick and covered so much area that it looked like a beautiful blue blanket. The site of them made me want to go and lay down in the middle of them. Still smiling thinking about them.

Observation #3: Need for Speed. Keith and I usually trade off driving when we go longer distances. So it’s my turn and we are just south of Ft Worth heading down the 75 mph stretch of I-35 which is awesome. I can drive 75 and not feel guilty. As I’m driving along, a Texas highway patrolman passes me doing about 80. I noted to the Keith that Mr. Patrolman was not doing the speed limit. Ha Ha Ha, are they ever? We moved on for another few minutes when I noticed something in my rearview mirror. It was a car coming very fast up my right side doing WAY MORE than 75. I said to Keith, get ready for what’s about to come up on your right. At just that moment a little Mercedes doing about 90-95 zoomed pasted us and before we could say anything there was a Jaguar chasing it. It literally looked like they were seeing who could get to Austin first. They were zipping in and out of cars like a NASCAR race. About that time it dawned on me, if they aren’t careful, they are going to whip right around Mr. Highway Patrol Man, who I could still see ahead of me. Pretty soon around the bend we saw flashing lights and I thought, could it be???? The answer is nope, it was some Ford F150. I don’t know what happened to Mr. Mercedes and Mr. Jaguar, but I’m sure they got to Austin before we did and apparently with no speeding ticket.

Observation #4: What is taking so long? We finally arrived at our hotel in Austin and we were pooped. It’s late, we were tired and we really need to find a restroom. But we need to get checked in. I have never seen two people working the check in counter at a hotel move any slower. Really it’s true. I thought for a moment we might have been on Candid Camera or 20/20. They would start to work on getting us checked in and then they would stop and chat, or someone would come by with a question. All the time, I could see the lines forming between Keith’s brow, which I know means, “I am about to lose my patience.” I offered to stand there while the two hotel staff members chit chatted so he could find the restroom, but he insisted it shouldn’t take much longer. Well it did take longer and again, I offered. This time my normally very patient husband, furrowed his brow even further and said, with a slightly elevated and stern voice, “I’m sure it won’t take much longer, will it?” The clerk popped to attention and said, “No sir, not much longer”.

Observation #5: Getting out of your routine. I have heard it said that it is good to shake up your routine sometimes. Get out of your comfort zone. Live a little. Well all this may be good and I agree to a point. But, if you are a caffeine junky like I am and CANNOT function in the morning unless you have sat quietly for 30 minutes and sipped your hot cup of coffee, then I wouldn’t suggest changing your routine. Changed mine yesterday, paid for it all day…..Waiting a couple of hours to get that first cup of coffee, not good.

Observation #6: Sure are a bunch of old people here. Let me tell you, my 90 year old mother-in-law is a hoot and sharp as a tack. While we were sitting through the orientation ceremony Saturday morning for the Honor Flight for 120 World War II veterans, she leaned over and said, “There sure are a bunch of old people here.” You think?   She is a doll.

Observation #7: Siri knows Austin. Keith decided he needed new running shoes and he selected several stores in Austin that specialized in running shoes for us to visit. Neither of us knew how to get around in Austin so we put the address in our IPhone and Siri mapped us out the route we needed to take to visit store #1, which was the store Keith really wanted to shop in. Siri took us right into the trendy section of Austin along the river with apartments, condos, restaurants, running trails, and dog parks. Everywhere we looked people had on workout clothes and were walking or running. There were lots of people walking dogs and I loved it when we passed a dog park full of people and dogs. It was so much fun to see this in a community. We finally made it to Keith’s running shoe store and guess what, it was closed for inventory. Siri, to the rescue. On to store #2.

Observation #8: Furniture shopping, the good and the bad. Keith and I will need a few new furniture items when our new home is finished. We have looked at furniture in Ardmore, have made two trips to Mathis Bros in OKC and several other places in OKC. I find something I like, he’s not crazy about it. He finds something he likes, I’m not crazy about it. It has been oddly stressful. So we are driving back to Oklahoma and on the north end of Austin on I-35 there is an Ashley Furniture Home Store. We decided to walk through, what could it hurt. OMG. They had everything we needed AND Keith and I were in agreement. Had Hell just frozen over, what was happening?   Well I’ll tell you what was happening, we were 5 hours away from home and this store doesn’t deliver that far. Our hearts sunk, until we found out that there are at least three of these stores in the Dallas area, which probably will deliver. Our quest for furniture continues….

Observation #9: I need a little down time. Got up this fabulous Sunday morning to rain and an enormous amount of laundry to be done, along with my deceased father’s tax return looming over my head and reading assignments for my EFM class. But I knew that before I could tackle anything, COFFEE WAS NEEDED. In fact, I had 2 big cups of coffee while I sat motionless in the recliner with both dogs in my lap watching a couple of items recorded on the DVR. Still not much energy, so Keith went off to church without me. But I have slowly been moving forward and have accomplished several things, it has been very quiet and my two adorable dogs have provided me with many opportunities to scratch their bellies and rub their necks. Truly therapeutic and just what I have needed.

Observation #10. I need another day off, but work will be calling tomorrow. Back to the craziness.

Stay At Home Moms – Hardest Job in the World

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Water Trees

I have just returned from spending four full days of witnessing the hardest job in the world, that of a stay-at-home mom.  I have always wondered what it would have been like if I could have stayed home and taken care of my kids as they grew up, instead of sending them to day care while I worked a full-time job.  My circumstances never afforded me that opportunity, but yet I have always dreamed of it.  I’m thinking now that maybe God knew what he was doing when that was not an opportunity for me.  I am pretty sure that during that time of my life, it would have been a disaster.

My daughter and her husband have made the decision for my daughter to be a stay at home mom.  She loves it 95% of the time and that is what she wants to do.  Well let me tell you, I am exhausted just watching the activities in that house for the last four days.  First off, a stay at home mom IS NEVER OFF THE CLOCK.  From before the first child opens their eyes in the morning until the last dish is put in the dishwasher well after they have gone to bed, she is NEVER off duty.  Now some might say that a mother working outside the home has it just as hard and I would agree, but it’s a different kind of hard.  I was one of those mothers working outside the home.  I still had to come home and cook dinner, wash clothes, clean the house, bathe kids and get them to bed every night, in addition to working a full-time job.  I remember being stressed about it because I had NO help, just me, all me, all the time.  Let me be clear, BOTH circumstances are difficult and we all just do the best we can because we love our children more than life itself and they are our priorities for many years.

In looking at my experience and my daughter’s experience, the main difference I see immediately is that while I was at work for 8 hours, I got to talk to other adults.  My daughter does not, unless she calls me on the phone or gets a call from her husband.  While I was not at home, the house did not get any dirtier, no additional dishes got dirty and the same clothes that were dirty when I left the house that morning would still be dirty when I got home.  My weekends were when I “tried” to get caught up.  At my daughter’s house, you cannot keep up with the dishes.  By the time you get the breakfast dishes done, it’s time for lunch, and then before you know it, it’s time for dinner.  Toys are played with all day all over the house.  By the time you get some of the things back where they belong, they start pulling it all out again.  Sometimes she just waits until the end of the day when she can just do it one time, but that leaves her house looking like a bomb went off all day, which she doesn’t like.    My conversations at work could be, what did you do this weekend, did you see that movie Friday night, and what do you think about this or that.  Every conversation my daughter has throughout the day is trying to get children to eat, be quiet, pick up their things, play nicely, quit running, quit yelling,  let’s change your diaper, do you need to pee, where are your clothes, did you brush your teeth, let’s get dressed, let’s take a bath, let’s read a book, why are you crying …..  So I know when she calls me while I’m at work during the day, I know she is just needing to hear the sound of a friendly voice and the voice of another adult.

On a good day she tries to be showered and ready to go by the time they get up.  Now what I mean by a good day would be if she has had maybe 6 hours of uninterrupted sleep where she can physically crawl out of bed and make it to the shower.  Most days I think she would think she had died and gone to heaven if she was to get 6 hours of uninterrupted sleep, let alone 7 or God forbid 8.   You know what happens to a stay at home mom when she does not get enough sleep?  One of her eyes twitches for days, her eyes are hollow and have dark circles under them, her eyes have no spark, she has less patience and many days are ended with a pretty significant headache.  I do not know how she functions in such a sleep deprivation mode.  The four days I was there, she was like a walking zombie, but she just chugs right along.  She is a trooper.  She is literally, SUPER MOM.

Bedtime is a very difficult process.  Molly goes down most nights without a hitch.  She is the second child and most of us have learned what to do and what not to do by this point.  My daughter is no exception.  Molly is gathered up with all her blankets, sleeping buddies, she waves goodbye, gives goodnight kisses and to bed she goes.   Miracle child.  Then there’s Max, the first child.  Max is almost 5 ½ and will not go to bed without a major conflict.  I notice that about an hour before bedtime it is as if he has been wound up like a toy doll and is just bouncing off the walls.  He knows bed time is coming and he doesn’t want any part of it.  He is so tired by bedtime that he is uncontrollable with many emotions that come into play.  All children go through the process of not wanting to go to bed; my son was the same when he was Max’s age and they do finally grow out of it, thanks be to God.  If I had a dollar for every time Max got out of bed while I was there, I probably could have paid for my airline ticket out there.  Now you can play his game and keep sending him back to bed, which is done with lots of tears and sometimes loud outbursts, which now become a problem because you don’t want him to wake Molly.   So if you are as tired as my daughter usually is and on the brink of physical collapse, after about the tenth time he has gotten out of bed, you just give in and go lay in his bed with him until he falls asleep, which is just what he wants.  Game, set, and match goes to Max.

So here’s to my daughter and all stay-at-home moms out there, you are all awesome!  You are doing an amazing job and you all have more courage and tenacity than I ever had.  To my daughter, you are an amazing mom, an inspiration to me and I’m very proud of you.  Hang in there, it will get better.