Wow--what a week it has been at the Lincoln Home! Something kind of exciting happened this afternoon in downtown Springfield: a big rig blew up. It was a few blocks away from us, so we didn't have to close the park or anything, but there was a big plume of smoke that came through. I didn't even know it had happened--I was in the house at the time--but then there was this weird smell in the air. I just thought that someone on my tour had really bad gas, but then I noticed that the smell got worse when I went outside, and I later found out what had happened. Luckily no one was hurt. Then the other day I got to ride in the Ranger patrol car!! It is such a sweet ride. Even though our park only encompasses four blocks, Ranger David, one of our Law Enforcement guys, loves to drive the patrol car around the park. I needed to go pick up a key from him the other day, so I was walking down to his office but saw that he had the Ranger patrol car out in the street. A gentleman had fallen on one of the boardwalks, so David was tending to the man's first-aid needs. After the man was taken care of, David asked me if I wanted to ride back to the office in the patrol car! Even though I was only in there for about 10 seconds while we drove around the corner, it was still pretty cool. I definitely wouldn't want to be in the back of that car though--behind the bars! Then the other day I had to give a tour to a group of crazy Chinese businessmen. They were seriously out-of-control. They had to have an interpreter because they didn't speak any English, and that made the other people on the tour mad because they thought everything was taking too long. I don't know what the interpreter was telling the Chinese guys, but they were SO loud and unruly. I couldn't keep them contained in the rooms we were going through, and they kept wanting to wander off and touch everything. Finally I got some help from some other rangers, but it was a pretty messed up tour. Also, I am so tired of 8th graders!!!! Speaking of China and 8th graders, 8th graders need to be shipped off to China--then they can come back when they are adults. All of the other school group ages have good and bad kids--but 99.9999% of the 8th graders are either: a) bored--they really don't want to be there b) waaaay too cool to be there c) smart alecs who think they are really funny--but they are not d) oblivious to everything going on around them. I have found that as it gets toward the end of my week, I get a little cranky around the kids, but I'll try to be nice for one more day :-)
Poor Greg keeps getting injured by our animal children. A couple of weeks ago Lily gave him a pretty good slice on his thumb. She and he play a game where he bites her on the back and she bites him on the ear, but it got a little out-of-control, and she wanted no more of it. So she pulled out her claws and jumped out of his arms, but caught his thumb on the way. Then the worst injury occurred last night when Big Spike bit Greg's finger. Big was supposed to go into his bedroom, but he went and hid under the couch instead. When Greg tried to pull him out, Big chomped down on Greg's finger and almost went clear through it. Big got in BIG trouble!!!! Greg's finger looked pretty bad, but we disinfected and bandaged it up last night. Hopefully he will be okay!