Wednesday, February 2, 2005 - Today, Yuoo went to a place called a "gounasium," an exercise facility very similar to the human "gymnasium." The word gounasium comes from a Greek word which means "to train in the fur." Today, Yuoo did laps in the swimming pool there, using a technique which he calls "the ear stroke." Afterwards, he jumped off the high-dive a few times, and he eventually retired to the jacuzi and the sauna. While in the dry sauna, Yuoo somehow felt strangely homesick, and he wished that there was desert sand under his paws instead of those wooden floorboards.
Thursday, Feburary 17, 2005 - I think it's time that I told you about Yuoo's friend, Aurrin K. Lightpaw. Like myself, Aurrin's human counterpart is a college student that likes furries. My friend uses Aurrin as both a story character and just a general alter-ego, so Aurrin comes in two different forms. As a character in the story, Aurrin is a fox-like alien from the planet Liksa. Having amazing powers and an extremely long life-span, Aurrin is the hero of an epic story that spans many years and the whole galaxy. On the other hand (or paw, I should say), Aurrin can also be just a general alter-ego for my friend, just your average anthropomorphic reddish-orange furred fox. ;-) In this case, Aurrin is one of Yuoo's pals. They share similar interests, and both of them are followers of Aslan. Yuoo loves to talk with Aurrin about all sorts of things like science, philosphy, religion, history, and most important of all, foxes. Aurrin lives in a place called Garnet.
Friday, February 18, 2005 - Today, Yuoo had a pretty good day. He rode is bicycle to school. Actually, the path from his house to school comes in two parts: a nice, quiet, smooth road with a wide bicycle lane, then a busy road with no bicycle lane and lots of roller-coaster hills on it. Yuoo found a way to bike the smooth part but catch a bus on the crazy part.
Yuoo's bicycle looks a lot like mine, but with a few differences. Most notable is the tail guard. A tail guard protects your tail from getting caught in the chains, gears, or wheels. Also, Yuoo's bike is one frame size smaller than mine. Because it's a digitigrade's bike, the petals are a little further back, and they have slightly larger radius coming away from the gears. I'm sure that there are all sorts of other differences that a furrie bike expert could tell you about, but neither Yuoo nor myself could likely tell you what they are.
At school, the counseling center was sponsering a stress-buster day. There, Yuoo got a free back massage, some quick yoga lessons, and a free slinky toy. :-) In yoga, Yuoo was good in some positions, such as Pouncing Fox, but poor in other positions like Flapping Ostrich.
Wednesday, February 23, 2005 - The school year is now in full swing, so Yuoo got up extra early this morning to work on homework. Today, something upsetting happened. Yuoo was at a clinic today, waiting for an appointment when he saw a female mole checking in at the front desk. She looked like she was feeling very bad, and she suddenly collapsed on the floor unconscious! The harvest mouse lady working at the front desk was very responsive. She called 911, and she the mole's vital signs. A couple of otter paramedics came and helped the poor mole. I hope she's okay. That afternoon, Yuoo took a trip to the Loblolly landfill. Yuoo had an old computer that he wanted to get rid of, but he didn't want to just throw it away, so he took it to the city's recycling center. Yuoo told me he was surprised to see how well things were done there. He was almost expecting it to be a horrible, rotting, lifeless, polluted place, but he found it a very clean, well kept place. Yuoo told me how easy it is to think that all our modern conveniences come at no cost at all, or if they do, it's too messy a cost to think about, but it sure is nice when you see things being done well, and it's nice to meet the creatures responsible for this, muzzle-to-muzzle. Tonight, Yuoo is going to listen to a jazz group play at the library. They're doing this as part of "Brown-Furred History Month," as a way to celebrate and appreciate those in Loblolly with a dark-colored coat of fur. Also, Yuoo stopped by a video game store today where he bought one game (an old classic) and a "zapper." A zapper is a toy gun that you hook up to your video game system. Yuoo got this so he can hunt ducks on the television screen.
Thursday, February 24, 2005 - Oops. I goofed. The jazz performance was actually today not yesterday. Yuoo said he enjoyed it. Although it was held to celebrate Brown-Furred History Month, only two of the player had brown fur. (And one of them, a lizard, had no fur at all.) A red fox was playing trumpet, coronet, and recorder. A creme-furred hare was on bass cello. A green-skinned gecko was on drums. An old, blind, black-furred mole was on piano, and a brown otter played the piano later.