Staring at the Sun

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On Monday, a day the earth didn’t end after all, Kongo was in San Diego for a conference.  He had some time on his hands in the morning so off he went to some of his favorite haunts in Balboa Park.  It turns out about 10,000 others had the same idea. Outside the Reuben E, Fleet Space Center at the park a whole troop of astronomers and wannabe star gazers gathered to watch the TOTAL ECLIPSE OF THE SUN.  Everyone got into the act, both young and old.  It was lots of fun watching people watching. Of course it wasn’t…

August Birthdays

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August is birthday month at Kongo’s house.  In this monkey troop if your birthday isn’t in August, well it just doesn’t count.  Of course that’s not completely true but with birthdays on the 11th, 18th, 22nd, and 25th there is a lot of celebrating to do.  Kongo and his two sons are all a week apart and the newest granddaughter, Persephone, jumped into the August club three years ago.  Whenever possible, and this is most years, the family all gathers to have one giant celebration sometime in August.  We did it yesterday! Naturally the three year old took center stage…

Ventura County Fair

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Kongo went to the fair today.  Gentle readers may recall that the monkey really, really likes fairs.  Bigley.  His favorite fair is the Del Mar fair in San Diego but since he now lives in Ventura County the local fair has to do.  It’s about a third the size of the Del Mar Fair but it’s a fair and Monkeys can pretty much have fun wherever they are.  This year was special in that he was able to go with his #3 granddaughter.  A Daenerys Stormborn Targaryen look-alike named Persephone. Persephone doesn’t have any dragons yet but just give her…

Roman Monkey Garden Tour

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So, a few blogs ago Kongo let it slip out that he was now a docent at the Getty Villa in Malibu.  The Villa is part of the Getty Museum complex in Los Angeles.  The Villa houses the Getty’s collection of Greek, Roman, and Etruscan artifacts and the architecture is designed after a real Roman villa discovered beneath 100 feet of volcanic material in Herculaneum on the Bay of Naples in Italy.  Herculaneum along with Pompeii and a few other Roman towns were completely buried when Mt. Vesuvius blew its top on August 24 in A.D. 79. Anyway, back to…