2018 Life Logs, Day 279—Soccer, Kayaking, and a New Aquarium
Date: Saturday, October 6, 2018
Weather: Beautiful Fall Day; High 65, Low 58 degrees F
Location: At Home in The Cottage, East Falmouth, MA
Ollie and I had quite a day. We spent our morning going into town to get the supplies we needed to ‘decorate’ our new 10-gallon aquarium. Ollie chose the aquarium gravel, a castle to add to the aquarium, and picked out the fish we would come back and buy after his soccer game in the afternoon. Then we headed back home to wash the gravel and castle and do the final preparations to the aquarium before adding the fish.
I had him watch a couple of YouTube videos about setting up a 10-gallon aquarium and he learned quickly that we could only add a couple of hardy fish today. The advice stated that if the initial two survive the next few weeks as the aquarium finds its balance, then we start adding more fish friends. We barely had time to get the aquarium ready before it was time to head to a 1:30 pm soccer game. Since this is a long four-day weekend for school kids in Falmouth, many kids were not there today. That was really unfortunate as it was the soccer photo day. Not a good choice on the part of the soccer organization, but I guess you live and learn. Ollie’s team had four players and a substitute coach in Jed’s place.
Lucky for our team that two kids from another team got the time mixed up for their game and had no team to play with. So they joined Ollie’s team giving them enough players to hit the field and win the game 4-0.
After the game, Ollie and I went back to the Falmouth Pet Center and bought the two Platies that he had picked out earlier. Platies look like goldfish, but they are tropical fish needing an aquarium thermometer whereas goldfish are cold water critters. Ollie chose one Platy that was all orange with a slightly lighter yellowish center. The other choice was orange with black markings on its tail. The shop owner explained to Ollie that this is what was once called a Mickey Mouse Platy because the black markings on the tail look like a sideways Mickey Mouse. We looked closer, and sure enough, those markings do like Mickey Mouse, big round ears and all. The owner went on to tell us that our two choices are both female and that they might have live babies at some point, even when male is not in the tank. Interesting. I sure have a lot to learn! We stopped by Karen and Peter Baranowski’s on our way home to pick up some oysters Peter had harvested earlier in the day. Karen has an allergy to shellfish and Peter brought home more that he could eat. So we were the lucky recipients. Ollie and I had already bought Pacific salmon and a few clams for dinner, but the oysters and additional clams Peter gave us made for a seafood feast tonight. When Ollie and I got home, we followed the directions for acclimating our new fish to the aquarium and then putting them in.
I am having a little difficulty controlling the water temperature, but I sure hope I now have it right and that our two little Platys will be survivors.
Heather arrived here around 5:30 pm. I thought she had been at a conference on the Outer Cape, but actually she was in Wellesley, near Boston. She had a great two days and was ready for some fun with Ollie. After he introduced her to the aquarium, the two of them went out for a late evening kayak adventure.
Then Heather fixed a clam-oyster-salmon feast while I talked to Justin, Ziggy, and Coco on Skype. It was great to connect with them. After our call ended, Heather, Ollie, and I had a fantastic dinner and I most enjoyable evening together. Great day!
