Chipmunks and FileMaker security

The doctor used the "D" word. Not "death", but "diabetes". As in, you're on the edge. Consider exercise, weight loss, a more healthy diet. And so, having already survived the "C" word (thus far successfully) and not much wanting to deal with other major forms of bodily deterioration, I took a look at the National Zoo. As in, that place that's right next door, opens its gates at 6 AM and which I visit maybe three or four times a year. Let's go see what it looks like in the morning.

I have to say that a 40-minute walk down and up Olmstead Walk (with suitable detours for cheetahs, seals, etc.) is well worth setting the alarm an hour earlier. A week into this, I have it down to a routine. 5 AM, and the Biber Rosary Sonatas (disc 2, track 4, Easter sunrise) start playing. Allow an hour for bath (TRY not to fall asleep in the tub!) and dressing, another half an hour for breakfast (a bowl of instant oatmeal, a glass of orange juice, the latter required by my new blood pressure medication) and try to get out by 6:30, although 6:45 is still acceptable. Then set off up Connecticut at a brisk walk; I'm not yet sanguine enough about my aging body to expose it in running shorts, and although running DOWN Olmstead walk might be practicable, running UP it is not something I'm going to attempt any time soon.

Through the gates on Connecticut Avenue; the new Sloth Bear exhibit is looking good, and should open soon; I understand the bears are in there somewhere, although I can't get close enough to see them. Learning to suck meal worms from tubes, forsooth, so they can feed from artificial termite mounds! Past the admin building and miscellaneous workmen, who share the Zoo with joggers at this hour. Check out the developing sunrise, which varies from a simple slide through pink and green to full-scale Baroque cloud-drama. Here are the cheetahs. Do we make a side loop? If so, we greet some big leggy cats and the smaller but equally leggy Maned Wolves who, improbably, smell like skunks. Back on Olmstead: here's the entrance to the panda compound. No pandas are visible at this hour, but we can admire the souvenir stands. And here's where we can head off on the side-path with the bridge, the bird house, and the wolves and seals. Otherwise, it's down past the giraffes (sometimes out and about at this hour), the Przewalski's horses (usually out) and the shuttered Small Mammal and Great Ape houses. Here's the reptile house, and in back of it the invertebrates. Both closed this early, alas. But this is not the time to go greet the polychaete worms. So around we go, past the path to the great cats, past the prairie dog colony (Why aren't they up this early? Seems to me they should be.) and various admin buildings, restrooms, restaurants, gift shops. Then down to the end of Olmstead and the Kids' Farm, where the four miniature donkeys are being led out on leashes like so many big dogs. With luck, by this time we have passed some interesting birds (cardinals in pairs, catbirds singly), gray squirrels and the odd tail-up chipmunk. Then back up we climb, past the pinnipeds if we didn't come down past them. I do miss Norman, but his surviving widow has been joined by two young California Sea Lion teenage girls, who play like kittens underwater. They have also added three Brown Pelicans, who are usually doing wonderful dino-bird stretching exercises on the rocks. About half the time the Mexican Wolves are out. The beavers are always still in bed, but you can see them twitching on their webcam. Not sure where the otters are. We are supposed to have Golden Lion Tamarins in the trees; someday I'll have to stop and look for them. Then uphill past the "Future Site of Shroeder's Crater" (a mystery I shall have to solve), the panda or the elephant yards, and back up Olmstead to the gates. Round trip, 40 minutes. I am wonderfully winded and more than a little sweaty when I reach the apartment. And it's time to go to the office.

Where, having finally acquired our FileMaker upgrade licenses (hooray for federal end-of-year money!) I actually have to start writing code. But first, I study. Today I started in on the security documentation. Because, given the complexity of the application, the first thing we will need is a robust multi-file login system. Time to experiment and make messes and try all sorts of interface derangements and learn at least two new web technologies. I have at least a year, and possibly two, of being paid to play intensively. Oh my.

And in the morning, if I'm lucky, there will be chipmunks.