Philadelphia- on the eve of the country's 230th birthday.



We started the day with run through Society Hill and down to Penn's Landing, brewed a pot of coffee, brushed Slayer (the biggest cat I ever had the honor to meet) walked Bela and made breakfast.

Bela...I never thought a dog could get so much attention. A white standard poodle, she reeks of a certain stage-presence countenance that makes me think she comes from a long line of show
dogs. Anyway, she is used to receiving attention and has a keen eye for anyone who wishes to pet her. She does a good job of ignoring anyone else.








Cookie is the third in the triumvirate. She is skinny, old and looks as if she has a beard. We are fairly certain she is a witch reincarnated. We think she roams around at night casting spells on parts of the house for good luck, continuing operation and structural stability. As she is a good witch, all spells are positive.

There is an indoor atrium and a small pond with goldfish. Because these fish were trained by the Hearns to eat out of their hands, they have no problem approaching anything submerged or breaking the surface of the water. This includes the cats' tongues. Probably one of the oddest sights ever witnessed by my own two... a cat drinking out of a goldfish pond and the fish expectantly approaching. The cat eventually retreats; my guess is it is too "wierded out" by the experience.

Polly and I went to go see An Inconvenient Truth, the Al Gore movie about global warming. While I was initially uncomfortable about seeing it (the title plainly addresses the source of my discomfort), I thought it was well done, humorous and hopeful. I left very pleased we walked to the theater.

Go to http://www.climatecrisis.net/ to see the movie's affiliated web site. Make sure to mute your sound as the theme music is a bit "Jerry Bruckheimer" and degrades the credibility of the site.






Afterwards, Polly and I walked Bela again, this time to sit on the grass in front of Independence Hall for a concert with the Philly Pops Orchestra and a reading of the Declaration of Independence (http://www.ushistory.org/Declaration/document/).