Another Squirrel Post, But With Less Death

In my previous squirrel-related blog post, I pondered the briefness and finality of life, but in this one you're not getting any of that, just squirrels. Penn State has a lot of them. I'm pretty sure all colleges have their own distinct population of squirrels, just as we do. Penn State even has a resident Instagram squirrel sensation, Sneezy the Penn State squirrel. Sneezy happens to be a very friendly squirrel who enjoys wearing hats. The first time I heard about Sneezy I was totally befuddled as to how someone could make a wild rodent pose for a picture and even wear clothing. The pictures are great, but I know that not all squirrels are as complacent or friendly as others.

I believe it was the first month or so into the fall semester I decided to eat outside of the HUB and enjoy the relatively cool air after it rained earlier that day. The chairs and tables were still wet, which meant no one would bother to eat outside, meaning I was by myself in relative peace. Not to far from my table was a girl who had a similar idea. She was working on her basket of fries when suddenly, a wild squirrel hopped onto the table and assaulted her food! I watched as this vicious little squirrel stole all of this poor girl's fries as she hopelessly stared at the squirrel with abandon, the rest of her lunch quickly reduced to nothing.

There is a reason why zoos, parks, and beaches post signs saying, 'do not feed the animals.' For one, it's a threat to their health if an irresponsible human feeds them something that their digestive system can't handle, and it also makes the animals dependent on human sources of food. This is where we see the rampant seagull and pigeon populations. We as a species have a very bad habit of letting ourselves succumb to the small pleasure of feeding an animal and making it into our friend. So much so, most zoos have a food-dispenser where you can put in a dollar's worth of coins then get a handful of food to feed whatever animal you please - fish, ducks, goats, so on. I went to a park in China that had this, where you paid a little bit of money then you get fish food in a bag, and you can feed the koi that lived in the pond. There were lots of little kids there with their parents, feeding the fish, then I realized how absolutely monstrously HUGE these fish were. One of the larger koi could probably swallow a kid. Feeding became so competitive that some koi were injured and scarring around their eyes and faces, where other fish mouths were gaping to steal some other fish's food. If you've never had your hand in a fish's mouth, I'll just tell you here that it's not a pleasant sensation. It's really weird. The noise these fish make with their mouths is also quite unsettling - like they're gasping and chugging for more food... feed me, feed me, feed me!



I don't think that there's anyone feeding the squirrels here on purpose, as they seem to get a lot of free food from the oak trees that grow on campus, as well as leftover food people drop on the floor or trashcans and compost bins. I'm usually quite friendly to the squirrels, giving them a "hello" every so often, then continue on my way. I think the squirrels here just want to mind their own business, but are opportunistic enough to take a free offering. I just hope that they never turn into those hungering koi. Glassy-eyed and constantly feeding...feeding...never ending feeding...

Snow And Its Different Flavors

It's officially spring, yet here we are with another snowstorm - Winter's last big hurrah for the season. Whilst walking around, grumbling about trudging through blue and grey goop, I realized that this last snow storm actually had different snow than the previous storms. Previous snows at Penn State have always been very light and powdery, but the snow from this week is sticky and firm, great for making snowmen, igloos, and snowballs. And so, as an homage to the last snow of the winter.... hopefully... here is an educational post on the surprising variety of snow!

Image from Pxhere

Powder snow is the soft, fluffy stuff that doesn't really stick together and it's fantastic for skiing and sledding due to what little friction it has. It falls apart easily in your hands, which is why if you try to make anything out of this stuff it just flies away! Personally, I think this snow smells the best (see my smelling post here). It has the freshest and crispiest smell out of all the snows, since the ice particles that make powdery snow aren't big enough to latch onto anything. It's also really fun to play with, despite not being able to make anything with it. It's the best snow to throw up into the air and dance around in, though I don't suggest breathing through your mouth while it's snowing powdery snow. It gets rather unpleasant breathing in frozen tidbits of ice. 

Crud snow is the sticky, malleable snow. It has larger clumps of flakes stuck together and is able to form firmer snow. This is good building snow, and usually gives a 'crunch' noise when stepping in it. I like to play in this snow the most. I have very fond memories having snowball fights with my siblings and making little snowmen families. Crud is probably the worst snow to shovel off your driveway though, since it's one of the heaviest types of snows due to its density. It also tends to stick to clothes and fabric by latching onto the fibers then freezing to them. Apparently crud falls more commonly closer to spring than powder snow does, as the warmer temperature fluctuates with the freezing wind, it causes the water in the atmosphere to melt and freeze, causing the larger snow particles and flakes.

Slush is the half-frozen, half-melted stuff on the side of the road everyone avoids. It's usually a gross color and smells bad because of the runoff it absorbs. Even though it's unappealing and a bit of a hassle to walk in, I don't think it's that bad. I actually find it rather fun to squish my boots in it. If it weren't for the negative association with exhaust fluids and salty residues, slush wouldn't be so underrated.



Crust is the self-explanatory hard crust of snow that forms when the top layer of it melts then freezes over. Occasionally after several days of snow, I'll see a snow lasagna - where several crusts have formed and I can see all the layers where the snow has melted then freezes over again. It's sort of like viewing layers of rock, only instead you're viewing layers of snow. If you're lucky, you can even see layers of color, where slush froze over or where some colored salt has hit. Unfortunately, most times it's rather white and not much to look at. Nonetheless, it's still very interesting.

Another type of snow I'd like to mention is something called "snirt". And yeah, it is what you think it is: snow + dirt... snirt. I just found this hilarious and wanted to share how creative humans are at naming things.

Now you snow there is actually a lot more to snow than you thought! I know by now you're probably sick of snow, but when it's gone you're going to miss it! So enjoy it while it lasts, because Spring is finally here! I'm ready for flowers!

When The Lights Go Out

Photo by Max Pixel

Penn State has finally breached into March, starting the month with a well-needed spring break. Alas, I will not be catching a break this week... A terrible snow storm split a nearby tree in two, falling on top of a power line. Currently, I am writing this post while my house has no internet, power, heating, running water, or electricity, and I am making Wegmans my temporary base of operations. I woke up this morning desperately wanting to stay in bed and savor the warmth my body built up overnight, but then I realized I probably need to use the bathroom and eat food eventually. The good thing about Wegmans is probably the fact they have a microwave in their seating area. We managed to sneak our leftovers in and eat a proper breakfast without having to buy anything (because with no power, your refrigerator tends not to work). With full bellies, empty bowels, and an internet connection, my family and I are now relaxing, doing our work, and snacking on some sweets- I mean, brain-powering snacks. 

This wasn't the first year I had to deal with four or more days without power - actually it usually happens once every year or so. Whenever we get a bad snowstorm, a tree falls over and cuts off our power. When we first experienced this, we had a solid week and a half of nothing. It was then I told my mom about the beauty of backup generators, but due to the storm, their prices skyrocketed. So we put it off still next year... obviously we never made that investment, because five years later we're at Wegmans with no power at home. Meanwhile, our neighbors are enjoying themselves in their lit homes and we have to live with listening to the rumbling of their generators, taunting us. Then again, I also suggested to get a snowblower too... but anyway, back to the power outage. 

Wegmans is a grocery store with free internet, a hot bar, and pub

On the car ride to Wegmans, my brother and I were complaining about how poor the infrastructure is in our country, planing trees right under power lines and not expecting something bad to happen, or not pruning trees down so they don't block power lines, or not removing fallen trees until the next week... Living in a neighborhood with few residents tends to get you the short end of the stick when it comes to getting stuff fixed.  It will usually take anywhere from 4-7 days just to remove a single tree and repair the damaged power line where I live out in semi-rural land, but all of my friends living in nice suburban areas would get their power restored overnight. Overnight. If we had to give our country a grade, America gets a "D+" in infrastructure (that's not a passing grade, by the way). I'm not going to go into the politics of why this is, but let this be some food for thought.

We might be brushing our teeth in public restrooms, and we may be warming up leftovers in the food court microwave, but at least we're having a good time. My brother sits across from me studying for SATs and doing java script homework for his programming class, and my mom is reading the bible (as it is Sunday, and she is dedicated in her faith). We might be deprived of some luxuries, but in exchange we're getting some pretty nice family time, and that makes everything feel better. There's a really warm and fuzzy feeling that comes from watching my family - whether it's helping my brother with his algebra, or talking about college, or making jokes together. My family usually just does their own thing, but when we come together like this, I really enjoy it. My spring break might not be the most comfortable, but I have my family to make up for it.