Don't Dream It's Over

Last Saturday, Cory Monteith, actor, singer and star of Glee was found dead in his hotel room in Vancouver, Canada. He was 31 years old. Reports say he died from a mix of heroin and alcohol and that Cory had struggled with substance abuse since his teens. Those who follow such things knew he had checked himself into rehab in April or May. But this all came as a shock to me. He seemed to be one of those least likely to be mixed up in that kind of stuff. He seemed, like his character Finn Hudson, a goofy, awkward, boy next store with hidden talents. On his Twitter profile he described himself as "tall, awkward, canadian, actor, drummer, person"

 The suddenness of his death is apparent in his last two tweets in which he said:

"What the crap is sharknado. Oh. IT'S A SHARK TORNADO."

Hardly the last words you'd plan. Before that, after a plea for Tornado relief for Oklahoma in May, a two month absence, during which he was apparently in rehab, his first tweet in July was "...so...what did I miss?" He seemed happy, enjoying life. Not that any average Glee fan could claim to know Cory as a person, still, we didn't see this coming. Just goes to show, you never know.

There were so many great Glee moments we have to remember Cory. His portrayal of Finn as a hopeful, goofy, sometimes insecure, oftentimes romantic, but always lovable football jock always made me laugh and smile. I was lucky enough to get to see Cory perform with the rest of the cast here in Vegas during the Glee Live tour of 2011. And now he's gone. Much too soon.

The Summerhouse

My turtles have their very own summer house. It's actually a turtle tub, a large black plastic tub I keep in the garage. I got it so I can put them in there for a few hours each week while I'm cleaning their glass tank upstairs. They have grown too large to fit in the little cardboard carrier boxes I brought them home in. And they hated being shut in those anyway. This way they have freedom and can be comfortable for as long as I need to finish cleaning.

The turtle tub is meant to simulate the environment they would have if they lived in a pond. A pool of water, a ramp for them to climb out and a platform for them to bask in the heat (provided in this case by a lamp, I bring the lamps from upstairs so I don't have to keep two sets). Pretty similar to their tank setup, but they don't need a water heater. It's already plenty hot in the garage. I'm guessing in the winter I'll have to bring the water heater down as well, but for now it's fine without it. I have a spare filter going which they probably don't really need for such a short time, but it may help a bit keeping the water circulating and filtering out at least a bit of the waste they produce.

I got the second filter to see if it worked better on my tank. I've tried 3 so far, and the original one still seems to do the job best. At least it keeps working even when full of muck. The others got clogged and stopped working within a couple of days. It's frustrating because I've spent a lot of money trying to get the best setup to keep things clean and the turtles happy. But they are mischievous and messy little critters and not much keeps them from mucking things up. They like to mess with the filter tube, turning it in the opposite direction. They have detached the tube assembly from the filter housing a few times which stops it working. I keep telling them they need to leave it alone. And though they have excellent hearing, strangely they don't seem to hear my admonitions.

I love them though. They are not cuddly, but when I can watch them climb out of the water, basking in superman pose, neck and limbs stretched out, they look so vulnerable and beautiful.