Explore the Glore

So we've got a sick kitty cat, Bulldog has a tooth infection. We tried to take him to the vet, but they were overbooked and turning people away Saturday morning. Started to head to the emergency vet, which of course is a pretty spendy option. And the only measure we were really agreed on taking would be antibiotics: he's old, a $600 tooth extraction just doesn't make sense. I don't want to have him put down, but I just can't put that kind of money into an old cat when the shelter is full to the rafters with kitties needing homes.

So we headed out to the farm supply to see about buying the antibiotics and administering them at home. But the farm supply, while it had amazing $9,000 lawn mowers and equine antibiotics, didn't have the dog and cat stuff. For that, we had to go to St. Joseph. And since all the pets were due for their routine shots, we went ahead and got all of that together. The total was $110, that's rabies plus the five way annual vaccination for two dogs and three cats plus intramuscular injection penicillin for bulldog. I bet the emergency vet would have been more than that just to look at Bulldog on a Saturday afternoon, and as far as getting the other animals their routine stuff, I don't remember what I paid last year but I figure we saved at least $250 there.

While we were in St. Joe we ate at Crumbly Burger, a loose meat sandwich shop that's just cute as a button and super awesome delicious.

Then, as an afterthought leaving town we went through the Glore Museum. Which was cooler than I expected, with displays of some of the worst ideas we've had over the years for dealing with the mentally ill.

ECT, burning at the stake, various isolation boxes, the hollow wheel (basically a giant hamster wheel you can't see out of), surprise immersion in cold water, hydrotherapy... I knew about most of these things but seeing them up close and personal, picturing yourself forced into one of these things, creates a visceral reaction.

There's also a doll museum and a black archive in the Glore. Some of the photographs in the black archive really struck me, both because they were photographically interesting, the shallow depth of field says huge aperture, yet you can see motion blur in spots because the exposure was still quite long, and because these were not cheap snapshots. These were huge glass plate photos that would have cost real money, and to have so many of them in one place with black subjects, I wondered (the museum people didn't know) if perhaps a black photographer was operating a photo studio in Atchison, Kansas where the photos were from. These pics date back to the 1870s, so I'm sure it was rare to find blacks who could afford to sit for such portraits (and photographers who would take them).

After all, you only had to look at the segregated water fountain setup to see how separate and unequal things were.

There's also a morgue museum in the basement of the Glore, and oddly a couple of very highly customized cars.

Civil War stuff, too. The mental health section of the Glore is pretty focused, but surrounding it is really a mix.

When we got home we gave the animals their various injections. Bulldog is now on day three with the antibiotic injections, I can't tell if he's getting better. So he may need to go to the regular vet on Tuesday after all.

But we managed to have an adventure. Mo really dug the Glore despite thinking it was bullshit that we were stopping places we hand't planned on. And I know she dug Crumbly Burger. Same basic concept as NuWay, if you've had that, it's a sloppy joe minus the sauce.