Boston weather by the numbers

May 14 rain (yesterday): 3.77 inches

May 2006 month-to-date rain: 10.75 inches
Average* May month-to-date rain: 1.51 inches

Precipitation since March 1, 2006: 13.14 inches
Average precipitation since March 1: 8.96 inches

Precipitation since January 1, 2006: 20.38 inches
Average precipitation since January 1: 16.18 inches

Forecast for the next three days: rain
School closings: at least 78


* Climate normal period from 1971 to 2000 (even though the record numbers on file range from 1872 to 2005)

(Weather numbers from the National Weather Service.)

Aquarium

Mom's choice for yesterday, given that looking at lilacs at the Arnold Arboretum was not a good choice, was the aquarium. I hadn't been in a couple of years, so while the permanent exhibits haven't changed a lot, there are some new things, and many old favorites. The huge tank in the middle, with the shark and tortoises, the walkway spiralling down around it to see the fish at different levelts through the coral reef, is of course great. I saw some fish I'd never seen before, including some that had the basic shape of angelfish but with straight streamers flowing behind them. They circled the tank in a group, looking like a parade every time. Some had brilliant colors, others had interesting shapes, and a couple had surprisingly geometric patterns, being tessellated with hexagons. Not something I'd expected. (The drawback to the big tank is that it's hard to know what Joe Random Fish is called; I wish I knew what the hexagonally tessellated ones were.)

The side tanks had things I'd never seen before, including animals in a family called tubesnouts ("tubesnouts tubesnouts tubesnouts!" Such an exellent word. It could become a handy swear word, too. "Oh, tubesnouts!"). I particularly liked the leafy sea dragon, looking like a ( cross between a seahorse and seaweed )

and the weedy sea dragon, what I'd think an ( underwater dragonfly would look like )

I'd never known things like these existed.

There's a temporary jellyfish exhibit, and I found a couple of favorites. ( Sea walnuts, )

( blue blubber, )

( and moon jelly. )

Despite their beauty, they're quite dangerous in and of themselves, and their growing prominence implies that the sea is not in balance. *sigh*

And as usual, the penguins were entertainingly loud, some of them ( rather punk )

.

No interesting aquatic life spotted outside the aquarium grounds, yet.