A1A South

Hope your Halloween experiences with all the little monsters, mutants, and aliens was a happy one!

My grandsons decided that they BOTH wanted to be Wolverine for Halloween. The resemblance is just amazing! (Heh)

Today is Arizona’s actual birthday! Happy 10th birthday, little girl. Ten years ago tonight, we were in the hospital for an emergency C-section. Daughter was dressed as a large feline complete with tail. Heh.

Was on the phone too late to call and wish granddaughter happy birthday on her *real* birthday, but she was probably out trick or treating with her brothers. Dang.

Officials in the Florida Everglades have captured and killed a 16-foot-long Burmese python that had just eaten an adult deer.

Scott Hardin, exotic species coordinator for the Florida Fish and Wildlife Commission, said workers found the snake on Thursday. The reptile was one of the largest ever found in South Florida.

Hardin said the python had recently consumed a 76-pound female deer that had died. He said it was an important capture to help stop the spread of pythons further north.

The python was killed with a shotgun blast.

Read more here.

The story kinda makes it sound like the python was just gliding along, minding its own bidness, when suddenly this deer just drops dead right in front of it and the python, being the considerate invasive species that it is, decides to clean up the litter before moving on.

Riiiiight. I don’t think so.

It would be nice if the politicians that have been allowing the import and sale of these snakes were to be released naked into the ‘glades to take their chances with the consequences of their inactions. If the snakes can eat adult deer, they can also eat livestock. Calves. Sheep. Goats. Nesting birds. Illegal aliens. Smallish tourists. Maybe it’s just me, but I don’t think Being Eaten By a Python is on anybody’s list of vacation highlights.

I know I should be grateful to be employed and should be kissing toes if necessary to keep my job, but it sure would be nice to sleep in! You can see the resemblance, right? We are both capable of very loud screaming.

Dylan and Jacob were warned by Mommy that under NO circumstances were they to drop the slightest hint about Arizona’s surprise birthday party. They took the warning very seriously. When we were packing up to leave, Dylan asked quietly when Arizona was not there “Mommy, can we finally say something about the birthday party?”

The birthday party, from the boys’ point of view, was just about perfect. There was a large expensive bouncy house rented. There was plenty of space to run around. There were party games to play. There were other kids to play with. And there were treat bags for the party guests that had things in there that I would have never considered at a birthday party. Oh, sure, there were things like party blowouts and silly bands and candy and bubbles. But there were also things like….whoopee cushions. Oh, yeah! Nothing says party, from an elementary school boy’s point of view, than loud fart noises produced while eating cake! I’m, uh, not sure Arizona is as enamored of farting noises as boys are.

I hope Arizona enjoyed her party as much as the boys did!

That’s what SwampMan told me when I wanted to go gift shopping last night for a birthday party happening today. I insisted. He resisted. He eventually accompanied me on the grounds that I must not wander alone at night with only his checkbook for company (my account, alas, is drained as usual). “I dunno what’s wrong with you and why you are being so stubborn!” he said. “You’ll have plenty of time in the morning!”

Well. I was awakened this morning by son calling, worried because he couldn’t reach me last night. “Um, well sometimes we DO go out at night!” I assured him. “I think we’re old enough now.”

“I need you take care of Arizona for me so I can get the decorations up! It IS a surprise party, after all.” Oh my. It IS? I looked around my house. Total disaster, as usual. I was gonna clean it this morning before the party. Heh. At least my birthday shopping was done!

“Can you give me ten minutes? I’d kinda like to brush my teeth and take a shower!”

“Sure! We’ll go into town and grab some breakfast first.”

By the time I was minimally presentable (i.e. clean body, clothes and fresh breath), they were here with breakfast for me and SwampMan. A bacon, egg and cheese biscuit from Hardees for me, and a steak biscuit for SwampMan. I’d never had one before, so my fast food education was sadly lacking. That sucker was good! Something tells me that my vehicle may start veering toward Hardees on my way to work in the morning. Must. Resist. Temptation.

I particularly better resist temptation because, well, remember the used treadmill that I was going to get? Daughter purchased it for me during the week, and I was going to pick it up and pay for it over the weekend. Daughter liked it so much that she’s gonna keep it. Ohmygawd! I may have to start eating lettuce leaves without dressing and crap like that.

If she really likes it, I probably wouldn’t have. I (used to) really like walking and hiking outside. She never did. Oh, sure, she would occasionally accompany me on some walks or hikes, but not willingly. I kinda did some bait and switching. “Hey, let’s go to the beach! And while we’re there, we’ll climb around Fort Clinch. Oooooh, a nature trail! Let’s see where it goes!” We went on a nature trail at Fort Clinch just once when she was a teen. I thought it was beautiful, but it was a little long, and we got a little lost, and it was getting near sundown when the park closed for the night. If you have never heard a nonstop creative litany of all the horrible things that were going to happen to us because we were like totally lost on a nature trail (in Fernandina!) and it was all my fault for dragging her out into the wilderness, well, you’re lucky! I think the best thing was being eaten by alligators after we’d been exsanguinated by mosquitos and our eyeballs sucked out by crabs or spiders or something. And we weren’t on the human trail anymore. We were probably following an alligator trail or a deer trail. They’d have to look in the skies and see where the vultures were to find our bones after the vultures ate us. If anybody were looking for us. Which they weren’t. Because nobody in their right mind leaves a perfectly good truck parked beside the road to take their daughter out into the wilderness where they could be eaten by vultures. And alligators. And bears.

She really should have been an author!

I think that was the last time I ever attempted to take her anywhere that wasn’t a movie theater, restaurant, the beach, or shopping center. It may have been the last time I went hiking! But I am content. She has a daughter now. Who will one day be a teenager.

Dang. I spent over an hour in one position (an awkward one, at that!) inside an MRI today. When it was finished, I was so stiff that I could barely move! I needed help getting up. I felt like the Tin Man on the Wizard of Oz after a rainstorm. I probably looked and moved like the Tin Man, too.

What was funny is that I had been in the MRI department once @ six years ago for my knee. THEY REMEMBERED ME. How scary is that?

I decided to reward myself for not whining or complaining or attempting to destroy the MRI from the inside by treating myself to lunch at a place that I never get to go. I like the restaurant. SwampMan does NOT like the restaurant, so I never get to go when I’m with him. I can’t go during work, of course.

Yummy! It was delicious.