A Butterfly is Born
You can always tell when they are fresh out of the chrysalis; they are slower, they sit longer in one place, fanning their wings as they stretch and dry. They flit just a little, looking for something good to eat.
If you want to have butterflies, you want to have milkweed, to nourish the caterpillars, and then guara, hot lips, golden drop, pentas, etc to nourish the newly emerged butterfly.
I only know all this because AdventureMan is growing all these wonderful plants which attract Monarchs, Sulphers, Buckeyes, Gulf Fritillaries, hummingbirds, bees and more birds. 🙂
UPDATE: LOL, AdventureMan came to me and told me I had to change things to make them accurate, especially if I was citing him.
Happy Boy Swimming
“How did it go?” AdventureMan asked as I came in. He had a dental appointment and couldn’t take the Happy Little Boy to his swimming lesson, so I had taken him.
“It’s probably one of the best days of my life,” I told him. “Happy Little Boy had so much fun. He was really swimming on his own, using the ring, even floating on his back. He was really happy.”
A year ago, he was more fearful and clingy. He had his good days and bad days at the pool, mostly good, thanks to some really good teachers. To see him so happy, so confident, so joyful – now that is a really good day. I feel so blessed to have been a part of it.
This morning was his last parent-child class; now he will be joining the bigger kids swimming classes, where we take him and he and the other kids work directly with the teacher without us in the pool . . . so this is the end of an era.
My Mother was asking for some recent shots, so this morning AdventureMan took him in, and I shot some photos. These are for you, Mom 🙂
We have strong feelings about children learning as young as possible how to be safe in the water. As one of our swimming buddies said, “Florida is surrounded by water.” They had better know the rudiments of water safety. Thank goodness for the YMCA, Miss Donna and Miss Bonnie.
(Photos courtesy of adoring grandmother, LOL!)
Mediterranean Plus Doors Closed and Driving and Texting
Sigh. We went for lunch at our favorite local ‘Mediterranean’ food restaurant, the Mediterranean Plus, only to see a big “This Space For Rent” sign on the door. So sad. The last time we were there, we talked with the owner, who said that Chow Time (a Chinese Food Buffet), which had opened near by, was killing him. It is just so sad. We are hoping he is only looking for a more propitious location. We’d love for him to find another location closer to downtown.
On our way to church last night, we looked over at the guy in the blue pick-up next to us, who was texting. He was only going about 20 mph, but when the car three cars up slowed to make a right turn, he didn’t notice, and crashed right into the much bigger pick-up in front of him. CRASH! It made a horrible crunching sound, and his hood got all crinkled up.
Even if Florida doesn’t have any laws against texting, his entire front-end is all smashed to pieces, glass and plastic everywhere, sharp shards. Having to pay for all that damage will be a big penalty. I wonder if it will make any difference in his behavior?
Tomatoes and Peppers!
Suddenly, a cold front is pushing into Florida, and in Pensacola the day dawned . . . well, not crisp, but almost fresh! Tonight it is supposed to get below 70°F, which is significant because when night temperatures go below 70°F, tomato blossoms set fruit.
We were in Zambia when we might normally have started our tomatoes, so AdventureMan started them in later June, from seed. He has a glorious crop of different kinds of tomatoes growing, and it appears, so far, knock on wood, to be our best crop of tomatoes ever, ripening now that the temperatures are under 90°F in the daytime. We also have a beautiful crop of peppers, one so hot that when I started cutting it to include in a soup, I started having trouble breathing and decided that one was probably not a good one for me. I like peppers, but I think I am allergic to one of them.
I am starting to feel alive again! Cooler temperatures give me so much more energy.
We had a wonderful, rainy summer, and now it is time for the fun gardening time.
Dead Fox in the MIddle of the Road
This morning as I made my early rounds, I saw a dead cat on the road outside our house.
“How sad,” I thought, “someone’s sweet kitty didn’t make it across the road.” It is odd, though, you don’t see a lot of cats here outside. Most people keep their cats inside, or within a limited area outdoors.
When AdventureMan got up, he said the same thing. We hoped someone hadn’t just dumped a cat out there; we know there are cases where people just can’t care for their animals anymore, but there are places that will take domestic pets in and try to re-home them. Just to dump them is so unfair to an animal who is used to being fed and (hopefully) loved.
AdventureMan got a couple heavy duty garbage bags and we double bagged them. He put on some non-latex rubber gloves and we headed to the road. When he picked up the dead cat, we got a real surprise. It wasn’t a cat at all, but a skinny little fox! Also very dead, and not very healthy looking.
We both scrubbed down, and hope that we didn’t get any kind of rabies virus or anything else on us, but meanwhile, I am wondering – where on earth would a fox make a burrow in our suburban neighborhood? I am sure he was heading down to the bayou for a drink; it hasn’t rained for a couple days now and he must have known there was water in the bayou (although not great water to drink with all the contaminants flowing into it from lawns and gardens and car washing, etc. ) but where does a fox family live??
Friday, 24 August and It’s All About Isaac
You know how you don’t want to go to bed nervous or unhappy? Unfortunately, the last conversation AdventureMan and I had last night before going to bed was whether or not we needed a 24 – 32 foot articulated ladder, so we could put up our hurricane protection shields if it looks like Isaac is heading our way. (And it looks like Isaac is heading our way.)
You know how you can learn a lot from people who have been through something if you ask the right questions and then shut up and listen? We’ve learned a lot from people here in Pensacola who have weathered a hurricane or two. One thing is that you are a lot better off living a little bit inland and a little bit uphill. People who have the glorious waterfront houses are hit hard by hurricanes, and the resulting surges, and Lord have mercy, al the flooding and rain and high winds.
Another thing we have learned is that there is a difference between a hit and a direct hit. There can be some areas, right next to other areas, which suffer more damage and some areas that suffer less. While I don’t feel at all right about praying that the hardships hit somewhere else, I am praying that Pensacola be spared. Pensacola has been hard hit by hurricanes in the past, and by the economic downturn. Pensacola needs a break.
So we went out this morning after water aerobics to buy an articulated ladder, but there were none the size we need. I just figure that is a sign, plus a ladder of that size must be pretty heavy, and big – another storage issue. We did buy a couple more water storage containers and non-latex plastic gloves.
We have what we hope is a safe area in the house where drinking water and peanut butter and crackers, and tuna and canned salmon and candles and self-wind combination radios/flashights are stored in preparation. We have installed hurricane protective measures, and we are hoping they work.
Studies show that people who stay actually fare better than those who go. If you stay and are able to deal quickly with some of the problems, you can forestall greater damage. There is evidently some sort of emotional factor, too, that those who go often have a lot of stress trying to get back into their homes if there has been a lot of damage.
We listen. We plan. We hope for the best. We pray. 🙂
We make it a point, as often as we can, to do our shopping during the week, because we remember what it is like when both parents are working and you have to get everything else done – grocery shopping, dry-cleaning pick up, meal preparation, laundry, etc. after work or on the week-ends.
Lowe’s and Home Depot have special hurricane trucks coming in, loaded with large storage containers for water, lots and lots and lots of bottled water, generators, flashlights, batteries, etc. This morning, the big orders were all about plywood, stacks and stacks of plywood leaving the stores, en route to guard windows.
If we are without electricity for three days in hot, humid, rainy, windy conditions, it will be the WORST for me, especially if there are mosquitos. That’s my biggest worry. I really hate being hot.
Hurricane Issac Headed for Pensacola?
“Time to put your window protection up,” our contractor called us today to say. “The new models show Isaac heading our way.”
Aarrgh. I’m glad we’re going to be in town. From time to time, a very windy storm hits and we get some leakage. Our friend and contractor says it is so rare and so little leakage as to not merit a new roof, but we hate the worrying about it.
We also hate worrying about hurricanes. He suggested we put up the easy ones now, and he will send someone to help with the second story. OK. Aargh.
Views from Pensacola Beach
We have the Happy Toddler at the beach this week, and we are having so much fun. The weather is changeable – we have sunshine every day, but most days we might also have a couple minutes to a half hour of pouring rain.
Yesterday, AdventureMan grumbled “There is nothing I love more than being all wet and needing to run the car air conditioning because it is also hot and sticky!” Being damp and cold is miserable, only slightly less miserable than being damp and hot and sticky . . .
Most of the time, the sun is shining. Yesterday, the surf was up, bringing a treasure of seashells and depositing them on the beach and giving us some scary waves to jump – scary if you are a two and a half year old; those waves look BIG, scary if you are a grandmother and don’t want to watch your daring little grandson be washed away!
Some of the wonderful nearing-sunset blues I love so much:
And a picture of the little boy we love so much:
Deepwater Horizon Spill and Hazards
On the front page of today’s Pensacola News Journal is a report by the Associated Press saying:
BP Missed Big Hazards, report says: Focus on worker safety obscured other problems.
HOUSTON – BP and the drilling contractor that operated the ill-fated Deepwater Horizon were so focused on worker safety they didn’t do enough to prevent major hazards, such as the 2010 rig explosion in the Gulf of Mexico that killed 11 people, federal investigators said yesterday.
Excuse me? Does that make sense to anyone?? So concerned with safety that 11 people got killed because they overlooked SAFETY problems?? I thought I must be crazy, but the report goes on to say the following:
The panel listed a litany of problems large and small they had already uncovered even though it has not received all of the records from Transocean, the drilling contractor that has challenged the board’s right to investigate the offshore incident.
Among the panel’s findings:
• BP and Transocean’s “bridging document,” designed to align safety procedures between the companies, was generic and addressed only six safety issues, but none of them dealt with major issues.
• The companies didn’t have key process limits or controls for safe drilling.
• There were no written instructions for how to conduct a crucial test at the end of the cementing process, one that ultimately was misinterpreted by the crew after it was conducted several times, each time differently.
• Similar concerns about too narrow a focus on personal safety were raised after an explosion in 2005 at BP’s Texas City refinery that killed 15 people, but few of the panel’s recommendations were implemented on the offshore rig.
“It’s always puzzled me why a company like BP … that has major resources available … is involved with two of the biggest accidents,” said John Bresland, a member of the board who is wrapping up his second five-year term and was involved in both investigations.
The drilling company doesn’t want to cooperate, and doesn’t think the federal government has the right to investigate? The company so focused on worker safety had an agreement with the drilling company that only focused on minor issues? NO key processes or controls?
What is wrong with this story? From this story, it is clear that worker safety was never a focus of BP. BP had another blowup with 15 deaths at a Texas refinery resulting from safety processes that were too narrowly focused, and now they are saying they are too focused on worker safety, and that is why they have so many worker deaths?
I guess, following the same reasoning, that the Deepwater Horizon blowup, which killed sealife, is still blackening beaches, which has created a tar carpet along the ocean floor, created birth defects among birds and mammals, and will create havok for a lifetime to come, all that resulted from BP’s excessive concern for the Environment?
Is this craziness? That kind of communication just makes me crazy.
I don’t care how much they end up paying to universities, groups promoting tourism, people who lost work, wildlife organizations, etc. as a result of the Deepwater Horizon explosion. You have to see that whatever they are paying is to buy silence, to buy complicity, to keep us from complaining too much when problems associated with the explosion continue to – literally – surface. Their money is to co-opt us. No matter what they are paying, it is too little.
Hot Rain For Pensacola Blue Angels
It’s the biggest week for Pensacola and Pensacola Beach, it’s Blue Angels week, and people come from all over the USA to watch our home team do arial acrobatics. It’s always a thrill, driving to an appointment, when suddenly the Blue Angels appear in the sky, flying in close formation. Their practices are a weekly delight to Pensacolians.
It’s a funny week, though, a week when we have had rain almost every day. It makes summer in Pensacola different from summer in Kuwait and Qatar. In Pensacola, rain is a good thing, sometimes we don’t get enough. This year, we have been deluged; one area of our city flooded while we were in Zambia, and even our house suffered from the hurricane-force wind-driven rain.
It’s not a cold rain, it’s a hot rain, the rain falls and the temperatures are in the 90’s, falling to the high 80’s. We are planning to go out to the beach to watch the big practice on Friday (we do not plan to go for the full show on Saturday! Maybe someday when we can book a hotel room for that time) hoping the beach breezes keep the mosquitos at bay. Thundershowers are forecast for the entire week, through Saturday, but, when they come, they don’t last too long, an hour at most, and then the air is clear and clean. Not crisp, but clear and clean and HUMID!
The mosquitos are thriving. It was forecasted when we had such a mild winter that the insect population would rocket, and already, barely midsummer, or at least mid-heat of summer, and dengue fever has hit in New York, Miami, and other mosquito-borne illnesses are showing up throughout Florida. Dengue fever, the article referenced above states, used to be seen only in people returning from overseas country where it was present, but now, mosquitos in the USA are carrying it. Good time to wear repellant. 🙂
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