sorry

Didn't realize I'd let a full week go past without posting ANYTHING.

Would it help if I told you I've been scoping out this:

Rest assured I will be joining him for breakfast as soon as possible.

Taking a much needed mini vacation tomorrow, hopefully will have interesting things to share.  Otherwise, you'll have to wait till this weekend when I go watch that turtle eat cactus.

seen on my bike ride

I wonder if there was an incident that caused them to have to put this sign up or if it is just to be funny.  It looks more serious and official than whimsical and kitschy.

I also found myself in some fancy neighborhood at one point, the kind where the houses have real gas lanterns on either side of the driveway gates, and I saw this spectacle:

What do you think they have in the garage that merits parking both of these in the driveway?  It didn't seem to be a temporary thing either, both cars had a large amount of tree debris and the cloth top on the Bentley was even starting to mildew.

Maybe they are just inundated with luxury vehicles and need a good samaritan like me to take some off their hands.  I should have knocked on their door and offered my services.

why I love Florida

That's right, it's a mother and a baby, just crossing the road, hanging out together, being nice.  It's weird seeing animals like this so up close in my car with the top down as they were just tall enough to look down their noses at me.  Still it was hard to get close enough to get a good picture with my phone.

But they were plenty adorable!

Seeing the deer renewed my interest in scanning the roadside vegetation for animals, otherwise I probably wouldn't ever have noticed this hawk:

Again, I know, I wish I had a camera with a better zoom.  I was just proud of myself for spotting him at all.  I love how he was fine with sitting right there until he realized that I had spotted him and then he had to fly away.  Just like kitty, don't look at him!

The same can not be said about the show stealer who I met when on a run last evening.

I thought for sure he would run away as I got close but he didn't at all, though he seemed nervous at first.  I don't know why, in case you can't tell he was HUGE!

Eventually I figured out that he wasn't going to run away so I was getting more up close and personal with him taking his picture and he eventually came out of his shell (rim shot) and turned in to a get me bodied back up dancer.  Pose for the camera now *click* *click*

I like how it looks like he's smiling.

Now I want to go to a petting zoo.

It's all happening again!

This turtle is considerably smaller, and this stretch of road had plenty of places to go besides directly in to him so we managed to avoid a collision, but I was nervous.

Just like last time there was a pick up truck barreling down on me from behind and I know the instinct seems to be, "when in doubt, smash the car in front of me" so I braced myself for impact but he actually ended up stopping and getting out to carry the turtle to safety.

With the frequency that I see turtles when I'm driving I'm surprised I don't see more animals when I'm walking around here.  Since it's been raining EVERY DAY here lately the area along the sides of the road are pretty much like wetlands.  When I'm walking I find myself frantically scanning the water for alligators but I've yet to see one.  I hear their gentle grunting in the night so I know they're in there, just waiting for me to let my guard down.

And snakes, I'm surprised I've not seen any snakes either.  I think what's scarier than not having seen them is knowing that I must have passed right by them and not noticed at all, because there is certainly no shortage of snakes in Florida.  Still not as bad as when I was telling Andrew's mom about how much I love the drive on 17 between 95 and Charleston and she said, "Oh yeah, it's beautiful, but that whole area is horribly infested with rattlesnakes.  They hang out in the trees!  I wouldn't drive through there with the top down."

Just thinking about it now is giving me the heebie jeebies.

I need to go take a shower now.