The Visit Of The Thingfishes

Thingfish23 and his lovely wife on the Pure Florida drydock

An email arrived from Thingfish23 not long ago, that detailed a marvelous journey that would carry him and his wife through my area of Florida.

It ended with this question.

"Would I be up for a meeting?"

So finally it had happened, a fellow blogger wanted to meet in person.

This opened up a Pandora's box of "What ifs" .

What if I was really, really boring in real life ... like a movie that's nothing like the book.

What if they were cleverly disguised axe murderers or worse, what if they were weird?

It really was a nondilemma. Thingfish23 was one of the first blogs that I found out there when I started blogging ... I think Hick and Rurality were the earliest, but Pablo showed up quick too.

In that weird blog way, it seemed like Thingfish23 and I already knew each other since we have had many conversations via the comment box on our two blogs.

I've been reading Thingfish23's posts for a long time now and even though he can do a heck of a rant upon occasion, his writing more often shared his love of his family, his state, the great variety of insects in his yard, and nature in general.

Nothing too weird about that.

I felt like I already knew him even though we had not met. So, I called him back and we set up a meeting.

We met in a neutral spot in town where either one of us could bug out if the other were an axe murderer, too boring, or ... weird.

None of that was necessary of course, because we greeted each other like the new/old friends we are. After a quick introduction in town, they followed me back to Pure Florida via the twisty backroads for miles and miles. In the JEEP, I wondered what conversation they might be having... you know how husbands and wives create little signals to get out of a situation.

"Okay, if he pulls out a gun, knife, or slide projector ... I'll tug on my ear ala Carol Burnett. That's your cue to say, 'Gee, honey we'd better get back to the campground."

As it turned out, we had a great visit even though the animatronic deer were having software glitches and failed to materialize on our woodsy walk around PF. Their were lots of banana spiders tho and for these the very tall Thingfish23 came in handy as he went forth and brushed webs aside.

At least this barred owl showed up in one of my snags.

We sat out on my doggy porch and enjoyed a summer evening of good conversation and brain picking. It was delightful and I don't think anybody was in a hurry to see the evening close, but the two of them had put in a hard day canoeing and needed to rest their sunburned knees, but not before Mrs. Thingfish23 taught me how to pronounce "little flea" in Portuguese.

When it was time to go, I sent them off with a baby datil pepper plant and a chunk of lighter knot for their campfire back at their state park campsite.

What a nice couple.

Should these two be in your area and want to meet you, I can vouch that they are not axe murderers, weird, or boring.

Me, on the other hand ...