Wednesday, June 11, 2008

Weird Wednesday Post

Mr. Wildlife is looking at a pretty domesticated day today. The kids have gone tubing down a local spring fed river. The wife is out saving the world, one patient at a time. Mostly she's saving them from themselves ... I have little pity for self inflicted misery through drugs, alcohol and tobacco use, but that's why I'd make a rotten public health nurse.

I'm looking at laundry, kitchen duty, puppy sitting, some outside cleanup, ... maybe a trip to the landfill if I'm really lucky.

Of course, performing those tasks at PFHQ often results in a wildlife encounter of some kind, so I will keep my camera with me.


Princess Laya, the best banty hen EVER has gone broody over a clutch of eggs in a patio chair on our porch. She has not budged in days. If successful, this will be her third batch of chicks. Needless to say, these flipflops won't be worn until she's done.

I had put this movie on my Netflix Que long before we adopted our two new pups. With all of Gumbo's troubles, it seems strangely prophetic now. Gumbo is up and down with joint pain that comes and goes, but mostly he's good. Some new test results should come in today that will confirm or rule out a handful of tickborne diseases.


The new double-edged weedeater came in last week. It's kind of noisy and uses lots of energy, but it did make short work of this grass growing beneath my muscadine grape vine.


This is me worried.

Yesterday, I dropped Junior and his buddy Jim off for a canoe trip down the Waccasassa River.
It was the first canoe trip of any length where I was not going along, so I gave them lots of tips ... avoid the poison ivy, stay out of the deep gatory holes, watch the sharp rocks, keep an eye out for moccasins, what to do if you are bit by a moccasin, ... you know, ... the usual parental advice.

The sky was clear and sunny at the drop point as I bade the boys good luck and they paddled off.
Apparently that clear sky was a tiny hole in a big doughnut of powerful thunderstorms that were building all around.
My wife called me about 5 minutes after I dropped them off ...
"The boys aren't still going canoeing are they?"
"Yes, I just dropped them off."
"What! It's thundering here in town. Tell them to come back."
"It's clear at the river, they were really looking forward to this.
"No, you should tell them to come back."
"I have an errand to run, I'll let them canoe a little and then give them a call to come back."
Silence.
"I won't be long."

My errand involved running to school, about 10 miles from the river, to feed my classroom fish and pick up Stewy, the corn snake for the summer.
By the time I had Stewy loaded in the JEEP, an hour had gone by. The sky had blackened and the closer I got to the river, the darker the sky became. I fished out my phone to call Junior and it rang before I could punch his speed dial number.
"Hey Dad, the weather's getting bad so we have turned around and are paddling back."
"Excellent, I'll be waiting."

Where did he get that common sense?

I pulled the JEEP down into the riverside forest and waited anxiously as lightning blasted nearby and a driving rain pounded the JEEP's soft top.
It wasn't too long a wait. They had only been an hour out and had stopped to horse around in the shallows, so the actual distance covered wasn't that great.

The wait seemed very long though with all they sky pyrotechnics going off. Take a look at the worried me picture, see how dark it appears in the background?
That was noon. The sky was completely dark at that point and would stay that way for the next few hours.

Eventually, they pulled up to the bank and I jumped out to help the loading of gear go quickly.
Back in the JEEP it was all excited boy tales about the lightning, the dash back, the obstacles ...
... sweet music that.

Back at the house, the boys cleaned up and I told them to jot down anything they wanted me to bring back from town as I had to go to the bank.
They quickly made the list you see below. I didn't read it at the time, just stuffed it in my pocket and headed out the door.

In the store, I pulled it out and innocently started working down the list.


If you were in the Chiefland Walmart yesterday around 3:00 pm, I was the insane person laughing uncontrollably in the produce section.

Have a happy Wednesday!

35 comments:

Jacki said...

This post is full of comment-able things!
1) We got some bad weather here in Leesburg as well. And I hear central Marion county got some decent hail! But if you needed the rain as bad as we did, you welcomed it, too!
2) I hope Gumbo comes out okay! he has the coolest name ever.
3) I've been to that Chiefland Wal-Mart! For my 21st birthday we stayed at the nice cabins at Fanning Springs and went mullet hunting at Wal-Mart. Needless to say, there are LOTS of mullets at midnight in the Wal-Mart.

Anonymous said...

Your story reminds me of the time I forgot to check the weather before a gulf coast camping trip. As a result, my daughter and I spent the first night in hurricane winds... in a tent. (We moved to the car after a few hours.) But the sun was out the next day, and we had a great weekend.

It's nice to have memories laced with stormy adventure.

Anonymous said...

So did nyou get the good chicken nuggets?
Bro J

Anonymous said...

The hen picture is sweet and the dogs look so cute. Hope all turns out ok with Gumbo. Wow, it really does look dark in the worried you photo. Glad all turned out ok. Hope the rain is helping some down there; we have been getting quite a bit up this way-it's like walking on wet sponges. Hope you made it to the landfill!
Momadness

Anonymous said...

They didn't say what kind of beer?

Very funny!

Patti

threecollie said...

Heavens! I don't know where to start!
What's a peanut butt?
And you can tell that list was made by boys! (I love finding grocery lists abandoned in shopping carts...they are such a window on someone else's life. I think you may have blogged that some time ago...another way north and south are surprisingly alike.)
And what good kids...a tribute to your raisin' and their listenin' to it.
And the chicken! If you didn't have a photograph it would be hard to believe.

Anonymous said...

Plague Dogs was pretty good, but Watership Down was a better film. Both suffer from disjointed narrative, though. Watership Down suffers doubly for assuming/requiring the viewer to be familiar with concepts from the story before even TRYING to grok everything in the film. I saw it, like, 10 times when I was a kid - so by that time I pretty much understood it, even without reading the book.

Kudos to both films for gutsy animation, though. Both films approach decidedly un-sexy "adult" themes using animation as a medium. Prescient. NICE.

Have you read Adams' Watership Down, Fc? That's good stuff.

OK - now to read the rest of your post!

robin andrea said...

Lots going on at PFHQ all the time. It's a rich life you've got there, fc.

I've never shopped at Walmart, so I had no idea they had all that stuff on the the list. No wonder it's such a popular place.

Anonymous said...

OMG - your Junior'd fit RIGHT in here at work. That list is priceless.

Lightning on the water is SCARRRRYYYY! Glad everything worked out OK.

Dr. Know said...

A laudable shopping list. I would only change two items: Dr. Pepper instead of C.Coke, and one smart, sane nubile waif in place of some seedy prostitute. Otherwise, good to go. And funny...

We could REALLY use the rain you are getting - I suppose it's Karma for GA stealing all the water from the tributaries feeding FL and dumping sewage in them as well.

I envy the canoe trip. Years ago friends and I used to raft and canoe down the Chattahoochee river. Now it isn't safe to smell, much less swim in or eat the fish from.

Keep it up and I'm gonna move down there and become your neighbor. (I have lots of tools, BTW. ;-) )

SwampAngel65 said...

"Prostitutes and Beer" hmmm....

jojo said...

LOL... i figure p-nut butt is peanut butter? lol...and what are the good kind of Chicken nuggets? ha.
NC on the PRO's and beer. now wouldn't it have been too funny if you did bring those home? but i really wish i was in the walmart when you read it.

poor puppy. You are still having problems with him? don't you just want to pummel that lady in the parking lot? I do. and i don't even have the pup. :( what a bad stroke this was. Or on the other hand a great stroke of luck for the pup to get you!

We got the hurricane force winds and the lightening. and the drop in temp it was truly a weird storm day. starting again now too.

Take the flip flops it won't bother Princess Laya. What will bother her is if you move her and the eggs. i did that once and she abandoned the whole lot of 12... :(

Deb said...

You do laundry? I'll have to tell The Hermit, he thinks he's the only man on earth who does laundry. :)

That list is too funny!

kathy a. said...

chickens and pups and boys, oh my!

looking forward to a new crop of chicklets. looks like gumbo is thriving, despite the joint pain -- love the photo of the pups playing.

good the boys turned around. that shopping list is priceless -- you need to save it and show it to junior in about 10 years.

R.Powers said...

Jacki,
Those Fanning Springs cabins are sweeeeet aren't they?
We loved staying there a couple of years ago.
Glad you like Gumbo's cool name!

Susan,
I'm usually better at weather checking than I was yesterday!
I agree, storms do add a certain ambience to camping trips.

Rro J,
Is there such a thing?

Momadness,
It's fixin' to storm again as I type!

Patti,
I would have got Yuengling.

3C,
I ALWAYS have a photograph.
:)
I did post about shopping cart spying a long time ago. Good memory.

Thingfish,
I read both books long before the movies came out, so I had no problem following the tale.
I enjoyed both books thoroughly as a teen.
He does eat healthier than this, but this was visiting buddy sleepover food ... except for that one item.

Robin,
It's our grocery store out here in the backwoods. Not much else around.
You name it, they got it.

Doc,
It would be nice if GA would get there water use act together. Florida's way ahead in that arena.

Swampangel,
Silly boys, they're too young for beer.

JOJO,
Yes, peanut butt-er! I looked all over Walmart for a female friend who would play along. I was going to have her call the boys back, but none of my girl friends were around.
Definitely not erlickia (as it sounds) or Rocky Mtn Spotted fever per today's tests, but the Lyme test had not come in yet.
He is one sweet pup in the meantime.

Deb,
So far today, two loads of laundry, dishes, picked up the boat from the shop, and I'm heading down to clean the porch and gutters if the storms will back off just a little.

R.Powers said...

Kathy A,
Great idea on the list. Gumbo has mostly great days then some soreness, but none of the bad fever or dehydration of that first week.
We are making progress, just not there yet.

amarkonmywall said...

I was still laughing at the post when I got to Robin Andrea's comment. Last week was my Walmart experience in the tip of the upper peninsula- yup, they appeared to have ALL that stuff. Love little Laya- but how long can she go without, say, Gordo's cheese and P-Nut Butt? Doesn't she have to eat?

Oh. And your taste in movies appears to be about as refined as your taste in spinach.

R.Powers said...

Vicki,
Actually, she has budged, I caught Laya off foraging early this morn, but it seems like she's never off them.
Oh... my movie taste can go way lower than Plague Dogs.
I am a Star Trek fan after all.

Anonymous said...

didn't know wally world carried the items next to last on their list, they must be from China though, cheap and out of date

Anonymous said...

Growing up on Lake Champlain in NY, rule number 1 for kids out on the lake in boats was head for shore at the first rumble of thunder. Even if you couldn't see black clouds, beach the boat where ever you were and get under cover. Break the rule and your boat privileges were gone.
Too many high seas rescues performed for those boaters who had no sense.
Good for those boys.
Grocery list made perfect sense to me, they look like that around here, although with teenaged daughters, no so much demand for item #8.
Caroline in South Dakota

Anonymous said...

I learned the hard way today that they don't sell those delectable empanadas at Wal-Mart...

Curse Jr. for telling me that that's where they were!

-Jonathan

Anonymous said...

Too funny. I bet your wife will start doing the grocery shopping from now on.

R.Powers said...

Rick,
I think they buy them in big lots for a lower price.

Caroline,
LOL! Teens are teens wherever they are.
It's just like these clever funny guys to slip something like that into my day!

Jonathon,
If you were a ninja you would have KNOWN he was misleading you and that they are at Publix!

Cathy S,
I had a pretty good laugh over it ... of course I'm banned from Walmart now.

Alan said...

A strange shopping list indeed: were the prostitutes supposed to have peanut butts?

Rurality said...

Sneaky kid! I am stealing P-nut butt though.

On our grocery lists, shampoo is real poo, bulbs are blubs, and sandwich bags are sandbags.

Deb said...

Oh, and Starflower says you look like Jesus in The Big Lebowski. And yes, I let my daughter see that movie. I'm a weird parent.

SophieMae said...

You'll probably have to go to a Tampa store to get some of those items.

Great to see the playful pup pic. Laya reminded me to ask... didn't you acquire a guinea(s?) at one point?

Miz S said...

You should have gotten them some Hostess Ho-Ho's.

Ha ha. I amuse myself. Forgive me.

Anonymous said...

FC where do I start. This is blog overload LOL. Two healthy wise and decisive boys. I had that worried look with my daughter last week ;}. How many in laya clutch. Thunder&lightin and I are off putting more miles on his present .have a slow great day. S T E B

lej619 said...

should of gotten some rootBEER to go with the hostess HO-Ho's> What a laugh that would of been ? do they even still make the hostess ho ho's?? would your boys even know what they are? LOL

Julie Zickefoose said...

Waaaak! My kids are young enough to scrawl-hopelessly I might add-- "Count Chokula" and "Cookie Dough" on every shopping list I make, but I'm sure it won't be long before I get one of these. Man, I loved this post. And have finally given you a link in my 100-yard Blogroll--don't know what took me so long.

Good health to Gumbo, may he fill out like his big brother Bear. And may you shed your worried look for awhile (it always comes back, doesn't it?)

Julie Zickefoose said...

Floridacracker--can you email me at julieatjuliezickefoosedotcom? Got a question for you.

VitaminSea said...

Did you find the peanut butt in the meat section?

And shame on you! You should know how fast those Florida storms come rolling in. good grief, the things we moms have to worry about! (j/k)
;)

Anonymous said...

That list brought back a funny memory from a few years ago. Like you, I was heading to the store and asked my teenage son to make a list of what he wanted me to pick up. Like you, I didn't read the list until I got to Publix. Him and his friend managed to bury the request for "beer and girls" in between the food items. Needless to say they were disappointed when I returned home without those two items. I got a good laugh out of it though.

R.Powers said...

Alan,
I'll have to look more closely next time I'm in downtown Gainesville.

Rurality,
Real poo!!
Wacka wacka! That is too clever ... I'm trading you P-nut butt for that.

Deb,
Tell Starflower thanks, NOBODY has ever made that comparison before!
Maybe there's hope for me.


Sophie,
Yes, Tampa may have an abundance!
I have one old, old Guinea in protective custody.

Miz S,
heehee.
Excellent punstering. You fit in well around here.

STEB,
I hope they save their beer tasting for after the ride!


Lej,
I don't think any of those boxed delights have ever entered this house.
I've never even had a twinkie.

Julie,
I'm glad you liked this ramble. I do go on sometimes ...
Yes, the worried look begins at conception I believe.
Gumbo is progressing nicely, with just a few aches and pains. To me, he looks better each day, even if Bear still outweighs him.
I will email you after this commenting session.

Laura,
No, you're right ... shame on me ... my gut told me it was going to get bad,but I ignored it.
Big dummy.

Debbie,
It must be genetic.
At least your guys put "girls".
I may need to have the "talk" regarding the difference.
:)