Friday, January 28, 2011
Tuesday, January 25, 2011
FEARS
FEARS
Fears have become so specialized in recent years that there is a veritable smorgasboard of designer fears from which to choose. Once you cut through all the superfluous trappings, they mostly all boil down to the most basic fear plaguing mankind since time immemorial. The all time "Biggie"...Dying. In my opinion a little fear is not necessarily a bad thing. It keeps us from doing things that might make us dead. Many of todays fears are definitely not unfounded. I cannot understand why a person should try to overcome a fear of flying. Why try to convince yourself that you won't be instantly annihilated if the big mechanical bird crashes with you on board? I can't imagine a situation so important to me that I would risk my life to arrive somewhere a few hours sooner. I'll drive or take a boat or a train. There might still be an accident, but despite statistics, I feel my chances of walking or swimming away will be a heck of a lot better. Some of my other concerns, (not even counting terrorism or politicians or 2012) I won't go so far as to call them fears, are:
1.) Planes or space junk like Skylab falling on someplace I might be standing.
2.) Spiders, not in general, but I don't want them in my personal space.
3.) Being hit by a tossed dwarf or a tossed salad.
4.) Banana peels(this I am certain stems from early conditioning by Saturday morning cartoons and Three Stooges movies).
5.) Being in someones trailer during a tornado.
6.) Black cats(not necessarily crossing my path, but forgetting to feed my black cat "Killer", and sitting down to eat a tuna sandwich).
7.) Electro- magnetic fields(high-voltage wires, microwave ovens and electric blankets).
8.) Cancer and cancer "cures".
9.) AIDS
10.) Social Security running out before my time comes.
11.) Destruction of the ozone layer (global warming or second ice age I can't remember which).
12.) Salmonella in chicken and eggs.
13.) Free radicals in cooking oils.
14.) Mercury in fish.
15.) Insecticides in fruit and vegetables.
16.) Antibiotics and steroids in red meat(not to mention cholesterol and fat).
17.) Mosquitoes with encephalitis.
18.) Amoebas in the lakes.
19.) Asbestos, radon and mold in the buildings.
20.) Caffeine as well as the decaffeinating process.
21.) Sugar and sugar substitutes.
22.) Acid rain.
23.) Oil spills.
24.) Overpopulation of whales.
25.) Killer bees.
26.) Aluminum causing Alzheimer's disease(does this mean I can't sit in my folding lawn chair anymore?)
27.) Second hand smoke.
28.) Calling 911 and being put on hold.
29.) My car stalling in rush hour traffic just as my laxative starts to work.
30.) An uprising of the poor in this country and I'll somehow be mistaken for rich.
31.) Being stuck between floors on an escalator.
32.) My deodorant failing.
33.) Overlooked straight pins in new shirts.
34.) Being punished for removing the tags from pillows and mattresses.
35.) Alligators in the sewer.
36.) Finding rat parts in my Pepsi.
37.) Fingers in my chili.
38.) Germs from salad bars.
39.) Television evangelists.
40.) Subliminal satanic messages on my records.
41.) Bottled water.
42.) Lead pipes, lead crystal and lead paint.
43.) Hitch hikers.
44.) Pit bulls.
45.) Product tampering.
46.) Crazy drivers with road rage.
47.) Drive by shootings
48.) Side effects from medicines being worse than the condition you take them for.
49.)Identity theft.
50.) And finally oat bran(I'm not afraid of it, just highly suspicious).
With all this going on, if a person isn't a little nervous, he obviously doesn't understand the situation. We are up against a lot more than our early ancestors whose biggest fears were minor things like the Mastodon and the Saber Tooth Tiger. I guess the best thing for me to do is try to take it all in stride and live as fully as possible without taking any unnecessary risks. After all, I want my life to be interesting and fun, but I want to put off dealing with the "Biggie" as long as possible. VXA©
Fears have become so specialized in recent years that there is a veritable smorgasboard of designer fears from which to choose. Once you cut through all the superfluous trappings, they mostly all boil down to the most basic fear plaguing mankind since time immemorial. The all time "Biggie"...Dying. In my opinion a little fear is not necessarily a bad thing. It keeps us from doing things that might make us dead. Many of todays fears are definitely not unfounded. I cannot understand why a person should try to overcome a fear of flying. Why try to convince yourself that you won't be instantly annihilated if the big mechanical bird crashes with you on board? I can't imagine a situation so important to me that I would risk my life to arrive somewhere a few hours sooner. I'll drive or take a boat or a train. There might still be an accident, but despite statistics, I feel my chances of walking or swimming away will be a heck of a lot better. Some of my other concerns, (not even counting terrorism or politicians or 2012) I won't go so far as to call them fears, are:
1.) Planes or space junk like Skylab falling on someplace I might be standing.
2.) Spiders, not in general, but I don't want them in my personal space.
3.) Being hit by a tossed dwarf or a tossed salad.
4.) Banana peels(this I am certain stems from early conditioning by Saturday morning cartoons and Three Stooges movies).
5.) Being in someones trailer during a tornado.
6.) Black cats(not necessarily crossing my path, but forgetting to feed my black cat "Killer", and sitting down to eat a tuna sandwich).
7.) Electro- magnetic fields(high-voltage wires, microwave ovens and electric blankets).
8.) Cancer and cancer "cures".
9.) AIDS
10.) Social Security running out before my time comes.
11.) Destruction of the ozone layer (global warming or second ice age I can't remember which).
12.) Salmonella in chicken and eggs.
13.) Free radicals in cooking oils.
14.) Mercury in fish.
15.) Insecticides in fruit and vegetables.
16.) Antibiotics and steroids in red meat(not to mention cholesterol and fat).
17.) Mosquitoes with encephalitis.
18.) Amoebas in the lakes.
19.) Asbestos, radon and mold in the buildings.
20.) Caffeine as well as the decaffeinating process.
21.) Sugar and sugar substitutes.
22.) Acid rain.
23.) Oil spills.
24.) Overpopulation of whales.
25.) Killer bees.
26.) Aluminum causing Alzheimer's disease(does this mean I can't sit in my folding lawn chair anymore?)
27.) Second hand smoke.
28.) Calling 911 and being put on hold.
29.) My car stalling in rush hour traffic just as my laxative starts to work.
30.) An uprising of the poor in this country and I'll somehow be mistaken for rich.
31.) Being stuck between floors on an escalator.
32.) My deodorant failing.
33.) Overlooked straight pins in new shirts.
34.) Being punished for removing the tags from pillows and mattresses.
35.) Alligators in the sewer.
36.) Finding rat parts in my Pepsi.
37.) Fingers in my chili.
38.) Germs from salad bars.
39.) Television evangelists.
40.) Subliminal satanic messages on my records.
41.) Bottled water.
42.) Lead pipes, lead crystal and lead paint.
43.) Hitch hikers.
44.) Pit bulls.
45.) Product tampering.
46.) Crazy drivers with road rage.
47.) Drive by shootings
48.) Side effects from medicines being worse than the condition you take them for.
49.)Identity theft.
50.) And finally oat bran(I'm not afraid of it, just highly suspicious).
With all this going on, if a person isn't a little nervous, he obviously doesn't understand the situation. We are up against a lot more than our early ancestors whose biggest fears were minor things like the Mastodon and the Saber Tooth Tiger. I guess the best thing for me to do is try to take it all in stride and live as fully as possible without taking any unnecessary risks. After all, I want my life to be interesting and fun, but I want to put off dealing with the "Biggie" as long as possible. VXA©
Monday, January 24, 2011
Crisis in Our Country
Millions homeless in the USA...Sky rocketing unemployment...People without enough food to eat or without necessary medicines or health care...While practically everything we buy is made in China or some other foreign land...and everytime we call "Customer Service" for any reason whether it be for our mortgage company or our cell phones or credit cards we are connected to someone in a foreign country..usually India, the Philippines or Mexico. The government talks of "creating jobs"...For starters why not just hire our own citizens to be customer service reps instead of outsourcing the jobs so the corporations can save money while starving their countrymen..or why not manufacture our goods here and not somewhere where labor is "cheaper" so the corporations can line their pockets while American families live in the woods. This country is in a crisis mode and it should be considered an act of treason to give a job to someone outside of our country that someone here can do..(By that I mean an American citizen NOT an illegal alien) This is America..We should take care of our own people first...We should only buy what is made in the USA and not outsource any jobs at all.
We always seem to be able to help other countries that are in need, ie. Haiti, but where is the money to help our poor and unemployed right here in this country?
And while I'm at it Americans should not have to be denied a job because they do not speak Spanish... English is the language of the USA...None of the other nationalities that form our melting pot had the luxury of continuing the usage of their native tongues at work or in school...At home they could speak what ever language they chose...They had to learn the English language to assimilate into our culture. That should not change..United we stand and divided we fall..Speaking two different languages in our country divides us.
Valerie X Armstrong 2011 ©
Friday, January 7, 2011
A Fish Tale or The One That Got Away
I own some rental property and one of my tenants moved out and left his huge Oscar Fish.I had no idea how to care for fish, but thanks to my local pet store and the internet, I soon learned.I was instructed to buy some "Feeder Fish" for the Oscar, which were adorable little Goldfish, to supplement his diet. I thought it was a barbaric idea but I did it anyway. There were several "feeders" in the little bucket I carried in from the pet store. My kids thought it was Chinese food from the looks of the container, but I told them it was Oscar's dinner not theirs.When I dumped the feeders into Oscar's tank there was a mad flurry of churning water as Oscar charged his victims. It was a disturbing sight to witness. In the aftermath of the mayhem the water sparkled brightly with what appeared to be gold glitter settling to the bottom very much like a snow globe after it has been shaken. It was the golden scales of the goldfish which were all that remained after Oscar's attack. Later that evening, my son called to me to come and look in Oscar's tank.One of the little feeder fish had escaped the massacre. He had hidden up under the filter where Oscar could not get to him. The little guy had used his brain and outsmarted the big guy in sort of a David and Goliath fashion. My son begged me to get the little fish out of Oscar's tank and set him up in his own fishbowl. I "fished" him out and we named him "Dave".Dave turned out to have a great personality. He was so entertaining and seemed to be genuinely glad to be alive. We never got any more feeder fish for Oscar. He had to get by with regular fish food. He didn't seem to mind and lived a long healthy life as did Dave. VXA©
Sunday, January 2, 2011
LAKESIDE MUSINGS
Every morning when I wake up it amazes me to think I have remained here so long…I am even a little afraid to acknowledge that thought in this writing for fear I will “jinx” my good fortune.
I am still living on the shores of beautiful Lake Susannah where I have been a dweller for many years…The first couple decades of which were spent in a much bigger house three doors down. I have lived here in my current home for over five years…
The sunsets over the lake are still the same but the neighborhood is evolving from a quiet little country environment to a more upscale area that includes houses in the five million dollar bracket.
The kids that my boys grew up with are still around but they are now sporting a few gray hairs. It is so strange to see their familiar faces with the subtle first signs of aging…like they are wearing those clear plastic Halloween masks with wrinkles that make a person look instantly older when they put them on. I keep waiting for them to remove the masks and reveal their youthful faces underneath.
I have been here so long that it is difficult to remember ever belonging anywhere else.
I am so in tune with the subtleties of this place that it’s every nuance is an inherent part of my being..The sights, the sounds, the smells, the slightest change in the temperature or breeze do not go unnoticed by me
..
There is a Bald Eagle that I watch every day from my bedroom window…He sits atop an old dead tree in my neighbor’s yard that juts above all the other green bushy surrounding trees with just a spikey skeleton of a trunk and branches…He sits there for hours at a time…Sometimes he will bring a freshly caught fish with him to devour..other times he will bring some other indistinguishible bit of prey. I remember once while living at my other house down the street..the same bird dropped a partially eaten duck from the top of my nearly hundred foot pine tree which slammed to the ground like a sack of potatoes just barely missing me by about six inches…As I sit spying on him I think, “You could have killed me you ‘birdbrain.’”
The lake herself has many moods…sometimes she is sultry, as glassy and reflective as a mirror..an occasional fish will jump creating endless rings in the glossy surface.
Other times she is sparkling bright blue and active with the sun glistening off her waves like diamonds…other times she is is dark gray , nearly black and ominous with choppy turbulance and white caps slamming against the sea wall..Sometimes she turns a bright orange in the evening reflecting the sunset. This is usually in the fall when the weather turns crisp and cool…At these times the trees on the far side of the lake resemble black lace against the horizon. At night she really comes alive..She reflects the lights of the houses on the opposite shore and on the Fourth of July the panorama of fireworks in the distance is enhanced by her reflection of them…Small boats coming from all directions gather by my dock to view the spectacle every year..
I have heard people from up north say they miss the change of seasons in Central Florida..We do have changes but not as extreme as other places…If one is tuned in to their surroundings here, the changes are unmistakable.
We have a tree called the Golden Rain Tree…Early in the Fall it blooms with vibrant gold colored blossoms that morph into a delicate peach colored flower…This might not be quite the same as the Maple’s turning a bright fiery red, but it is a signal to me that Fall has arrived. Our weather becomes drier in the Fall and much more comfortable…The temperature drops a few degrees but the humidity subsides making it seem cooler.
At my other house I had an upstairs bedroom..Sometimes I would hear the wind whistling around the corner of the building…I really loved that sound…I could just picture the North Wind as a big cloud with a bearded Human face and big puffy cheeks blowing out that bone chilling air . This was particularily in the Winter and the early Spring as I would be washing the windows in preparation for the Holidays or starting my Spring cleaning…There would be a distinct smell to the air, like snow, although snow is extremly rare around here.
I love it when it gets dark earlier in the Fall and Winter…It is so cozy inside with the fireplace going and perhaps a cup of cocoa…The grass seems to even have a certain crunchiness to it when it is walked on in the cooler times of year…
I spot the flocks of birds heading South for the Winter as they fly overhead, some in formation and some in a big noisy group that seems to have no rhyme or reason.
I notice that there are always one or two stragglers bringing up the rear in both groups…
We had two huge Camphor trees at our old place that had deep purple berries…The birds heading back home in the Spring always landed in those trees for a snack while traveling…The branches came alive with the hordes of hungry noisy vagabonds as they picked the trees clean of the berries and left evidence of their visit on our freshly washed cars parked in the yard.
There is a bird that was quite poorly designed,in my opinion, that sits on my dock with his wings outstretched, waiting for them to dry..He is the Cormorant or Water Turkey…He eats fish from the lake, but once he dives in to get a fish and his wings get wet..He has to air dry them before he dives in again or else he will sink like a rock and drown…I have seen that poor bird make attempt after attempt to catch a fish and get soaked and come up empty handed , so to speak..Sometimes he gets so desperately hungry that he dives in again before his feathers are completely dry and just his head and neck will be visible above the water. Meanwhile, the Ducks and the Coots glide by topside with a superior look on their faces as they watch him struggle back to his post on the dock.
Regarding the Coot or the Loon as it is sometimes called….When I first moved to Central Florida, I woke my husband in the middle of the night to tell him there was an escapee from the insane asylum in our back yard laughing hysterically…My husband went to investigate and discovered the sound was coming from a group of Loons huddled together close to our shore…The Loons are a hardy bunch..They stay through the Winter here although some times the weather drops below freezing…One time I remember the lake freezing all the way around the perimeter from the shoreline out a few feet toward the center…When it started to warm up there was steam rising from the lake resembling a witch’s cauldron boiling…The Loons remained despite the cold…The sound of their demonic “laughter” and the spooky fog hovering around the lake would have been the perfect setting for a horror movie.
I always tried to point these things out to my children to spark their imaginations and to encourage them to see things from different perspectives..They have exceeded my greatest expectations by becoming very interesting and entertaining young men whose company I find quite pleasant at times.
The Coots and Moorhens are an interesting looking bird..They are smaller than a duck and black in color...The Coots have a white beak and the Moorhens beaks look exactly like a piece of candy corn stuck to the front of their heads.
When we first came to the lake we, my second husband, my two sons and I, were looking for a place to rent. The owner of the property wanted to only rent out half of the place and live in the other side herself…We were in love with the place but we told her one half of the house would be too small for us..We turned to leave..She said “Wait a minute…If I rented you the whole thing for $20. more a month would you take it?” We jumped at that opportunity.
She went to live in Jacksonville and she eventually sold the house to another man who ultimately sold it to us. When we went to see the house that first day, I was carrying a bunch of Daffodils that my mother had given me..Every Spring around my birthday she would present me with a bunch of Daffodils. I carried them all through the house on the grand tour as it was warm in the car and I didn’t want them to wilt..The owner of the place confessed to me that it was my holding the Daffodils that influenced her decision to rent the house to us despite the many others who were interested in moving in..That was one of my first signs that I am supposed to be here on the lake…The second was even when the owner wanted to sell to us we didn’t have the financial wherewithal to make the purchase..We were sick when the new owner arrived and introduced himself…We were afraid we would have to move.. but,after renting from him for a couple of years, he sold us the house with very little money down, which my mother helped us with, and he held the mortgage so we did not have to go through the rigors of qualifying…It was so simple…The man said he could tell how much we loved the place and even though he had had bigger, better offers, he wanted it to be ours.
Our lives there were wonderful…Swimming, boating fishing. Huge holiday celebrations surrounded by loved ones…Laughter and singing and musical instruments being played was the order of the day..There were times when everything wasn’t perfect, but for the most part it was idyllic. We had a huge yard with an eighty foot dock with a twelve by twelve party deck on the end..We had a canoe and a sailboat and my son eventually got a powerful sleek ski boat. We would play badminton and croquet and tether ball and the kids would play on their swing sets.
There were the two huge Camphor trees I mentioned earlier and the tall pine..There were five stately palms along the waters edge that we planted and they grew to make it a tropical paradise..I also planted a Golden Rain Tree that was almost killed by my son’s girlfriend when she backed her car into it, but it survived and as I write this it is blooming in it’s full glory.
There was also a Florida Holly Tree that would herald the Christmas season with it’s crop of bright red berries. There were three Grapefruit trees, one ruby and two regular yellow, with the sweetest fruit. We would peel and eat them right from the tree . There were also four orange trees a couple of Navel and a couple of Valencia.
One of the Valencias got struck by lightening and the fruit was never the same…It became very sour and I could make a pie from it that tasted just like Lemon Meringue.
One of the grapefruit trees was struck by lightening also and the tree stopped bearing fruit for a couple of years, but when it started to bear fruit again the grapefruit were huge! Super charged!
In the front yard there was a very lovely stately magnolia tree with lemony fragranced blossoms as big as dinner plates..They were so velvety and beautiful.. like charming southern belles. There was a large Norfolk Pine that perished in the great freeze of 1988.
Also there were two Silk Oaks that I thought were Cypress trees for the first several years we were there…There was a gigantic spreading Live Oak that grew so fast that it deprived the other trees of sunlight killing not only the two Exotic Wild Orchid trees that we brought back from a trip to Miami and the Chinese Ornamental tree with the yellow flowers but it also snuffed the life out of my beloved Magnolia.
The rest of the yard was landscaped with Night Blooming Jasmine whose heady fragrance was nearly overwhelming, as well as bright colorful Hibiscus, a trellis with a showy magenta climbing Bouganvilla,a Surinam cherry bush with the unusual sweet and sour reddish orange fruit, reportedly to be very high in vitamin C. There were annuals carefully planted each season. Two giant Grecian urns filled with Geraniums, and of course my rose garden…I had lavendar roses , yellowroses, Tea roses, American Beautys, and pure white roses… …In the center of the rose garden was a sundial with a quote from Robert Browning …”Grow old along with me…The best is yet to be”..that I had given my husband on one of our anniversaries….I thought that that was going to be the natural course of events , so I believed the gift to be totally appropriate.
Along the fence on one side of the property were blue Morning Glories and 12 foot tall Sunflowers..there was also bright orange Flame Vine that when viewed against the backdrop of the bright blue sky was absolutely breathtaking…There was another vine that had purple Passion Flowers on it…They are the most intricate and amazing flower I have ever seen…I believe they are my favorite..They have a cross in the middle and have so many parts to them it is fascinating…each part is supposed to have a meaning relating to a certain aspect of Christianity..I nearly forgot to mention the fragrant Gardenia bush in the back yard beside the tall pine tree...Gardenias always were my sister, Ginny's favorite flower...I would bring her a bouquet of them every day or so while they were in bloom...Their fragrance always reminded me of Easter Sunday church services when a lot of the ladies wore a Gardenia corsage.
There was an abundance of Spanish Moss hanging from the large trees giving the look of the deep south to the surroundings….It was our own personal Garden of Eden..We had lovely pets…dogs and cats, even ducks that would eat out of our hands and fly up to tap on our bedroom window in the morning when they wanted to be fed..
There were giant waterbirds, Cranes and Ibis,and Egret, smaller birds like Cardinal,Redwing Blackbird, Blue Jay, Mocking Bird, Mourning Doves with their soulful cry and wise old Owls.…There were even Peacocks and a Rooster that made their way through our property….There were Possums, Raccoons, Squirrels, Armadillos, Otters and an occasional Gator eyeing us through the weeds from the lake. ©
To be continued….
I am still living on the shores of beautiful Lake Susannah where I have been a dweller for many years…The first couple decades of which were spent in a much bigger house three doors down. I have lived here in my current home for over five years…
The sunsets over the lake are still the same but the neighborhood is evolving from a quiet little country environment to a more upscale area that includes houses in the five million dollar bracket.
The kids that my boys grew up with are still around but they are now sporting a few gray hairs. It is so strange to see their familiar faces with the subtle first signs of aging…like they are wearing those clear plastic Halloween masks with wrinkles that make a person look instantly older when they put them on. I keep waiting for them to remove the masks and reveal their youthful faces underneath.
I have been here so long that it is difficult to remember ever belonging anywhere else.
I am so in tune with the subtleties of this place that it’s every nuance is an inherent part of my being..The sights, the sounds, the smells, the slightest change in the temperature or breeze do not go unnoticed by me
..
There is a Bald Eagle that I watch every day from my bedroom window…He sits atop an old dead tree in my neighbor’s yard that juts above all the other green bushy surrounding trees with just a spikey skeleton of a trunk and branches…He sits there for hours at a time…Sometimes he will bring a freshly caught fish with him to devour..other times he will bring some other indistinguishible bit of prey. I remember once while living at my other house down the street..the same bird dropped a partially eaten duck from the top of my nearly hundred foot pine tree which slammed to the ground like a sack of potatoes just barely missing me by about six inches…As I sit spying on him I think, “You could have killed me you ‘birdbrain.’”
The lake herself has many moods…sometimes she is sultry, as glassy and reflective as a mirror..an occasional fish will jump creating endless rings in the glossy surface.
Other times she is sparkling bright blue and active with the sun glistening off her waves like diamonds…other times she is is dark gray , nearly black and ominous with choppy turbulance and white caps slamming against the sea wall..Sometimes she turns a bright orange in the evening reflecting the sunset. This is usually in the fall when the weather turns crisp and cool…At these times the trees on the far side of the lake resemble black lace against the horizon. At night she really comes alive..She reflects the lights of the houses on the opposite shore and on the Fourth of July the panorama of fireworks in the distance is enhanced by her reflection of them…Small boats coming from all directions gather by my dock to view the spectacle every year..
I have heard people from up north say they miss the change of seasons in Central Florida..We do have changes but not as extreme as other places…If one is tuned in to their surroundings here, the changes are unmistakable.
We have a tree called the Golden Rain Tree…Early in the Fall it blooms with vibrant gold colored blossoms that morph into a delicate peach colored flower…This might not be quite the same as the Maple’s turning a bright fiery red, but it is a signal to me that Fall has arrived. Our weather becomes drier in the Fall and much more comfortable…The temperature drops a few degrees but the humidity subsides making it seem cooler.
At my other house I had an upstairs bedroom..Sometimes I would hear the wind whistling around the corner of the building…I really loved that sound…I could just picture the North Wind as a big cloud with a bearded Human face and big puffy cheeks blowing out that bone chilling air . This was particularily in the Winter and the early Spring as I would be washing the windows in preparation for the Holidays or starting my Spring cleaning…There would be a distinct smell to the air, like snow, although snow is extremly rare around here.
I love it when it gets dark earlier in the Fall and Winter…It is so cozy inside with the fireplace going and perhaps a cup of cocoa…The grass seems to even have a certain crunchiness to it when it is walked on in the cooler times of year…
I spot the flocks of birds heading South for the Winter as they fly overhead, some in formation and some in a big noisy group that seems to have no rhyme or reason.
I notice that there are always one or two stragglers bringing up the rear in both groups…
We had two huge Camphor trees at our old place that had deep purple berries…The birds heading back home in the Spring always landed in those trees for a snack while traveling…The branches came alive with the hordes of hungry noisy vagabonds as they picked the trees clean of the berries and left evidence of their visit on our freshly washed cars parked in the yard.
There is a bird that was quite poorly designed,in my opinion, that sits on my dock with his wings outstretched, waiting for them to dry..He is the Cormorant or Water Turkey…He eats fish from the lake, but once he dives in to get a fish and his wings get wet..He has to air dry them before he dives in again or else he will sink like a rock and drown…I have seen that poor bird make attempt after attempt to catch a fish and get soaked and come up empty handed , so to speak..Sometimes he gets so desperately hungry that he dives in again before his feathers are completely dry and just his head and neck will be visible above the water. Meanwhile, the Ducks and the Coots glide by topside with a superior look on their faces as they watch him struggle back to his post on the dock.
Regarding the Coot or the Loon as it is sometimes called….When I first moved to Central Florida, I woke my husband in the middle of the night to tell him there was an escapee from the insane asylum in our back yard laughing hysterically…My husband went to investigate and discovered the sound was coming from a group of Loons huddled together close to our shore…The Loons are a hardy bunch..They stay through the Winter here although some times the weather drops below freezing…One time I remember the lake freezing all the way around the perimeter from the shoreline out a few feet toward the center…When it started to warm up there was steam rising from the lake resembling a witch’s cauldron boiling…The Loons remained despite the cold…The sound of their demonic “laughter” and the spooky fog hovering around the lake would have been the perfect setting for a horror movie.
I always tried to point these things out to my children to spark their imaginations and to encourage them to see things from different perspectives..They have exceeded my greatest expectations by becoming very interesting and entertaining young men whose company I find quite pleasant at times.
The Coots and Moorhens are an interesting looking bird..They are smaller than a duck and black in color...The Coots have a white beak and the Moorhens beaks look exactly like a piece of candy corn stuck to the front of their heads.
When we first came to the lake we, my second husband, my two sons and I, were looking for a place to rent. The owner of the property wanted to only rent out half of the place and live in the other side herself…We were in love with the place but we told her one half of the house would be too small for us..We turned to leave..She said “Wait a minute…If I rented you the whole thing for $20. more a month would you take it?” We jumped at that opportunity.
She went to live in Jacksonville and she eventually sold the house to another man who ultimately sold it to us. When we went to see the house that first day, I was carrying a bunch of Daffodils that my mother had given me..Every Spring around my birthday she would present me with a bunch of Daffodils. I carried them all through the house on the grand tour as it was warm in the car and I didn’t want them to wilt..The owner of the place confessed to me that it was my holding the Daffodils that influenced her decision to rent the house to us despite the many others who were interested in moving in..That was one of my first signs that I am supposed to be here on the lake…The second was even when the owner wanted to sell to us we didn’t have the financial wherewithal to make the purchase..We were sick when the new owner arrived and introduced himself…We were afraid we would have to move.. but,after renting from him for a couple of years, he sold us the house with very little money down, which my mother helped us with, and he held the mortgage so we did not have to go through the rigors of qualifying…It was so simple…The man said he could tell how much we loved the place and even though he had had bigger, better offers, he wanted it to be ours.
Our lives there were wonderful…Swimming, boating fishing. Huge holiday celebrations surrounded by loved ones…Laughter and singing and musical instruments being played was the order of the day..There were times when everything wasn’t perfect, but for the most part it was idyllic. We had a huge yard with an eighty foot dock with a twelve by twelve party deck on the end..We had a canoe and a sailboat and my son eventually got a powerful sleek ski boat. We would play badminton and croquet and tether ball and the kids would play on their swing sets.
There were the two huge Camphor trees I mentioned earlier and the tall pine..There were five stately palms along the waters edge that we planted and they grew to make it a tropical paradise..I also planted a Golden Rain Tree that was almost killed by my son’s girlfriend when she backed her car into it, but it survived and as I write this it is blooming in it’s full glory.
There was also a Florida Holly Tree that would herald the Christmas season with it’s crop of bright red berries. There were three Grapefruit trees, one ruby and two regular yellow, with the sweetest fruit. We would peel and eat them right from the tree . There were also four orange trees a couple of Navel and a couple of Valencia.
One of the Valencias got struck by lightening and the fruit was never the same…It became very sour and I could make a pie from it that tasted just like Lemon Meringue.
One of the grapefruit trees was struck by lightening also and the tree stopped bearing fruit for a couple of years, but when it started to bear fruit again the grapefruit were huge! Super charged!
In the front yard there was a very lovely stately magnolia tree with lemony fragranced blossoms as big as dinner plates..They were so velvety and beautiful.. like charming southern belles. There was a large Norfolk Pine that perished in the great freeze of 1988.
Also there were two Silk Oaks that I thought were Cypress trees for the first several years we were there…There was a gigantic spreading Live Oak that grew so fast that it deprived the other trees of sunlight killing not only the two Exotic Wild Orchid trees that we brought back from a trip to Miami and the Chinese Ornamental tree with the yellow flowers but it also snuffed the life out of my beloved Magnolia.
The rest of the yard was landscaped with Night Blooming Jasmine whose heady fragrance was nearly overwhelming, as well as bright colorful Hibiscus, a trellis with a showy magenta climbing Bouganvilla,a Surinam cherry bush with the unusual sweet and sour reddish orange fruit, reportedly to be very high in vitamin C. There were annuals carefully planted each season. Two giant Grecian urns filled with Geraniums, and of course my rose garden…I had lavendar roses , yellowroses, Tea roses, American Beautys, and pure white roses… …In the center of the rose garden was a sundial with a quote from Robert Browning …”Grow old along with me…The best is yet to be”..that I had given my husband on one of our anniversaries….I thought that that was going to be the natural course of events , so I believed the gift to be totally appropriate.
Along the fence on one side of the property were blue Morning Glories and 12 foot tall Sunflowers..there was also bright orange Flame Vine that when viewed against the backdrop of the bright blue sky was absolutely breathtaking…There was another vine that had purple Passion Flowers on it…They are the most intricate and amazing flower I have ever seen…I believe they are my favorite..They have a cross in the middle and have so many parts to them it is fascinating…each part is supposed to have a meaning relating to a certain aspect of Christianity..I nearly forgot to mention the fragrant Gardenia bush in the back yard beside the tall pine tree...Gardenias always were my sister, Ginny's favorite flower...I would bring her a bouquet of them every day or so while they were in bloom...Their fragrance always reminded me of Easter Sunday church services when a lot of the ladies wore a Gardenia corsage.
There was an abundance of Spanish Moss hanging from the large trees giving the look of the deep south to the surroundings….It was our own personal Garden of Eden..We had lovely pets…dogs and cats, even ducks that would eat out of our hands and fly up to tap on our bedroom window in the morning when they wanted to be fed..
There were giant waterbirds, Cranes and Ibis,and Egret, smaller birds like Cardinal,Redwing Blackbird, Blue Jay, Mocking Bird, Mourning Doves with their soulful cry and wise old Owls.…There were even Peacocks and a Rooster that made their way through our property….There were Possums, Raccoons, Squirrels, Armadillos, Otters and an occasional Gator eyeing us through the weeds from the lake. ©
To be continued….
Saturday, January 1, 2011
We're Still the Same on the Inside
Why should the same person be treated differently
because of their age, weight or looks? Why would someone hold a door open at the
store for a young, slim, pretty woman, but walk out ahead of, and let the door
slam in the face of an older,
fatter version of the same person? Why would
someone who would rush to the aid of the young slim woman stranded in traffic
leave the old, fat version sitting there helpless? It's still the same person.
We are the same inside regardless of the years or the pounds our bodies display
outwardly. Why would someone hang on to every word the young thin woman has to
say, but ignore the older version who has attained so much more wisdom over the
years? Fat people are always treated worse than thin people. I know this because
I've been both. Now that I'm older, I realize the same discrimination exists for
age as well as size. In a world where being thin and young seems so vital to
being accepted, those who are neither of those things are treated as expendable.
They are, for the most part, ignored, pushed aside, devalued and disrespected.
Every one of us, if we are lucky enough to live past middle age, will encounter
this, unless we are rich. If we're extremely wealthy
they'll tolerate us, but laugh at us behind our backs like they do Hugh Heffner,
Donald Trump and even the late Elvis Presley. Exceptions to the rule might be
those who have made great contributions to society like Albert Einstein, Mother Theresa
or some in positions of great power and even they aren't completely off limits. People's bodies change, no matter
who they are, and even if they can't see it in themselves, and delude themselves
into thinking any differently, they still do change. For example, someone who
thinks how old everyone else at their class reunion looked, well, I've got a
flash for them...They aren't the only one out of that whole group who escaped
the ravages of age...Their mirror is lying to them. A person's looks shouldn't
matter at all, nor should their age. Everyone should be treated with respect and
kindness regardless of how they look, how much they weigh or how old they
are...If you think it can't or won't happen to you...Think
again
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