Thursday, June 18, 2009

Heat Wave




Mr. Moon and I both got up rather early this morning. He's going to fish the annual Big Bend Saltwater Classic tournament this weekend and has a lot of things to get ready before they leave this afternoon. HoneyLuna, our youngest daughter, is going to fish with her daddy this year and I think that is just CHARMING! How many twenty-year old girls do you know who want to go fishing with their daddies? And this is hard fishing. Way, way out in the Gulf and it is so hot.

No. I am not going to stop talking about the heat. It's impossible.
Lily's husband Jason, is going too, and also two other folks. It's going to be a big crowd. Last night I made a casserole for them to take with eight different types of vegetables and lots of cheesy goodness to counteract the health of the vegetables. Also, a blackberry cobbler. I have done my job.

I got up early to go walk before the heat sets in. (Yep. Here we go.) Before the afternoon was over yesterday, I had to move the baby chicks back into the house because it was so hot on the porch that they were walking around with their little wings stretched out like old ladies having hot flashes, holding their blouses away from their bodies. I should have taken a picture but all I could think of was that they needed to get cool fast.

I am used to heat. I have lived in Florida for most of my life but this is just...well, it's another beast entirely. It's stupefying, this heat. It makes you feel altered, as if by drink or drug and thinking is clouded and every act feels gluey.
It's nine fifteen and it's already 83 degrees in the shade.

Ah well.

That magnolia you see above is blooming this morning on the tree in my yard. It's been a joy this year, having so many blossoms. I can smell them before I even see them. They smell much better than baby chickens. Yes, they do.

Here are the lady chickens (who smell just fine):


I worry about them in the heat but they seem to be tolerating it well. They nestle down in the cooler dirt in the shade when they get tired and they are napping a lot. Miss Suzie seemed to want to pose so I took her picture:


She's the alpha lady, I believe. Don't you like her nice, feathery legs?

The banana spiders have not started building their webs on the porch yet, but this one has taken up residence between the side mirror and the window on Mr. Moon's old Suburban:


There will be more about spiders here soon, I am sure. I sort of love my banana spiders. But that's a story to tell another day.

The wisteria has put out a few very late blooms and they are not nearly as magnificent as they were in the spring, but they are nice spots of bright purple in the green vines:

This next picture is quite mysterious. If anyone out there can explain it, please do:


I was coming back from my walk and this was right beside my driveway. WHAT THE HELL IS GOING ON IN THIS PICTURE?
It looks like a snake and I'm not sure you can see it in the picture, although maybe if you click on it you can, but the poor dead little snakey is being feasted on by ants and a bee. That can't be right. Now. Did the ants drag the snake into their hole-home? Where is the rest of the snake? Buried in the dirt, the way it would appear? How did this happen? I have never seen such a thing. If I were a curious twelve-year old, I would probably jerk that snake out and see what's going on there.
But I am not.
I am a curious woman but not curious enough to reach down in the ants and pull on a dead snake.
If any of you have any answers, let me know.
And maybe later I'll get Mr. Moon to pull it out because he's brave like that.
Brave enough to go way, way offshore to try and catch the big fish. The last time we went to Cozumel I believe it was paid for by a fish he caught which won the King Mackerel award. I may have posted this picture before, but it's worth posting twice.


Don't you love the symmetry of that picture? The girl on the left is not a little girl. She was a grown woman, despite appearances. And she caught the fish she is holding and so forth.

Of course I am wishing Mr. Moon and HoneyLuna luck, but really, I just want them to come in safely. Fish and prizes are wonderful but in the grand scheme of things, it's my man's and my baby's safety that matter to me.
But then again- I'm a mama, not a fisherperson.

To end, let me say that my advice and hopes for everyone today would be something like this:
Stay cool, drink your water, move slowly and may all your seas be calm.
(And stay away from ant hills.)

18 comments:

  1. Spiders are just cool. I could sit and watch them for a long time.

    The snake? All I know is those Florida ants can do anything. I remember the huge ant hills they make. That snake didn't stand a chance.

    That lady's fish is as long as she is tall. I don't know anything about mackeral and didn't realize they were that large. Good luck wishes to your hubby and daughter today! It sounds fun to me.

    Hang in there with all the heat!

    ReplyDelete
  2. It's almost time of year to walk around with a walking stick lest you end up with a big ole spidie on your face! yikes!

    The snake thing... WEIRD. Maybe the bee was trying to figure out what was going on too? Hard to believe a little ole ant (or a hord of them) could possibly drag a snake into their lair, but nature will surprise.

    Coodos to you for noticing. Susan used to say I was the most unobservant person she ever met. Wish I wasn't though. Oh well.

    Happy day to you. Wanna have some beers on the porch this weekend?
    xo pf
    Confirmation word "spiding" Now that was weird too!

    ReplyDelete
  3. a) Guess on the snake: a local animal buried it and was either disturbed or it got slightly dug up. No idea on the bee, but in Russia, squirrels killed a dog. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe
    /4489792.stm

    b) If Jason is going fishing, does this mean his Saturday party at his mom's is off?

    c) It was so hot at 11 last night that we were sweating while sitting at the bar.

    d) I love the image of the chicks holding their blouses out.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Nicol- I'm wearing linen. I'd wear linen underwear if I could find it. It's the only fabric for this weather.

    Petit Fleur- Ah! The mysteries of Lloyd.

    DTG- Nope. Jason is leaving the island on Saturday. The party is still on. And I have yet to be invited. Is this weird?

    ReplyDelete
  5. I love your chickens; I covet them. I don't, however, covet your spiders. Although if they would munch on June bugs, I would gladly have a few webs around MY porch!

    ReplyDelete
  6. Nope, since I think I got invited through facebook. ha!

    ReplyDelete
  7. Glad YOU like your spiders...They really quite freak me out. I know they are good (mostly) and eat undesirable bugs, and I am cool with them as long as they stay where I can't see them...That is one thing I like about living 'way up here'; we don't have much in the way of super huge creepy crawlies and I am okay with that.

    I DO really like watching documentaries about spiders and other such creepy crawlies on TV, they DO fascinate me. But if I was sitting on your porch next to THAT spider, I would definitely be keeping a close watch on him/her out of the corner of my eye!!

    I hope the heat subsides a bit soon. We are having a fairly cool and mild summer so far, for which I am grateful.

    ReplyDelete
  8. First thing I thought when I saw that picture was "pull it out and let's see"... but I wouldn't be bwave enough either. I'd have to ask Mia. She'd do something like that.

    I love the image of your chickies walking around like menopausal ladies manufacturing their own breeze.

    That fish musta been like 6 feet long. Wow

    ReplyDelete
  9. weird, my theory is they built an ant hill on top of an already dead snake...hence the burying. I don't think they dragged the snake anywhere :)

    ReplyDelete
  10. I talked to my dad last night (in Houston), and he mentioned the heat just about every other sentence. Then he told me how "well, it's really not that bad, unless you're out in the sun."

    I've never seen that kind of spider, and have definitely never seen a snake just half in the hole like that. My guess is that the poor thing died there or was buried by something else and the ants came along after?

    ReplyDelete
  11. I have never been to Florida, but it looks SCARY--Banana Spiders and yucky old snakes. I HATE SNAKES! I recoil when out trail walking and spotting a stick on the trail that slightly resembles a damn snake. The Banana Spiders are HUGE. I've never seen one before. Egads!

    FLORIDA IS SCARY! Ohio is, too, but it's mainly the people's lack of fashion sense.

    ReplyDelete
  12. Justme- The spiders stay in their webs. That's their job. But sometimes we do run into them.

    Kori- The spider webs trap mosquitoes and we are grateful for that. This is probably why we let them be. Now get you some chickens. What? They're going to arrest you? Nah.

    Michelle- Mr. Moon pulled the snake out for me. He did not want to. He was too busy. I'll post the picture in a while. And yes, that was one happy man holding that big fish.

    AE- I think that snake would have been more torn up if that were the case. He's pretty fresh.

    Ginger- It's just impossible not to talk about this heat. Although he's right- if you stay in the AC, it's not so bad. Haha.

    Ms. Bastard- Uh- you obviously have never been to a North Florida Walmart. Or Dollar General. Scary fashion sense? We got that, too.

    ReplyDelete
  13. One time? When I was at girl scout camp? They made us get in the water and clean the canoes and the canoes were covered in banana spiders and the banana spiders freaked out and were swimming and walking on water and crawling on us and we were not allowed out of the water until the canoes were clean. Banana spiders are big motherfucking spiders. It was like we were on Survivor, except no one won. No one won, but one girl got bit, so I guess she lost. And that is why I hate girl scout camp.

    ReplyDelete
  14. May- You crack me up. I thought you were going to say that all the spiders attracted water moccasins and they still wouldn't let you out of the water but that story is bad enough. I am sorry I made you go to Girl Scout camp.

    ReplyDelete
  15. Nice fisherpeople photo, very cute. No more pictures of spiders please, I have to scroll fast past them!

    ReplyDelete
  16. Cool snake. You have so many beasts to contend with. Do you ever see live snakes in your garden? We have large spiders (large spiders in Belgium would be about an inch across the whole beast, including legs) and they always make me jump and sometimes run away (depending on how brave I'm feeling). I was wondering the other day if you get any alligators or something when you were on the boat. (I don't know much about Florida wildlife.)

    ReplyDelete
  17. Mwa: I work in an in-town office next to a small holding pond, and there's currently a 3 foot gator living in it. As the sign says: if you see a body of water in Florida, odds are good there's an alligator somewhere.

    ReplyDelete
  18. Mwa- I have seen an alligator in the woods! No pond around. I don't know who was more surprised. Yes. We have beasts. I haven't even discussed the bats in our house.

    ReplyDelete

Tell me, sweeties. Tell me what you think.