Ribbit

A prince in disguise?

Every once in awhile, the cats will bring me a little lizard. About 99% of the time, I set it free unscathed, other than a missing tail. This morning, I heard some commotion out on the deck and then inside and figured I was gifted another lizard (or the occasional huge cockroach). I could tell it had gotten away, so decided I had some time to finish what I was doing before I looked for and saved the thing. Except that Jack pounced, came over, and dropped what he had in front of me. It was a toad. Yuck. I didn't realize these things could get to a second floor. I palmed it, put it outside, took its picture, and watched it hop off. When I came back inside (and washed my hands), my attention was drawn to Zura, who was sneezing. She slinked off, and I could see that one eye was squinted and watering.

When we were anchored in Luperon, Dominican Republic and dealing with fatal issues with our cat, Shaka, we had heard a lot of horror stories about dogs licking toads onshore and dying horribly from the poison (there are no vets for small animals in Luperon or anywhere near Luperon). Hoping this was not going to be Zura's fate, I went online to see what I should do and read that I should take her to the vet immediately; Florida had these deadly toads, too. Sh**. Of course, it was 6:30am. Accidents never happen during normal business hours. No one was open, and emergency services at the few clinics that offer them aren't available to new clients. How inconvenient. Memories of events in Luperon came flooding back - and they weren't good.

I didn't actually soak her this much.

The violent symptoms were supposed to be swift, severe, and possibly deadly, but luckily none of them were manifesting themselves. Online instructions were to rinse out Zura's eye and mouth, which was lots of fun. She was pretty lethargic when I picked her up (shock is a symptom - gulp), but she sure came to life when the water came at her! Where the heck was Michael when I needed him? More hands please! The good news was that she really did come to life. She stopped squinting (no eye dilation either) and became more herself. I decided I'd just keep an eye on her (and Jack). In order to take her to a vet (the one that opened earliest was all the way out on Stock Island), I'd have to freak her out on her 1st trip on a loud moped, surrounded by even louder traffic (which would increase her heart rate and circulate the poison around faster), or call an expensive cab. We have no income at the moment, so all I could see were dollar signs during this whole affair. Well, dollar signs and visions of a kitty burial (sniffle).

Although I was all prepared - carrying case out/medical papers at the ready/directions to the vet written down/sneakers on - I think we dodged a bullet on this one, although only time will tell. I now know I have to keep a closer eye on these two when they're on the deck. Luckily it's so hot right now, it's just a morning issue. You know, I think I'm going to go wash my hands again.

Per Accuweather

TS Chantal is no more, so we'll see if we get any weather from what's remaining. None of the weather sites are predicting more than a 50% chance of rain over the weekend, just the usual scattered thunderstorms (although forecasting is surprisingly inaccurate down here). Waterspout warnings are still being issued, so keep a lookout for these crazy things. Did I not just say that they rarely cause damage?! Well, one did in Antigua Tuesday (video). Scary!

Stuff

NHC

It looked for a minute there that we might get some excitement from TS Chantal, but the latest forecasts have it turning east before it gets here, so I guess we'll wait and see what the next systems do. For those of you reading from St. Kitts, I am posting on StormCarib again (at least while Michael's there). I'm a correspondent for Key West too, but there hasn't been much to talk about yet.

There's still been a lot of moisture in the air here, so much so that there have been quite a few waterspouts spotted around (off Tampa/Clearwater area). Holy cow.



No seriously. Holy frickin' cow.

Photo by: Anne-Marie Filipinski-Towne

In case you're wondering, these things can do damage, but do so rarely, which is amazing considering South Florida is the "waterspout capital of the world."

In other news, the Key West Police Department just posted that 28 Cuban refugees washed up on Southernmost Point right after the 4th of July fireworks. How 'bout that for serendipity?

Seriously, 28 people floated in pretty rough seas for 90 miles in this thing.

According to the post, "under the nation's wet foot dry foot policy, they will not be returned to Cuba because they were able to come ashore." Apparently, these lucky folks get "inspected," admitted/paroled into the US, and then after a year become permanent residents. Seems like the Mexicans are doing it all wrong...

Happy 4th

Photo: WPLG Local 10

The major event for Key West this 4th of July was that a number of folks made a huge key lime pie and won the Guinness Book of World Records for the largest pie. Good job! They sold enough pieces at $1/piece to raise $1,300 for the Key West Firehouse Museum, so that was one big pie.

Photo: MileZero Key West

And of course there had to be a pie-eating contest.

We wandered around the area a bit, but couldn't get close enough to see anything. There was also a pub crawl and a big picnic later in the afternoon, but we ended up home doing laundry and playing Yahtzee most of the day. Can you tell who won 4 of the 5 games?

Photo: Key West Travel Guide

Finally it was dark and it was time for my favorite part of the 4th—fireworks! We got lucky with the weather, especially since the Keys and mainland to the north of us got pounded by rain just before fireworks were supposed to start. There was a great and much appreciated breeze, although I doubt the guys in charge of the fireworks were too thrilled with it. The show was great—kudos to the Rotary Club of Key West and all folks who contributed funds to the event. When we got back to the house, we watched the fireworks show happening live in NYC (my long-ago home). Nowhere beats Battery Park for 4th of July fireworks (especially if you're there in person), and we've seen some amazing shows around the country (and beyond). That said, I've never seen a fireworks display I didn't like.


And the weekend is upon us. The messy weather continues, so we'll see how it all shapes up.

Avocados!

Back when I'd try to out-maneuver
storms on Jacumba.

It's summer like only the South can do, meaning steamy and sticky. Just a 10-minute walk around a couple of blocks is enough to send you to the shower afterwards. The humidity has been sucking the life out of my runs, so I haven't been out all that much. This morning was cloudy and breezy though, so I thought I'd take a chance. I ended up getting my fastest pace in a long time when I was trying to outrun a lightning storm. Drops of rain started coming down just as I started up the stairs to the apartment. Ha! I've still got it. I have this uncanny ability to time things before and after rain, usually down to the second like that (it freaks Michael out).

So we haven't done all that much. Because of that, we were are quite easily amused and excited. Last night, we were sitting out on our deck chatting when we noticed some "fruit" on the tree right next to us. The tree is in the neighbor's yard, but the branches are within reaching distance of us. So we reached out and pulled off a little dangly, daring to hope it was an avocado. OMG! It was - yippee! It turns out there are two avocado trees, on either side of the house - all bearing almost-ready avocados. Very exciting. We love avocados and no one lives in that house next to us, so I'm sure they won't mind if we snag a few morsels for sandwiches and such. We don't even have to compete with monkeys! Life is full.



Of course, it's 4th of July week, so I'm sure we'll have something to chat about later in the week. Drive safely everyone, and I hope you have a good holiday (and happy Canada Day to my friends farther north).

Well...

You can tell I'm back in Key West, no regular posts. If you were on post overload while I was in St. Kitts, you got a break. We did go see Star Trek Into Darkness 3D last weekend. First I had to get my movie-theater gear ready. That's right - I take two sweatshirt-type items, a pair of hiking socks, and a salt shaker. Be prepared, I always say!

You'll note that Michael was adamant that he capture this on camera and insisted I blog it.

We waited for the movie to come to Tropic Cinema because we like the ambiance there. Anyone can go to a boxy, normal theater. Plus, Michael enjoys the beer with his popcorn. This was our first 3D film, and we were handed glasses with quite a list of dos and don'ts.

Don't try to fold them. Do clean them. Don't put them on your head. Do make sure you can see through them. Don't sit on them. If there are lights blinking, do trade them in. Don't throw them away. !!!!!! We were informed that these were expensive glasses and a step up from what we would have been given at the other theater. Yes, but now I was terrified that I'd break them somehow and owe a kazillion dollars.

The movie turned out to be really good. If you're a fan of any of the Star Trek generations, I think you'll enjoy it. Iron Man 3 is finally playing there, so guess what we'll be seeing this weekend? It's been too hot to do anything else.

Other than that, I've committed myself to establishing my presence as a freelance editor. I've been editing/writing/researching for 20 years, so this isn't exactly something new, but working for myself is a rather recent phenomenon. Things have been good word-of-mouth, but I felt it was time to make it more official. So...I've started The Writer's Accomplice. I have my last two clients to thank for this push as well as their support, and I look forward to establishing such friendships with future clients.

If you're writers, or even if you're not (I'm not sure texting counts as writing), you might find the website fun as I scrounge up tidbits on embarrassing spelling/grammar mistakes, talk about my own follies (you long-time blog readers have certainly seen a few), and provide tips so we can embarrass each other at cocktail parties (or something). Feel free to recommend me if you know someone who's looking for an editor (or should be).

The Return

My last night in St. Kitts was somewhat low-key even though we had a little bash via slab party. That strange gorilla-in-the-mist effect was still going on, with this white smog that's been hanging over the island for weeks (according to Accuweather it is Saharan dust, but I don't agree - it isn't pink, there is no pink residue, there are no spectacular sunsets).



Then it was up at 5am and off to the airport by 6. There was a little drama at the gate when a very drunk student (again, it was 7am) was determined to smoke in the airport, on the tarmac, on the plane, etc. Security, the pilots, and just about every airport employee talked to the guy before deciding he was too drunk to fly. Thank you.

Goodbye St. Kitts. Sniffle.

The colors throughout the Bahamas were pretty cool as we flew over. Very artistic.

It reminded me

Engulfed

Yesterday slowly turned into a rather rainy day when a tropical wave passed over, but it was pretty cool when the house got engulfed in a cloud.

Nifty.

And today is my last day (whaa).  I've done what I came to do, had a great stay, and am ready to see my own gang anxiously waiting for me. But first, I have today...