Happiness is...

  A warm friend to sleep on.

Why did the turtle cross the road?

    Florida Soft Shell Turtle, NASA KSC, May 2010

  Why did the turtle cross the road?  Beats me.  But for this turtle, it wasn't a very bright thing to do.

  I was driving home from work Friday evening having just passed the veterans hospital when I noticed something sitting on the very left edge of the lane against the median.  As I got closer I realized it was a turtle, as I passed I saw it flinch.  The turtle was alive!  And it didn't look like it had been hit... yet.

  I was in the middle of 6 lanes of traffic (3 in each direction).  There really wasn't anywhere to stop safely.  Do I go back?  Where will I stop?  The poor thing must be terrified.    

  I realized I was going to try to save this guy when I finally reached a place where I could think about turning around and somewhat subconsciously started changing lanes to go back, probably a three quarters of a mile down the road.  I had a big comforter in the back of my car (my car blanket for picnics or other impromptu uses).  Maybe I could help if I could catch it.

  As I got back to where I thought the turtle was, I realized I could see it making a dash across the road.  To my horror traffic had started down the road again from the light,  There were three lanes of traffic bearing down on the turtle and it was in the middle of the center lane.  There was no way it was going to make it.  The median at this point was wide, flat and concrete.  The curbing was sloped to allow you to drive up on it in case of a breakdown.   I pulled over on to the median and got out, not knowing if I was there to help, or if I would watch someone clip the turtle before it could make it to safety.

  To my amazement, I watched about a dozen cars pass directly over the turtle.  As the first car got to it, it dropped down into its shell.  Dare I hope it will survive?  If no one tries to change lanes, maybe, just maybe it would make it.  No one changed lanes.  No one even had to swerve to avoid it.  After most of the cars passed it jumped up and scurried (well, scurried for a turtle) back toward the median.  I only had to wave down one car.  He (or She) had made it back to the median.  

  I threw the blanket over the turtle and waved the last car past.  Now what?  I thought it was a snapping turtle.  Snappers can take a finger off if you give them a chance.  Save the turtle of not, I wasn't wiling to loose a finger over it.  I tried to flip the turtle, blanket and all, onto its back with my foot.  On its back, I figured I could wrap it up in the blanket.  No good.  He wanted no part of that.  So I uncovered the turtle, and spread the blanket in front of it, then I tried to persuade him onto the blanket with my foot.  At first he wouldn't budge.  I should have realized at that point it wasn't a Snapper, he had a soft shell and a short tail.  After a few nudges, he decided that crossing the blanket might be an escape and he made a dash for it.  Quick as I could, I tossed the edges of the blanket over the turtle, then grabbed the corners and lifted.  I had him.

  Now what?

  I considered taking him back the way I thought he'd had come.  Across 3 lanes of traffic.  I decided against that.  First, because that meant I was crossing 3 lanes of traffic and second, he might decide to try it again after I was gone.  OK, buddy, you're coming with me.   

  I put the turtle, wrapped in the blanket, into the front of my car, tucked him in and off we went.  We live next to the second largest park in the county.  Our house is well away from any busy roads.  This should be perfect.  But it was about 6 miles to the house.  About halfway home I saw the blanket start to move.  Oh no, you're not coming out yet.  So I kept poking the blanket to keep him in his shell.  

  When I got home I stopped in the driveway.  I figure if he'd gotten loose of the blanket, it would be better to have him flop out of the car in the driveway, rather then in the garage.  Edward wandered out wondering if there was something wrong with the door.  Nope.  I've got a turtle.  A big one.  

  We walked the turtle out to the back yard and Edward opened the gate.  I set him down on the top of the ditch and spread out the blanket.  He was a Florida soft shelled turtle.  He had to have weighed 15 pounds or more.  He was probably 18 inches from nose to tail and about 12 inches wide.  After about 15 seconds he poked his head out of his shell and looked around.  There weren't any cars here, but now there were two people, no just one.  After a couple of minutes he got up, climbed off the blanket and started down the ditch.  Shortly there after he took a right turn, headed down the embankment and splashed into the water.  He had "escaped".  

  I watched him for a few more minutes.  After resting a moment, he started moving down the ditch.  Mostly I could track him by the sound of crunching grasses and seeing tumbling reeds he knocked down as he passed.  After a few minutes I left him to his new home.  I hope he likes the park.  I know one thing for sure, he won't have any cars to deal with for a long time.  

  For myself, I can rest in knowing I helped, and maybe saved a life, no matter how small.  In that, I find peace.  And that is good enough for me.

Dear Helen

  Dear Helen.

  I'm the person you met in Jarred this past Saturday, the person you gave your discount coupon to when you didn't use it.   I just wanted to let you know that we used it to purchase a pair of emerald earrings thanks to your thoughtfulness.  They were an early birthday present for me from my husband, Edward.  I've always wanted a pair of emeralds.

  I wanted to let you know that you made my day.  Your gift to me, a total stranger, will also make the rest of my month.  And when my birthday actually comes, I'll remember your kindness with a smile.  It'll be the best 50th birthday present ever.  

  Thank you.

Trust

Crow on a barbecue grill in Walsingham Park

This morning I finally got out on the front patio to do a little post winter clean up and trimming of some of the plants out there.  Things were either a little overgrown or had a lot of dead leaves.  While I was out there I changed the water in the hanging bird bath.  It needed to be changed.  Bad. 

I had gone back to trimming leaves when I heard our favorite crow caw from nearby...  very nearby.  I looked up to see one of the crows was sitting about 10 feet from me up in the crepe myrtle.  

For the last few years, we've had a pair of nesting crows visit the bird bath, often bringing bits of food to dunk in the water to soften them up.  We know they've seen us through the windows of the dinning room, always keeping an eye on us from the edge of the bath.  

This time I wasn't in the dinning room, I was staying outside next to the front door.  

"Well" I said, "Go ahead.  I'll stay right here."

The crow cawed a few more times and jumped down to the bird bath, now about 8 feet from me, and about 4 feet off the ground.  He, or she, kept a close eye on me while helping himself to the now clean water of the birdbath.  I didn't move.  I barely breathed.  

I love these crows.  Up close, they are really big birds.  We haven't figured out where the nest is, but it's somewhere north of the house.  We've been watching them gather twigs for the last few weeks, always carrying them north once they've collected them.  I'm sure we're one of their regular stops, and I'm sure we'll be seeing more of them.  They've already been by three more times this afternoon.

Research has shown that crows are smart enough to recognize faces, and know who is safe and who to avoid.  Edward and I both think they have figured out we're not a threat, although I'm not sure they want us to get much closer.  Having one of them visit while I was standing out on the patio was a really neat experience.  Perhaps he'd noticed the bird bath water had been changed.  Or perhaps he was just stopping by to say 'Hi', and let us know that we are people they can trust. 

Discovery

Marriage is about Discovery.  Its about Discovering who you are together, while remaining individuals.    Its about Discovering life together, while drawing two parts into one whole.  It's about Discovering each other and Discovering yourselves.  It's about Discovering the new you.

To Heather and Trent:  

          All the best.

My Grandfather's Legacy...

  There is a grandmother clock that stands in my living room.  It's a simple clock as clocks in the "grand" category go, and I think that is one of the things that endears me so much to it.  It was built by my grandfather for his wife in 1972, the second of four clocks he built.  

 My grandfather had a woodworking shop in his basement.   He had all the major power tools that made up a woodworking shop, as well as the unpowered tools of the trade.  It was a hobby that kept him busy after he retired.  

  He was more then happy to show my brother how to use them.  I remember because I watched.  Back then, it was something a boys learned in high school.  "Shop" was where you learned how to handle tools and make things.  Basics in carpentry.  Back then I was in home economics, sewing and cooking.  Not that I minded learning those two skills, but I always wanted to take shop.  Back then, it wasn't something girls did.

  I can remember playing around in my Dad's shop in the cellar.  The only power tool I used back then was the drill, and that was mounted in a bracket on the top of the work bench.  Mostly I used a hand saw or drill.  I remember making a plane out of wood scraps.  It would have flown like a brick, but it had wings and a propeller that spun.  I was pretty proud of it at the time.

  In junior high I wanted a book shelf for my room.  We'd looked high and low, but I never found anything I wanted.  So I designed one and my grandfather built it for me.  I also designed a shelf to hold all my painting and drawing supplies, although I can't remember if my grandfather or my father built that one.  

  I'd always wanted to learn how to use those tools myself.  So in the last few years, when I had some credit time built up at work, I've asked the guys in the shop to help me learn.  It started with a simple project.  The wood bench had rotted out and I wanted to replace all the slats.  Dave helped me rout the wood and drill the hole in the precut boards.  Then I varnished them.  Simple.

  From there I thought of a few more things to build, things we've needed, a cabinet for DVDs, book shelves, the cover for a putty colored metal file cabinet to make it match the desk it sits next to, a box from Sandy's log.  The problem over the years has been that I tend to think of projects that are insanely beyond my skill level.

  When we moved into the house the windows had been trimmed with 8 foot cedar boards, 2.5 inches wide, stained, painted peach and then painted white by the previous owners.  We took those boards down 6 years ago and put them in the garage thinking we might use them for something one day.  Then about a year ago, we received some nice pine boards a friend had used for shelves.  That got us thinking.  We needed more space for our DVDs.  I could make two cabinets that fit under the windows in the dinning room.  We could use both the pine and the cedar to do it.

  Remember the comment about projects insanely beyond my skill level...  Yeah, I'd done it again.

  I started the cabinets the week after Thanksgiving, only working on them after I'd put in my time for the day.  We're allowed to use the tools in the shop at work as long as it doesn't impact the real work being done down there.  All the cedar needed to be stripped and sanded, as did most of the pine.  That took a week.  Joining the cedar to make the doors and cutting and assembling the the shelves took another, especially since I kept thinking of details to make them nicer, like the blind rout on the top, or the inset for the back board.  In the end, I finished the final sanding and putting on the handles the last afternoon before vacation, using all my accumulated credit time and some vacation time to get them done.  I still had to stain them, and that I did in our garage the week before Christmas.  

  The cabinets turned out fantastic.  They fit where they are supposed to fit and they even match some of the other wood in that part of the house.  More importantly, they are what we wanted.  A narrow cabinet, custom built for the space.  We've always had trouble finding furniture to fit where we wanted it to go or how we wanted it to look.  Being able to custom make a piece is nice to be able to do, and I'm glad work allows me to use their tools on my time.  

  I've always had a desire to make things.  It is my craft, be it crocheting, or painting, sewing or stained glass, even photography fulfills the urge to "make".  I get a deep satisfaction from creating things.  I liked to watch my grandfather in his shop, although it didn't happen often.  These days, when New Yankee Workshop is on, I love watching Norm Abrams build things.  A part of me loves to know how things work and fit together and wood working always fascinated me.  

  I still have the bookshelf shelf Grandpa built for me.  The clock chimes the hour and the half hour in the living room.  Reminders of my grandfather.  These days when I think about something to make from the wood we have lying around, I think about my grandfather and his tools in the cellar.  I think I inherited the woodworking gene from him.  While it's only a small part of my desire to build things, I think that it has always been there.  I think it always will.   Work has given me the tools to explore that legacy.  And to that end, I think Grandpa would be very proud.

  

When something in the pantry stares back at you...

  I opened the pantry yesterday morning to check and see if there was anything else we needed before we went shopping and found myself staring at a small beady pair of eyes.  

  There was a lizard in the pantry.

  We have no idea how long he'd been in there, but Nyala was chasing something in there the other day.  We figured, in hindsight, that it was the lizard.  That dude either made it from the porch, which was a hell of a run with two cats in the house, or from the garage, an equally perilous, but much shorter dash.

  My first try to catch him was unsuccessful as he darted in behind the spaghetti sauce and the mushrooms, so we left him to explore the pantry while we went shopping.  Most everything in there is in ziplocks and we didn't figure he could do much harm.  Besides the girls would keep him cornered.

  When we got back from shopping, Edward opened the pantry to the same pair of eyes, from the same place on the shelf as I discovered him.  Again he disappeared behind the condiments.

  As Edward started putting things away he jumped down a shelf.  I grabbed a tupperware container thinking I could perhaps get it to drop into that.  As I moved the container in he bolted forward and I snatched at him, first missing, then snagging his tail.  One quick move more and I had him in the tupperware, still holding his tail and covering the rest of the top with my other hand.  "Got him!  Um, a little help here.  Could you get the door?"

  I set him down outside the front door and he scurried away, looking back and looking confused.  It isn't the first time I've caught a lizard, but it was the first one I've ever seen in the pantry.  Maybe he'll tell his friends that we're a lizard friendly house.  Mostly.  I don't think he ever saw the girls.  Either way, I hope he tells his buddies that, friendly or not, it's not cool to hang out in the big guy's house, cause getting caught doesn't usually have such a happy ending.