Two Hours of Sleep

So…..I now know one way to get two hours of sleep! Let me set it up for you. Did you know there is a frog, that is non native to FL that emits a screeching sound when it is searching for a mate, that can be heard up to three miles away? Well, apparently our Koi pond is a popular romantic destination. Since we don’t appreciate the pond crashers, Glenn has invested in certain ‘tools’ to help relocate these intruders from our pond, to the great Koi pond up above or below (I have my thoughts which direction they go but…)

NOW, back to last night…unable to turn down the soulful, pleading, blue eyes of my eldest grandson, Tristan, I relent and agree to allow him to sleep with Papa and I (and Sassy the bed hogging terrier). When, at 12:15 a.m., I admit this was a very bad choice, I scoop him up and take him to lay him down in his room and crawl in bed beside him. Or course, this required the two dogs to relocate, taking several minutes to wander, sniff, and try to choose their optimum sleeping spot in this new environment. As I lay there, thinking on the consequences for my inability to make a good choices when looking into the depths of blue eyes…I am suddenly thinking how ironic that we just moved into this bedroom and now by the sounds of it, a car is going to crash into the house and kill us. No, I am not dead…but apparently a car chase ended right in front of my house on Hollingsworth Rd.

As I looked at the police cruiser, with the crashed-in hood, I could not imagine what had caused all that damage. Before long all police cars in Lakeland had relocated to Hollingsworth Rd with the epicenter being the incapacitated police cruiser in front of my living room. We had terrific front row seating.

…so about two a.m. Glenn and I are back in bed trying to sleep when…remember the frogs? Yes, let’s merge these stories…they got ‘in the mood for love’ As Glenn got out of bed, I’m thinking he is going to monitor the police traffic. When he did not return immediately, I decided to look out the window at the pond and yes…I observed the great struggle between man and a frog looking for love in all the wrong places. I went outside and said to the great hunter, “Glenn, with ten police cars out front, and the police helicopter directly overhead, perhaps it is not the best idea to be out here with a flashlight and a frog jigger.” “But there’s one more” he says. “I still don’t think it is a good idea” I say, glancing around furtively for any police officers with guns drawn. I believe I finally went to sleep around 4.

According to the news, about a block from my house the officer made a traffic stop. The car he stopped rammed the police cruiser, the officer emptied his gun, and tried to give chase. Anyways, it all ended in front of my house. I believe they got the car but the people got away. That’s all I know…besides that I’m very tired. Check the news.

 

 

 

 

The Canoe Trip

So I went canoeing…

 

It seemed like a good idea at the time, a nice, slow canoe ride down the Hillsborough River with two of my favorite people. My husband Glenn and our seems like daughter Jenn. Never mind that this particular river has a healthy population of alligators, snakes, and turtles. I like wildlife.

 

It started out fine, we loaded up in a bus that looked like it had been recycled from a third world country, but it was after all, an adventure, who needed air-conditioning, in Florida, in the summer. After the ride started, the heretofore surly Canoe Escape employee turned into Mr. Personality, perkily explaining some of the sights we would see and the path we should take. I didn’t listen too well because my husband, Glenn, is great with directions.

 

As we pushed off into the murky water anticipation was high. We were immediately rewarded with alligator sightings. We all were shocked as we watched an alligator stalk  something, as it arched and jump out of the water; I did NOT know they could do that. All of a sudden my little canoe was not feeling as safe as it had a few moments earlier. We lost count of how many alligators we saw, in one of Jenn’s pictures, she was able to get three alligators in the same shot.  Yeah, I know, a camera, canoeing on the river… more on that later.

 

Our guide mentioned one area where there were a lot of water plants and admonished us to plow through, don’t turn back, he says. Oh my gosh…it was a little like being pioneers breaking a path through the wilderness, a wilderness with alligators, it had me a little concerned. I found myself wishing I had listen a little better to those directions. Once we cleared that obstacle, we continued on enjoying our ride down the river, until we came to a tree across the river. I got out so Glenn could lift the canoe over the tree. I mean lift the canoe with Jenn in it, she preferred not to get into the river with the gators.

 

But even that was ok until we came to a small current that pushed us against another fallen tree that we had to navigate around. Word to the wise, all of the people in a canoe should not, I repeat, not all at one time, lean to the left and try to push off a tree with their paddles.  I was so confused, why did my behind feel wet, WHY was my cell phone floating, what…I’m embarrassed to say it took a while for me to comprehend that our canoe was swamped. And this right after an alligator swam within feet of our canoe just under the surface of the water – what a sight. Well, the swamped canoe demanded that even Princess Jenn had to exit the canoe to help in the unswamping effort which occurred without anyone being eaten or even threatened by an alligator, snake, or turtle.

 

Oh yeah, the camera. It survived the initial swamping only to be submerged as Jenn tried to get things organized to get out of the canoe. We saw so many things that would have made a good picture on the remainder of the trip. That would make a good picture, that would make a good picture…

 

So with a few more gator sightings and no more incidents, we three canoeists made it to our landing for pick up by Mr. Surly Face. For those of you wondering, the picture card in the camera was able to be saved, my cell phone dried out and continues to work, Jenn’s cell phone dried out but her camera portion of the phone does not. Hmmm fun day!

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