The Last To Know

I just love my li’l Shuffle. By the time I get a bunch of songs on it, I’ve forgot half of what I put on there, so it’s like a nice surprise when I set it on “shuffle” and never know what I’m going to hear. I know I’ll like it because I put it there, but I don’t know what it will be until I hear it. The Shuffle is also cute and tiny, and goes everywhere I go, and I can hang it around my neck, then slip it under my shirt so it doesn’t dangle and get wet while I’m doing water changes. . . which is, incidentally, what I’m supposed to be doing at this moment. 😉

Okay…

Originally uploaded by Mean and Pinchy.

On Saturday, it was a half-starved mother cat and her three kittens (in surprisingly good condition, which was why she herself was so thin) found near the 18th tee on the DG course. We took them to the shelter. On Sunday, the rescue came to us in the form of an Eastern box turtle we found in the driveway when P backed the car out (again, to go to the course). He had a “3” painted in Liquid Paper on the top of his shell, so I knew he’d been used for a turtle race and that’s why he was over here on the dry side of town–there isn’t water for miles unless one of my neighbors has a pond I don’t know about. Turtles should be returned to their homes if at all possible, but I didn’t know for certain where this guy’s home was, so I went with an educated guess. The Future Criminals of America (aka the little bastards from the group home where SP works, down by the park) are forever hauling turtles out of the pond by the entrance, so I thought it likely that was his home. It’s only a short drive, so I just put him on the floor mat by my feet, figuring he’d stay in his shell until we got there. He was having none of that, though, and tried to climb under the seat, so I had to turn him over and hold him steady to keep him in his shell until we got him to a safe spot. We watched for a while to see whether he seemed comfy there, then left to go play golf. I hope no one ever catches him again.

Or at least buy me a house…on the other side of town.

Scenario: A train crashes into a yard sale in the parking lot of Wal*Mart during their July 5th 50% off clearance. The result? The front porch of this house. Like it wasn’t fucking bad enough, he’s rearranged it (AGAIN), and added…cattle. Plastic cows, ceramic cows, even salt and pepper shaker cows and a couple of anatomically correct bulls. The second cow from the left (on the railing) appears to be leering at the “equipment” on the bull next to her, but apparently he has eyes only for the Bossy with the bell. She’s probably a tart anyway. On the other side, it’s frogs, and what appears to be an empty aquarium. Oh, and he’s even raised the plastic palm tree up onto a table so it’ll really stand out. Christ.

(Full size version here, in case this isn’t offensive enough.)

The AIM/WOq flag has now been given a place of honour with a big US flag (among many small) on the front porch (nearly dragging on the ground, since the big flags are much too large for the spot), so now we have some lovely plastic flowers. I particularly like the mismatched wicker baskets (only one designed to be hanging), and the way he’s co-ordinated red (two shades thereof), white, blue, yellow and off-white all together. Most eye-catching! An equally tasteful touch is the two Uncle Sam windsocks (you remember those from their days on the front porch!) with their arms tied around the rusty metal bar. Well, at least they can’t flap six feet from my bedroom window.

Need a closer look so you can use some of these ideas to decorate your own house? Here you go!

IDNR

Originally uploaded by Mean and Pinchy.

Hey, cool. I can post straight here from Flickr.

This is a test post from , a fancy photo sharing thing.

IDNR wouldn’t have been illegal no matter what! B was just here and I was telling him the reason for ID’s name, and he told me that the “free fishing” period doesn’t end until tomorrow, so ID never was an illegal catch. ID has also molted again; he stalked out to grace me with his presence (and drag his Crab Cuisine back to his lair, leaving before I could run for the camera) today, and he’s about 1.75″! He’s not supposed to molt so often–last time was only ten days ago–but short of starving him, I don’t know how to make him stop. I’m not overfeeding him (checked with cray pros because he was so little), and AFAIK, I’m giving him a variety of the right foods. He seems perfectly healthy, but I don’t want him molting up a storm if his new exo isn’t ready. Hmmm…

Anyway, at least he was legal all along. 🙂

Why does this last warning need to exist on the packaging of a product that’s meant to keep toilets clean and turns the water BRIGHT BLUE? Do people this stupid really exist? Never mind…

We went to the course yesterday in the morning, but P didn’t do so well. I use the word “fuck” quite liberally even if nothing’s wrong, but if P uses the word “fuck”, he’s pissed. Not a good morning for either of us, since I lost my balance (trying not to drop the golf bag) while climbing down the rope over the bank at the Parris Island hole, and I fell into the creek. I gave my knee a pretty good smack and dropped the camera, but fortunately, the water level was low enough that the camera and golf bag didn’t get wet. I did, but only on one side, and so far the camera seems none the worse for wear after its rather abrupt introduction to the ground. After we left the course, we came home and had a bit of an eye rest (since we’d never sleep in the afternoon), then he wandered in and said that he was going to mow the lawn. Then, he said, “You’ll never believe what I want to do after that”. I thought, “Jeezus. Do I even want to know?”, but might have guessed that he wanted to go back to the course and try again. I said, “What’s in it for me?” and he said, “A Flickr pro account”, so I agreed to go. I would have even without his paying for Flickr, but what the hell–$25 is $25, and why not get something for supporting his obsession? Heh. I’m glad I went, since I got a good picture of a box turtle. I’d had some from before, but the turtle was threatening to pull into his shell, so I couldn’t get close. Yesterday’s turtle (assuming it wasn’t the same individual) was a bit more brave and let me get pretty close.

P.S. I need a better camera. 🙂

P.P.S. Not that I have great legs to start with, but this isn’t helpful.

P.P.P.S. I hate shoes, even lightweight, relatively comfortable Nikes. I don’t mind sandals, but they don’t work for the terrain at the course. We made a discovery, though…water shoes are perfect! As close to bare feet as you can get and not cut yourself on rocks, discarded beer cans or broken glass, or step on a bee, but better traction on slippery surfaces than anything short of a hiking boot. Plus, if you do get your feet wet in the creek, they dry in no time flat. I’m usually complaining about the confinement of shoes by the time we get home, but we bought water shoes before we went out last night, and I had McGregor Happy Feet all the way! 🙂

I have had a Hotmail account since 1998. I don’t use it for anything except to log in when V makes me use the MSN Messenger protocol on Gaim because he uses MSN Messenger, or else I’ll use it if I have to give a valid email address on a site I think is likely to send me junk I don’t want or “occasionally share addresses with partners” (same thing). The only messages that go to my Inbox are those from people on my contact list, except there ARE no people on my contact list. Anyway, I sign in just often enough that the address remains valid, and it is with pleasure that I do so from my Firefox web browser with Adblock installed, running on my Linux computer. I’d almost bet the farm that MS collects the data of its users to see who’s using what browser and what OS, and it makes me grin to know that they’re aware I’m using their free email service, not viewing much less clicking their ads (though of course they don’t know that bit), making their filters sort my spam, and not running their OS. Not that one person matters in a sea of Windows/IE users, but it still makes me a bit happy. 🙂

Mozilla/5.0 (X11; U; Linux i686; en-US; rv:1.8.0.4) Gecko/20060508 Firefox/1.5.0.4

Badly do I need to clean my desk. I just heard a funny little sound, and looked toward the source of the noise. A CD had fallen from the “I don’t know what the hell to do with this” shelf. Its title? “Contents of Recycle Bin 13-12-02.” I make very throrough backups and keep them around for a very long time! 🙂