Charles the Spider

I have never been much of a spider fan and suffer from a case of arachnophobia where big wolf spiders (I mean BIG wolf spiders … see: our basement in KG) are concerned. My long-suffering father threw many an enormous hairy arachnid back into our woods as we all ran around screaming. And I’m still not sure I’ve completely forgiven him for that one time years ago when he casually allowed me to sit and chat at the kitchen table, knowing I was totally unaware that two ENORMOUS wolf spiders were scuttling around literally right next to my bare feet.

But a cute little creature named Charles has taken over one corner of our balcony, and I don’t want him to leave. When I first saw his web out there, my initial thought was to get Eric to move him elsewhere. But as I sit reading a healthy distance away, our little stripey-legged friend catches and devours all the bugs that normally bite me. So I’ve made peace with this arachnid. His name is Charles, he has a rather large web, and he retreats into our stored Christmas wreath (stacked against the wall) whenever a storm comes in and blows his web down, only to return and rebuild very quickly. He’s done this a few times now. He vanished when a thunderstorm struck, then again as Hurricane Irene approached. The storm ripped down his web, and I worried he might be getting soggy in the torrential downpour. That’s right, I was worried about a spider. But by the following afternoon, anchor strands had already reappeared. He moves really fast. Whenever we’re blessed with a warm day again, I’ll be out there reading and propping up my feet, while he wrecks all those bugs. Who would’ve thought I’d ever be happy to befriend a spider? (Although over the past few months, he’s been getting bigger and bigger … we may need to reconsider his rental agreement.)

The Halloween Countdown: Decorating Our Home

October means it’s time to get out the Halloween decorations! Or, in our case, September means it’s time to get out the Halloween decorations. (We get enthusiastic early.) Eric is very blessed in the creativity department, so on one of his rare non-exhausted days off, he began catching up on long overdue artwork. When evening came, he took a break from his Wacom electronic sketch pad to mess around with some old props given to him by his last employer, Joe Devers of Just Outrageous Events, Inc. (JOE). (See the website for this incredibly creative and experienced floral event/event drapery company here: Just Outrageous Events.) Here’s what Eric came up with in no time flat:

Eric's shrine to Halloween

The images on the ceiling and wall are homemade creations Eric set up himself. At the bottom, Eric used a tiki vase from JOE as the base. He cut out pumpkin and ghost stencils from orange construction paper and made them stand up from the base with tape and pieces of bent clothes hanger. At the back, he attached a little flashlight of mine so that it shone through the stencils, projecting the images on the wall.

A flashlight taped behind a couple of homemade stencils makes these cool images on the wall.

An adjustable projector light from JOE shines on the walls, ceiling, or anywhere else we want it to go. (Warning: these types of lights get very hot very fast.) Eric cut out a mean jack-o-lantern face from red paper and pasted it over the light, then pointed it straight up at the ceiling.

RAWWWR

In the middle of the display is an old-style haunted house decoration, one of a few I bought in a pack from our local Giant a year ago. The lights on the surrounding strings are shaped like skulls and jack-o-lanterns.

These Halloween jack-o-lantern lights are from Target.

We hung a “Happy Hauntings” sign from CVS on the outside of our door, and added a re-usable grocery/trick-or-treat bag on the inside.

Trick-or-treat bag from Giant supermarket.

One of my favorite decorations is the “Coffin Mister” I bought a couple of years ago. The coffin’s lid is hinged, and a skeleton sculpture creeps out at you. Fill lines carved inside direct the amount of water needed; flipping the switch activates the fogger and color-changing lights (included in the set). With all other lights off, the sight of the mist pouring out around the skeleton’s expression is very spooky. The Mister comes with a small circle mat to place under it, which does a shoddy job of protecting your fine mahogany, so be forewarned. We place ours on an old coffee table someone threw out at my building that I don’t really give a rip about, and routinely find puddles of water gathered way past the “protective” mat’s borders, and under it too! Also, if you have young children, be aware that the Mister was made with lead paint.

Check your local Target for this coffin mister.

A more child-friendly decoration is this light-up ghost from the Avon catalog! I doubt this particular decoration is still available, but you can find many like him. He turns on and off with a switch and has lasted seven years so far (probably because I take the batteries out before storing each year).

Glowing Ghost, Avon catalog, circa October 2003.

This jack-o-lantern, also provided by Just Outrageous Events, lights up when plugged in. Our cat Domino just loves this guy and lays right in front of his face whenever we turn him on. I’m guessing his lights feel warm on her fur.

Another great Halloween prop from Just Outrageous Events!

Check your local supermarket for Halloween-themed tissues, paper towels, and foaming hand soap.

Softsoap Halloween foaming soap with a glow-in-the-dark label!

Target takes a good portion of cash from me each year with their line of scary socks, throw blankets, pillows, dishware, and stuffed animals.

Just a few of the themed pillows on the couch, all purchased from Target.

Ebay is always a good place to search for unique treasures.

Vintage Garfield Halloween mug, circa late 1980s, purchased from an Ebay seller.

Sumo patiently tolerates dressing as Count Fatula each Halloween with a small doggie costume I bought him. This year, Eric made him a matching vampire coffin for him to sleep in. Eric used cardboard boxes to make the shape and then wrapped them with a black plastic garbage bag. A bit of organic catnip sprinkled inside enticed the vampire kitty to take a closer look. Unfortunately, he was still too wired for pictures and wouldn’t hold still long enough for me to take a good shot!

Count Fatula checks out his new sleeping box.

A bit too small? No worries for this cat. He will cram himself into anything. (Domino's spots can be seen on the left)

We have plenty of other Halloween decorations, including scented candles, vintage postcards, and picture frames, and a flashing pumpkin flashlight. And this year, we’re making Sumo a mummy outfit!

Murrells Inlet

September has reached its end, and the colder air of October is here. We just had our annual family beach week a couple of weeks ago to enjoy the last of the truly sunny days. This year we headed to an oceanfront house in Murrells Inlet, an unincorporated town in South Carolina’s Georgetown County. Although I’d never been to Murrells Inlet itself, I’m very familiar with the general area. I’ve vacationed in the nearby Grand Strand cities of Myrtle Beach and North Myrtle Beach at least seven times.

My sister had recommended Murrells Inlet to us, and it did not disappoint. It was beautiful, fun, and very easy to get around. I appreciated how the general September atmosphere was calm and collected. Sometimes you just don’t want a crowd. The beaches, lined mostly with houses on stilts, lacked the overly busy atmosphere of Myrtle Beach, but there was never a lack of things to do. While I saw many a boarded-up business – a stark reminder of the recession – the Grand Strand is still a vibrant area where boredom seems impossible.

On Waccamaw Drive. The beach is on the left!

At the corner of Waccamaw Drive and Atlantic Avenue, you’ll find a small touristy crossroads with a dash of local thrown in. Here you are no longer in Murrells Inlet, but Garden City – an area of Horry (pronounced “OH-ree”) County. Eric and I walked all the way up there one day and it was quite the hike.

At one side of the crossroads, you’ll see a very small amusement park called Slick Track, which looks abandoned, and a large beach supply chain store called Eagles. Stores like Eagles, Wings, Pacific, and Shell City are EVERYWHERE in this area! Use them to stock up on your rafts, swimsuits, towels and fireworks! (We did!) However, the animal advocate in me would like to kindly discourage you from purchasing hermit crabs with painted shells – the paint can be very harmful to the little crabs and even kill them in a painful way. Not to mention it just looks gaudy and undignified!

Slick Track and Eagles

Directly across Atlantic Avenue is a little row of shops with Sam’s Corner, the Pavilion arcade (or “distribution center” … haha), a tiny grocery store, and more.

Sam's Corner is on the left.

Sam’s Corner, to the far left in the above picture, boasted signs for 5 cent coffee and “world famous hot dogs” so Eric and I tested their claims a couple of times. The inside of this diner was comfortable and friendly and we struck up a conversation with one of the workers while we were there, who teased us in a good-natured manner. (Perhaps Sam himself?) I had a dog with chili and jalapenos and it was indeed delicious, although it can’t compare to a Weenie Beenie half-smoke. (But can anything?) I was disappointed that they didn’t offer free refills on the sodas. The prices were a little high all around, which I think one should expect in a beach town. I thought the 5 cent coffee was surprisingly good. They also serve cocktails and beer including one called “Hugo Revenge”. (Hurricane Hugo hit the town very hard in 1989.) I tried their El Paso sandwich for breakfast one day, which was a grilled pimento cheese sandwich with bacon and jalapenos. Who would’ve thought slapping these ingredients together would produce something so tasty? My verdict on Sam’s is that it’s a cool hangout with some yummy grub for a quick bite or midnight snack, and I want to eat there again. It only accepts cash, so be forewarned.

The Pavilion arcade was exactly what all kids of the 80s used to run around in on any Grand Strand vacation worth its salt. They have every cheesy, silly game you’d imagine with the requisite tokens required to play each game, and the tickets that you redeem for little el cheap-o prizes. Yes! Eric and I shelled out way too many dollars to knock out a dumb metal horse’s teeth, engage in a Wild West shootout, play skeeball, zap some crickets with a lizard’s tongue, and team up to fight off giant flies and spiders on a jungle adventure gone wrong.

If you want to get drinks and/or ice cream, you can traipse across the street to Painter’s Ice Cream, and the Pier at Garden City, both on Waccamaw Drive. Painter’s, sadly, was closed when we had the chance to go there, so I can’t vouch for it, but the handmade signs are cool.

Painter's Ice Cream

The Pier has an arcade attached with more nutty games, and has karaoke sometimes too. At this point, I think you’re more in Surfside Beach than in Murrells Inlet or Garden City. If you continue through the bar, you’ll find many people fishing off the pier. The number of fish and bait attracts some other types of fishers, too …

Blacktip shark!

Yes, sharks! As we stared into the water, we saw no less than four – two blacktips, and two sand tiger sharks. I can’t even tell you how incredible it is to see such a powerful animal up close in the wild like this. The big swimmers devoured fish left and right and one even chomped the bait right off a lady’s line, taking the line with it. We had a clear view of them the entire time. At one point, a sand tiger was several yards away from a woman combing the shore all the way down at the beginning of the pier, but he showed zero interest in her or any other swimmers. He was merely circling to check out the fish selection. While I wouldn’t recommend throwing yourself into the water to hang out with these creatures, seeing their natural behavior is amazing.

I never remembered the Myrtle Beach area as having much wildlife, but we certainly saw plenty! Gangs of brown pelicans were a constant presence. They really are such magnificent birds. We saw pelicans, terns, seagulls, and sea hawks fishing out of the ocean on multiple occasions. They had a smorgasbord to choose from – huge schools of fish regularly went by. The schools were easy to spot as they looked like dark shadows in an otherwise sparkling sea, with silvery scaly bodies regularly leaping up into the air. It was also not rare to spy a pod of dolphins or some other set of porpoises bobbing in the waves several yards from shore. While in the sea itself, it was very common to see many fish in the breaking waves, and groups of sandy-colored bottom feeders blending in with the ocean floor. Eric thought these “bottom feeders” might in fact be baby sand sharks, which doesn’t seem impossible!

We didn’t encounter any jellyfish on our vacation, but something did give my foot a slight scratch or nibble in the ocean. I wasn’t concerned. It was probably one of the many crabs we came across. Ghost crabs were not as plentiful at night as they were at Hilton Head, but they were definitely out and about. We were a little alarmed to find so many dead ones, however, including three within very close proximity to one another with no noticeable signs of trauma. Some of the live ones we saw were quite large. We found one with a fish he had just caught, and caught others in the middle of digging their burrows. In the morning, crab clawprints dotted the sand.

He will destroy you

Little lizards and skinks inhabit the sea oats and grass. A pair of skinks regularly ran back and forth across the path as I approached. I don’t know what they were up to, but they left neat tracks behind.

Lizard tracks. You can see where the lizard's tail dragged along on the ground behind him.

Eric, admiring the gorgeous sun-sparkled sea, encouraged me to take a beach walk with him every morning. It was very difficult for me to rise out of bed at such an early hour, but the smell of Daddy’s multi-grain pancakes helped.

Another gorgeous South Carolina morning

On a couple of these morning beach strolls, we came across a couple of big light brown crabs with white spots, which my wildlife book identified as speckled crabs. We saw one such fella right where the waves broke one morning. He made it clear that he did not appreciate our peering at him and extended a huge claw out to its full length. As he snapped at us, a smaller crab scuttled out from underneath him! We had accidentally disturbed a fall mating ritual! The angry crustacean grabbed his woman and floated back out into the waves, thoughts of murder no doubt in his mind.

We did have some unwelcome visitors on the shore. Once was that most disgusting of southern insects, the palmetto bug. This moniker is clearly supposed to help you forget that you are really dealing with a giant flying roach. Well, I can’t forget and was repulsed by those that made their way inside our beach house! That will teach me to leave my balcony door open at night (to hear the ocean while I sleep). Eric, on the other hand, is from the Bronx and was completely undaunted. Another pest was the deer fly. These annoying bugs hang out on shore during their mating season, biting any patch of warm skin they can find. You have no idea they are on you until you feel the pain of their bites. Covering yourself head to toe in towels (and subsequently sweating to death) works as long as the deer flies can’t find an opening. They are relentless and forced me onto the porch one day. Jerks. Thankfully, they were absent the remaining days of the vacation so we could enjoy our daily swimming and sunning! Lastly, we encountered some sand burs. These aren’t a huge problem as long as you don’t go tramping around in the sea oats, but some do make their way down to the sand. Eric was annoyed to get some stuck in his feet when coming up the path back to our house. I think he thought he’d left them behind in Texas!

Now imagine these ... stuck in your bare foot!

Across the street from our house was a salt marsh, which is the inlet itself. My Uncle Cliff saw an alligator glide by behind some of the marsh houses; sadly I never made the same sighting. But my sister and brother-in-law had the idea to go kayaking there, and Eric and I tagged along. I had been canoeing several times and figured kayaking would be only marginally more difficult. I don’t know where I got this idea. One of the first things we did once in the water was plow into someone’s boat. But we soon got the hang of it and enjoyed a few hours steering around the marsh. It’s a very good workout!

Cat and Rob out-kayaking us

We caught up!

The marsh was teeming with life. Fish were jumping everywhere, including a whole school that I thought might go right in our kayak. Eric and I also witnessed an unfortunate one being fought over by a group of terns. Egrets, ducks, and herons standing in the marsh grasses were so close we could’ve touched them. The blue heron is a gorgeous bird with huge wings, which makes his raspy, throaty call all the more jarring. We also spotted a white heron with what appeared to be a much younger (but still tall in his own right) heron who didn’t know how to fly yet.

The salt marsh is home to another group of animals you might not expect: a family of goats! Do you remember Goat Island from my Lake Martin vacation? Murrells Inlet has its own.

The Murrells Inlet goats are definitely well-fed.

The goats are fed by a local dude named Bubba, who has his own restaurant, Bubba’s Love Shak, overlooking the marsh. I highly recommend trying the spicy Bling Bling shrimp tacos with your cocktail or beer!

Bubba's Love Shak on a slow afternoon.

Keeping with the theme of the famous B-52s song ...

The view from our table!

Salt water trails on Eric's arm, a souvenir from kayaking.

Lastly, I can’t close the post without recommending the Gulfstream Cafe on Waccamaw Drive. My very generous Aunt Vinson took us all out to eat dinner here on one of our last nights. The Gulfstream is right over the marsh. The upper deck (which had a three-piece band playing) provides breathtaking views like this:

This was so gorgeous I had to make it my new blog header!

The drinks are made perfectly, and so is the food. Even the bread and butter are very savory. We ordered a slew of appetizers to pass around the table. I chose the firecracker shrimp, which comes with chipotle sauce and delectable mashed potatoes. We also had others, including onion rings (which came stuck together in a huge block), bruschetta, oysters rockefeller (a new one for me – I loved them), and oyster shooters (another new one for me). Oyster shooters are unbelievable. You get a shot glass with the oyster, tabasco sauce, vodka, and lemon and down it all at once. All of the appetizers alone were so filling and delicious that I had almost no room left for the entree: a pair of heavenly crabcakes and more of those luscious mashed potatoes.

I think Murrells Inlet, and the surrounding areas of Surfside and Garden City, make up one of those places that has something for everyone. Another winning getaway!

Post notes:

If you are interested in learning more about the wildlife and beaches of the Grand Strand area, please read Tideland Treasure by Todd Ballantine, an environmental scientist and Hilton Head resident. The book is a great read with hand-drawn illustrations, and the wring is done in Ballantine’s own hand (not typeface).

I usually avoid typical chain restaurants, whether casual dining or fast food, while on vacation, unless it’s something I can’t get back at home. One of those places is Red Burrito, a Mexican fast food joint you can often find attached to a South Carolina Hardee’s. On the West coast, it’s called Green Burrito and is attached to Carl’s Jr. The Red Burrito menu is small, but you get a lot for your money. Seven bucks got me a bean and cheese burrito, warm tortilla chips, refried beans, and rice in a to-go carton.

And that’s really it. I don’t seem to be able to write a short blog post about anything, I swear.

Diva, A Special Girl

Sua Mah Dragon Storm Diva April 18, 1996-August 9, 2010 Photography by Michael Joseph

On August 9, my family lost one of its smaller, furrier members: Diva, my aunt’s beloved Pembroke Welsh Corgi. My aunt, Alice Vinson Lynch, purchased Diva on July 13, 1996. From that day forward, the pair shared a very special bond. I want to share the story of their incredible life together with you.

Diva (registered name: Sua Mah Dragon Storm Diva) was the daughter of Champion Sua Mah Dragon Storm and Sua Mah Chloe of Fiesta Farm. A red-headed tricolor (specifically, black and tan with white markings), Diva’s adorable puppy face and charming nature won my aunt over the moment she spotted her at breeder Judy Hart’s in Knoxville, Tennessee.

A very young Diva with her owner. Photo courtesy of Lynn and Lee Westenberg. Lynn appears on the right with her Cardigan Welsh Corgi, Roxy.

Diva was off to a great start as she attended obedience classes and earned her Canine Good Citizen certificate, and she displayed excellent manners! The first time I met her was over Thanksgiving 1996. My aunt had told us she’d have her new Corgi with her for the holiday, and we couldn’t wait to meet her. “Where’s the puppy?” I said, as Aunt Vinson showed up at our side door. “Oh, she’s at the front door,” Aunt Vinson said, adding that I could go meet her if I wanted. So I walked to that end of the house with a funny image of a dog politely waiting at the door. Well, that’s just what Diva was doing – happily sitting on the front porch, with a huge puppy grin on her face. She didn’t jump up at me when she saw me; she just bounded right in to make my acquaintance! She was a big hit with my mother, father, and sister too.

Diva in my mother's kitchen at Thanksgiving - the first time we met her! Photo by Martha V. Lynch.

Christmas in King George, 1997. Photo by Martha L. Lynch.

Diva was an outdoor dog if there ever was one. She loved daily visits to the farm with my aunt, then a horse-owner, where she enjoyed meeting horses, people, dogs, and barn cats. She made fast friends with other dogs everywhere she went, including many of her neighbors, and thought playing and wrestling with them was a great way to get some exercise!

Her playful but respectful and non-threatening nature meant she got along well with many cats, too. Our family cat Smokey, usually very territorial, once walked up to a sleeping Diva to sniff her. Years later, I caught my kitty Sumo sitting directly behind a slumbering Diva at Christmas, just quietly observing her. And my sister and brother-in-law’s friendly orange tabby, Merlin, even walked right up to Diva, rubbing his head against hers to say hello!

Diva as a puppy, happily wrestling her friend Roxy. Photo courtesy of Lynn and Lee Westenberg.

Diva’s spirit of adventure made her a wonderful travel companion to my aunt. They enjoyed many trips together, including to Emerald Isle, Key West, and Nova Scotia. Diva really loved making new friends and experiencing new places. My aunt recalls that at an upscale hotel lobby in Halifax, Diva trotted by with poise and struck perfect poses for a crowd of admirers, as though it were her job! “I felt like I was the assistant to a movie star,” my aunt remembers.

Diva just loved car rides with her owner. Photo by Jeff Bolognese.

Diva on the beach with my father, Emerald Isle, 2007. Photo by Catherine C. Lynch.

Despite her relatively small size compared to many other dogs, Diva was an expert and very fit hiker! In fact, she was a member of the local K9Trailblazers, an on-leash hiking club for dogs and their owners. Diva lead the pack on almost every hike, causing my aunt to excuse them as Diva eagerly rushed past much bigger dogs! And Diva’s inquisitive, intelligent nature showed on these hikes as she tackled every challenge, always choosing to go over a log or boulder rather than simply easily stepping around it.

Diva hits the trail. Photo by Jeff Bolognese.

Her beautiful coat shining in the sun. Photo by Jeff Bolognese.

Diva’s personality wasn’t just fun-loving; it was heart-warming and comforting. A member of People Animals Love (PAL), she visited veterans and their families at Walter Reed Army Medical Center. What a wonderful therapy dog she turned out to be for so many soldiers and their loved ones. Along with a year of service in this capacity, Diva also served as a monthly visitor to area nursing homes for several years. Her natural and genuine love of everyone she met made her a hit with all of the residents. In fact, I still recall the smiles on residents’ faces at my grandmother’s resident hall when Diva, just a very young dog, ran right up and greeted them! Even with all that energy, Diva still understood that she needed to sit quietly in Grandmother Alice’s lap when she was in her wheelchair. She was excellent at knowing just what to do in every situation.

On top of all of this, Diva was amazingly courageous and brave. She had a fear of water and preferred not to go beyond a safe boundary. But at a pool party one day, Diva spied a young boy going under the surface repeatedly. He was just bobbing around, but Diva took immediate notice and became very concerned, racing around the pool near where he was. Still very afraid of the water and not even knowing the boy, she finally dove right in to help. That was Diva – able to clear any obstacle, even her biggest fear.

I truly believe that the greatest wish of our animal companions is to love and be loved. Well, Diva had that wish granted many times over, every day of her life. With the love, care, and constant companionship of my aunt, she lived the best life any dog could ever have. Everyone who met her loved her, human and animal alike, and she loved them back. In her own way, she made the world a better place for so many. We will never forget you, Diva!

Here are some additional images of Diva’s life.

Hiking in the snow. Photo by Jeff Bolognese.

Diva is ready to lead the K9Trailblazers! Photo by Jeff Bolognese.

Making pawprints in the sand at Emerald Isle. Photo by Catherine C. Lynch.

Always poised. Photo by Martha V. Lynch.

Inauguration Day, 1997. Photo by Martha V. Lynch.

Adorable girl! Photo by Eric Mercado.

Meteors, Meandering, and Bankrupt Mexican Restaurants

The Perseid meteor shower was excellent, even though the sky was very cloudy! Eric and I headed out to Robyn and Derrick’s house in Fredericksburg to see it. They live in the woods, so we had a perfectly dark viewing platform. At a little after midnight, we wandered out onto their back porch with our beers and saw one meteor pass right through a break in the clouds. I was so excited! The four of us put a blanket on the sidewalk and saw several more over the next couple of hours as the clouds began to clear.

The next day, we took a walk on the path that runs by the canal in the Fredericksburg area. There are a TON of turtles out there, clustered on the rocks to sun themselves. Some of the turtles are quite large – easily as big as a dinner plate. We didn’t stay on the path long because it was just too hot.

Small turtle getting some sun

On the way back home, I decided on the spur of the moment to take a look at the old Chi-Chi’s building near Spotsylvania Mall (oh excuse me, Spotsylvania Towne Centre). Chi-Chi’s was an extremely popular chain of Mexican restaurants for a long time. Unfortunately, a devastating outbreak of Hepatitis A was traced to green onions from one of its restaurants in 2003, sickening over 600 people and killing four. All of its U.S. restaurants closed, although I still saw some overseas in both Brussels and Luxembourg City last year. Many Chi-Chi’s were left abandoned all across the U.S., some becoming serious eyesores (at least in the eyes of those who don’t like abandoned buildings Thanks to The Governess for putting up one of my (crappy) photos of the old Fred Chi-Chi’s at her blog, Creepy Abandoned Chi-Chis. I say that it was crappy because it was an overcast day, and I used my cell phone to take the picture. Don’t worry; I’ll go back.

We have some problems with the balcony above ours that turned out to be pretty serious. I would like to thank my upstairs neighbor for slopping so much water on her plants that it dripped through a crack on her balcony onto my head and caused me to look up. I then realized that not only is there an opening between her balcony and the side wall, but the back corner of her balcony is a bit lower than the same area on the balcony next door. A support has been hammered in place for now, and we are staying off of it until Thursday when the building owner will come take a look.

I won sixth place in a sweepstakes and I just got the prize check of … dun dun dun … $10! Hey, no complaints here.

Picture Perfect Memory

I’m going to go ahead and take a second to brag about a quirky talent of mine. I have an excellent long-term memory, if I do say so myself. It’s not perfect, but it’s pretty darn good. I have very clear, detailed memories from as far back as just a few months old (and probably younger). I didn’t realize how odd this was until fairly recently. I began to notice that many people had no idea what I was talking about when I said, “Hey so-and-so, remember that time when we were 8 that [insert memory here] happened?” They’d just give me a blank stare and occasionally accuse me of making things up. One mean old housemate even snarkily said, “Martha’s memory is so good that she remembers things that didn’t even happen!” (I told her she was just jealous.) But it’s true that my mind is pretty sharp when it comes to little details. Sometimes, friends ask me if I can tell them when a picture was taken because they know all I need to do is see the outfit or hairstyle a person was wearing to know the exact day or event. I can often even remember exact dialog.

So while I’m proud of myself for that, it does have one downfall. I often remember something that I find hilarious in the middle of a meeting or conference call and start giggling ferociously. Case in point: During a certain yawn-worthy event, I suddenly recalled walking out of a former workplace in Washington, D.C., one sunny summer afternoon in 2008. I headed over to my favorite vendor’s cart right outside of the federal building to eat some dinner before hopping on the Metro home. Nearby, a man sat against the stairs, surrounded by pigeons. As I ordered my hot dog, I realized the birds were swarming him because he was tossing bread crumbs at them. But he didn’t look very happy about it. I heard him loudly telling the pigeons, “I don’t care what none of y’all think! None of y’all! Y’all can just go on!” while the birds happily pecked away. The man continued to sit there and go right on shouting and the birds continued to flap around and go right on eating. I found it positively hilarious and had to struggle not to giggle publicly (and to avoid dropping mustard all over my suit, but that is something I always struggle with)!

Weekend Notes

Here comes the weekend! Today was one of my Fridays off – my work schedule allows me to take off every other Friday – so mine officially started last night.

Keep an eye out for the Perseid Meteor Shower tonight! Despite growing up with a love of astronomy – thanks to my father – I somehow always miss this without fail every year! I’m headed to a friend’s house tonight out in the country to try and check it out. Let’s hope for clear skies. You’re supposed to be able to begin viewing meteors staring at 9:30 p.m. Eastern Time, but the best viewing should be around midnight to pre-dawn hours. I’m very excited. Some of the highlights of my childhood were looking for stars out of a telescope at Caledon Natural Area in King George, and viewing the eclipse with my family from the backyard or just down our road. It’s so dark out there that the viewing is perfect!

On a very sad note, my aunt’s beloved canine companion of 14 years passed away earlier this week. Diva, a gorgeous Pembroke Welsh Corgi, was a very special member of our family. I will have a tribute up to her in a few days with some pictures and favorite memories. Thanks to my Aunt Vinson for providing me with a wealth of information, breeding history, stories, and pictures to include, and to my sister for sharing some great photos of Diva at Emerald Isle in 2007. I am looking forward to sharing how Diva’s incredible life touched so many people and animals. We were all blessed to know her!

Swimming with Manatees

Earlier in July, I had the experience of swimming with wild manatees in Crystal River, Florida. It was easily one of the most amazing and unforgettable trips of my life. There is nothing like seeing these under-appreciated animals in their natural habitat.

Crystal River, nicknamed “Manatee Haven,” is a city located inside Citrus County, Florida (which is also home to Homosassa Springs). Our boat captain took our group out on the river in a pontoon boat to look for the manatees. Our group consisted of me, my friend Suzi, her parents, a couple that looked about my age, and two middle-aged parents and their five children. We were encouraged to rent wet suits because the water was said to be very cold; my friends and I were some of the only people to decline, but I did get a snorkel and mask.

As our boat started up, the guide began going over an introduction. It was hard to hear her over the roar of the motor and the yammering of the kids. For this reason, I’m not sure how much, if anything, she covered regarding proper treatment of the manatees. I think that this is a very important thing to discuss. Many times we may innocently interact with animals in a way that we see as okay, while the animal sees it as threatening or upsetting.

We entered a protected area where the boat had to go at idle speed while looking for telltale little bubbles on the surface. The guide explained how many manatees are injured by propeller blades every year and that these injuries leave white scars.

View of the pontoon from in the water.

We spied a mama and baby manatee and stopped the boat. I hopped in and found the water wasn’t THAT cold. It was no worse than swim practice first thing in the morning – the type of thing your body gets used to quickly. My companions agreed with me. The guide told us that we had to be careful not to touch the bottom and stir up the mud and algae, or else the manatees would be camouflaged and we wouldn’t be able to see them. The kids disregarded this rule and kicked up tons of muck, which had the added drawback of scaring the manatees and causing them to swim away. So we hopped back on the boat to search for more. We found a huge one and dropped anchor in the area. The protocol was to simply swim alongside the manatees; if a manatee finds you affable enough, he’ll hang around. If not, he will glide off faster than you think something of that size could move.

Me and my snorkel

The water here was rather muddy, and shallow enough that swimming while keeping my feet off the bottom was not an easy task. It makes for a nice workout! We could see the big creature moving through the water, so I snorkeled along looking for him. I tried to swim slow enough that I wouldn’t plow into him, but it was so hard to see at that area of the river. Suddenly, a big tail appeared!

Manatee tail

I am reminded of a giant potato.

I swam alongside the manatee and he didn’t seem to mind me, but he was definitely going on about his business. I noticed the telltale white scars all along him and felt bad for him. I also noticed that his back was covered in green algae. After a while, he disappeared in the cloudy water. I spotted some bubbles near a pier and thought those might be more manatees; our guide had the same idea, so I followed her. Sure enough, a pregnant manatee – resembling a giant gray boulder – was hanging out over there in a very shallow, weed-choked area among the pilings.

I tried to back up and give the manatee some space. The rest of the group were off swimming in another area of the river without manatees. I was thankful they didn’t want to come this far, to tell you the truth. I don’t think the manatee would’ve wanted to chill for as long with five very rambunctious children jumping around her.

The manatee’s skin was lightly textured, except for the slimy spaces where the algae was. I could see that it was covered in white scars as well. I felt terrible for her and wondered if tour boats like ours, idle speed or no, were contributing to injuries like this. Just then, one of the kids and the mother came over and I think the manatee began to feel a little crowded. When she looked like she was heading into shallower water, I figured she wanted us to leave her be. We swam away, but the mother bragged later that her son was able to “ride” on one. At this point, no one had said that was against any rules, but it didn’t sound like a good idea to me.

At the tail-end of a manatee ...it is difficult to get a picture of their faces.

We made a few more stops before arriving at what looked like a wide, deep stream, full of boulders on the bottom, leading back through the woods. The guide said we would be swimming through this creek into a blue lagoon at the end. Based on how much water was over my 5 feet 6 inches when I stood on the bottom, I’d say this creek was about six and a half feet deep, but you could see straight through to the bottom. There was no muck here, only white sand. I could see through to the trees framing the creek on either side. Tropical-colored fish swam in and out of the tree roots, and sun shone through breaks in the heavy canopy. Some of the boulders were so large and so high that I scraped my foot on them as I passed by. I believe we were heading into what is known as Three Sisters Spring.

Entering the Three Sisters area.

Trees made the water in this stream pretty dark, but it was super clear ... note the foot of the swimmer in front of me!

The lagoon at the end of the creek was very large – and positively crystal clear. Sun shone straight through the break in the trees into the water, lighting up the bottom, where the sand was pure white and very few boulders took up the space. Schools of fish swam right by us, and I saw a large crab scuttling along the bottom.

We swam to the left and passed an area 20 to 30 feet deep with what looked like a huge underwater tree growing out of it. Someone said they heard this was the source of the spring. It would not surprise me; I accidentally swallowed some of the water and it was cleaner and crisper than any bottled water I’ve ever tasted.

Crab at the bottom - this is a good representation of just how clear the water is!

Swimming around in the lagoon!

At the very far edge of the lagoon, where the water was perhaps 15 feet deep, a tagged manatee slumbered at the bottom. She blended right in with the rocks. The guide told us she had lost her mother and so was being tracked with the tag, which was some type of floating device attached to her tail. She was huge and bore the telltale white marks across her face. The guide asked us to let her sleep, which of course, we did. (I don’t think the children could swim that deep or even notice that she was there; if they did, they left her and the tag alone.) I will never forget this lagoon. It is one of the most beautiful places I have ever seen.

The sleeping manatee and her tag - picture is dark due to lack of sunlight this far down.

This is as close as I felt comfortable getting without waking her up.

On the way back, we spotted one more manatee. This manatee was happily munching on weeds by the shore; he grabbed them in his snout, pulled them out and chomped away. We got into the water and headed over. I was supremely sorry that I had used up all the photos on my camera, because this was one of the most adorable things I had ever seen. I got up close to him long enough to hear him munching and see his whiskery snout waving around in the air with weeds hanging out of it. At that point he didn’t seem to care at all that we were hanging out with him. When more people came over, we left so as not to crowd him. I heard the guide order a child to stop riding the manatee again though. What does a guy have to do to get a peaceful meal around here!

We all left positively amazed by the experience. It was one of the top 10 coolest things I have ever done. It has helped me gain a new appreciation for this misunderstood creatures, and see firsthand how they live. On the other hand, these are wild animals, and they are endangered. It’s not like a dolphin swim I went on where there were just two people to each dolphin. If everyone is respectful and avoids harassment (as long as those guidelines are made clear), then you have an excellent learning opportunity. But the fact that we had a group of 15 in the water at once chasing after just one or two manatees at a time bothers me. It seems like too large of a group for any one tour guide to have adequate control over. I was also saddened to see the boat propeller scars on every manatee we came across. I guess not everyone observes the boat speed requirements.

Idle speed sign

You can learn more about wildlife protection laws that protect manatees, including guidelines for swimming, boating and an ADORABLE picture of a manatee face, at this link: FPL Environmental Education: Manatee Overview. You will also find links with guidelines for the protection of other Florida creatures on the lefthand side of the page. Protecting wildlife and their natural environments is something that is very important to me.

You can find many companies that offer manatee tours in the Crystal River online. The rates are very affordable. If you are concerned about how the tour groups interact with the manatees, don’t hesitate to ask about guidelines and how the tour operator ensures that the manatees are not harassed. For the most part, I feel our tour group (Aquaimages) did an okay job with such a large group. However, I would’ve liked to have a briefing on proper treatment of the manatees prior to getting on the boat. I think that the children were out of control at some points, and however minor their interactions with the manatees may have seemed to them, a briefing of the rules could have helped a great deal. It also would’ve helped me as for a time there I wasn’t certain of my own behavior (e.g., swimming alongside the manatees, lightly laying a hand on one as he passed me by). I think leaving wild animals to their own natural habitats and behaviors is imperative to enjoying their presence in the years to come.

Arlington

Arlington County is one place I always enjoyed visiting, but never expected to live. I grew up in the country, I went to college in the country, and I just didn’t have any plans to ever live in an urban or even suburban area. Sure, King George County is often called the suburbs, but anyone who’s been there will understand that it is the country.

In college, many of my friends and I would always laugh at the idea of moving to Northern Virginia. It was crowded, with bad traffic and too much noise. In fact, after I finished school I initially looked for jobs near the beach strip of Delaware! But the older we got, the clearer it became that the city is where the jobs are. Suddenly, the idea of coming to the D.C. metro area was very appealing. Now here I am, and yes – I’m a country chick at heart, but a bonafide Arlingtonian as well. And I don’t have any plans to change that anytime soon. I love where I live; I’ve made it my own.

Arlington amuses me at times in the way that many things I genuinely love amuse me. It’s urban, but it feels smaller and smaller the longer I live here. Even the towering skylines I can see in all directions from my balcony feel like just small town to me. I don’t know why. Maybe these notes from a recent outing can explain.

Eric and I went to run some errands on Columbia Pike, known as South Arlington’s original “Main Street” and currently undergoing some construction. As we drove past the Arlington Cinema ‘n’ Drafthouse, we saw a man in handcuffs on the sidewalk outside Maruko Sushi. Three police officers stood around him, looking bored and clearly waiting for someone to come get the accused. Not two minutes later, after picking up some fruit salads from McDonald’s, we headed down a side street where we saw a woman come charging out of her house at the speed of light. A moment later, we saw what she was after: a brown bunny! The woman’s face was enraged as she chased the rabbit out of her garden and across the street, where he hopped into someone else’s yard. I guess he was munching on some of her vegetables. Just another day in Arlington: an alleged criminal being chased down on one street, an alleged carrot-stealer on the next.

We also saw a mama bird teaching her fledgling to fly in the rooftop garden’s lawn the other day. Always a pretty cool thing to see if you get a chance. Eventually the birds took a break from the flying lesson for a lunch break. Which is what I’m doing right now, and sadly, it’s almost over

I just want to add that our two cats are the most ridiculously pampered and spoiled creatures I have ever seen in my life. And right now they are both super lazy.

Skydiving post coming up next. I know, I’m such a procrastinator.

Carpenter Bees!

The springy warm weather is peaking around here, and that means it’s time for CARPENTER BEES! These are big black fuzzy bees that annoy homeowners by drilling holes into wood structures to lay their eggs. They occasionally smack against windows and can make quite a racket.

It wasn’t unusual to see these winged creatures buzzing around the top of our house in King George, just under the roof. When they weren’t up there, sometimes they were buzzing right next to our ears. The thing that probably fascinated me the most about these bees was that they have no stinger – the male ones, that is. The females do, but they are not super aggressive. Like many insects, carpenter bees won’t hurt you unless you’re harassing them or their nests, at which point you can expect Mama Bee to come after you.

When I did a Google search on carpenter bees, I came across multiple pages spotlighting them as pests with recommendations on how to kill them off. This made me a bit sad as I have such fond memories of them, but I suppose that’s the naive renter in me speaking. Perhaps I’ll be more annoyed when I own a house. In the meantime, I’m going to sit in the rose trellis in our building’s rose garden and enjoy watching the bees buzz right next to me.