An Eventful Monday

If you are the least bit squeamish, this post may not be for you....

Although I had time to do some writing yesterday, I needed a day to process what happened on Monday, for reasons that will become obvious shortly. You would swear we lived in the country or something, what with all the creature sightings around here. The first photograph I downloaded from my camera card before writing this post was this one:

Holy cow! Looking out the sunroom window last Friday morning, I thought I saw this, and on closer inspection I did see this at the bottom of the deep end of the pool. Thank goodness B was home to take care of it. I am more than a little squeamish when it comes to dead animals, and sadly there are more to come.

So, after writing my last post Monday morning I was feeling pretty good. After all, I titled it, "Having the Time of our Lives" so you know I was in a good mood. My first happy sighting during my bike ride was of the beautiful flowering bushes on Lillian Street with bonus points for.....A CARDINAL amongst the bougainvillea and trumpet flowers!

My next street was Cheryle's, where I found the folks working on the flipper house. Stopping my bike  in the middle of the road, I took this photo to share with my readers.

I was thrilled to see them painting over a hideous orange color they used previously on the fireplace and trim. We all know I'm a huge orange lover, however, in this instance, it was not doing it for me, and apparently I was not the only one who felt that way. So, the man you see pictured in the blue shirt called out to me to come see what they were doing. Naturally I said I'd love to. He toured me around the house which was teaming with workers. I particularly liked this space which in the old days we would call a Florida room.

The back yard was being razed by a back hoe, making way for new sod. Keith was a really engaging person who told me he had lots of experience flipping houses. As to the spray painting on the front of the house I thought was done for the television program to make it look worse than it was--spot on from this corner. He said it was just a little too cute for what they had in mind. Wallpaper was used creatively in the living area to hide the less-than-perfect plaster walls. It was sort of pebbly like plaster and then painted.

A brand new kitchen and fancy bathrooms. Maybe it is just me, but I just don't understand spending so much money on bathrooms. Really--how much time does anyone spend in there? Don't tell my son Bill that I said this because he has spent a boat load on his! The truth is, his are beautiful, but for my money, I'd buy better furniture. :)

Because I'd gone this way on my ride, I entered Southern Oaks on the Summerlin side, something I rarely do. There are good reasons to ride in SO during the summer, both for the great shade trees,  and on this day I planned to go visit the now elusive owls. As I came around the corner on Wald Road, I nearly fell off my bike when I saw this....

And now you understand why it has taken me a day or two to process this.

Standing aside the fallen owl, a man driving the same route as I had just done, stopped and asked me what I was looking at. Parking his car along the curb, he wanted to see it up close. Finding a stick nearby, he turned our little owl over to see if he could find any signs of damage.

He could not. Because he was wearing scrubs, I thought perhaps he was in the medical field. Well, turns out, of all things, he sells breast implants for a living. In other words, he profits off of young women's insecurities, and for that matter, men's as well. Don't get me going....

 Frantic at this point, I did not want to leave him lying beside the curb, so I went in search of one of the men I know that were also enamored of the owls. No luck at either door. Then I went to Pam's house saying as I rode up, I was in need of a man. Her response? "What do you need a man for? I'll pick it up. " Well, there you go....she is a much stronger woman than I am, not to mention an awesome friend.

Except, before we could leave, we had to find her little dachshund, Priscilla, who had gone missing while she was working in the garden. Looking high and low, Pam finally discovered her hiding in the back yard. Whew!! Grabbing a shovel and large, black trash bag, she fired up her pickup truck. I, for the first time in my life, jumped into the back to see what it felt like, wanting to add some levity to the situation. It felt darn good, is how it felt.

Pam was heartsick, but clear headed, picking up the owl and wrapping it in the bag. Now what? Neither of us felt we could dig a deep enough hole in our yard to keep our dogs away, and throwing it in the trash just seemed too awful. She came up with a plan! Hurray for Pam!!! Calling her vet's office, she described the situation, hoping they would be kind enough to cremate our little owl friend. They said YES! By now it was close to 11:00; what I'd begun as a 40 minute ride, was now clocking in at around two hours, which on any other day would be no problem, except on this Monday I was scheduled to be at Bev's house in Winter Park by noon for bridge. Pam, bless her heart, drove our little friend over to the vets without me, and they were very kind.

It sounds pretty crazy how shook up I felt, calling Bruce and texting my boys the sad news, but after watching them for more than three months, it was a pretty sickening feeling. Remember when we began the journey? April 16, 2015...

Say what you will about animals in captivity, but for sure they won't be hit by a car, which is what the folks at the vet's office told Pam after examining him. :(

On a lighter note, I did make it to Bev's house on time, and what a day of bridge Arlene and I had! She was killing it every hand she played. The way the cards are displayed means she won all but two tricks in this hand.

Bev is recording the score, much to her chagrin. The cards just did not fall in their favor. Generally, I'm not a competitive person, but it sure was fun to beat the pants off of them on this day!

Bev asked if I'd like to join them for the evening festivities as well, dinner and a movie to celebrate Bonnie's birthday. Well, why wouldn't I? Racing back to my side of town, I tended to Baxter, changed my clothes, and headed to meet them at the Enzian theater where we had a glass of wine in the bar before heading into the theater to see The Wolfpack, an engrossing film in a strange way. If the measure of a film, a documentary in this case, is how much you think about afterwards, this one ranks high. On the other hand, I have very mixed emotions about the life they led, and their parents part in it. Once home, I did some Googling, and actually found this segment from 20/20 maybe even more enlightening. There's just something about a story where the father "doesn't like to work" and living off the government that makes me slightly sick when I think how hard we worked to provide for our sons. Where, pray tell, did the money come from to purchase all those films they watched?

Following the film we went across the street to Antonio's for dessert. Those girls know how to plan a day don't they? Bonnie with her "birthday cake."

Whew--what a day! Those "girls" sure know how to have fun.

Yesterday morning, noticing the pool cleaner was not doing it's thing, I took the head off and my gosh, there was a ground mole stuck in there!!!! Now I could have just left it out until B comes home on Friday but I have another awesome friend who is only squeamish around snakes. Hurray for Sherri who came down to remove it while Baxter looks on.

Can a squeamish girl get any luckier than having fantastic friends? I don't think so.

Feeling grateful,

Gail