The Case of the ImperturbableTurtle

Perhaps it's the last warm day of the year, but I still used the a/c in the Buick after my brisk walk through the woods.  My brain needed serious numbing out after a week of standing beneath falling anvils and player pianos. A fast walk was needed. I've been perturbed on several psychic fronts, but thank heaven for the Online Etymology Dictionary! Without it I would have called the turtle un- not im-.

imperturbable (adj.) 

c.1500, from M.Fr. imperturbable and directly from L.L. imperturbabilis "that cannot be disturbed" (Augustine), from assimilated form of in- "not, opposite of" (see in- (1)) + *perturbabilis, from L. perturbare "to confuse, disturb" (see perturb). Related: Imperturbably; imperturbability.

Photographing turtles on logs is more difficult than getting little kids to eat raisins on peanut butter-filled celery. Turtles don't want to be tagged on Facebook, or tacked to Pinterest. They usually bail out before I can pull the camera from my pocket.

This turtle did not want to go for a swim.  It sat and sat while leaves floated down all around and onto it. The December light was already low at 4:30, but the turtle did not want to put on flip-flops and shower in the bathhouse. If it pretended the photographer was not there, it might extend the season a little bit longer. I took photos from three sides of the little pond before it finally dived.






© 2012 Nancy L. Ruder

Wheemo-Whip ... the reptile sleeps tonight

 Wheemo-Whip is not the real name for the Marshmallow Fluff sandwich the three-year-old boy brought in his lunchbox. He brought a Fluffernutter, minus the peanut butter. Let me just say that I've never yet met a three-year-old boy for whom a Marshmallow Fluff sandwich is a good idea based on nutritional, behavioral, naptime and stickiness concerns. It ranks right up there with packing a popsicle in a lunchbox as a preschool teacher's bad dream.

Wheemo-Whip is also not the chorus for "The Lion Sleeps Tonight", but for a kid growing up under the influence of Kraft in the Sixties, it's a reasonable mistake. Miracle Whip, Cool Whip, Dream Whip, ergo Wheemo Whip. In the advertising jungle we kiddies were brainwashed for a generation.

Wheemo-Whip Ee e e um um a weh Yesterday this anole began a lengthy search for a comfortable position to camp out on the metal hummingbird garden ornament. My brain was hollering at the lizard, "Don't you know the cold front is coming? You are going to get way too cold!" Yes, it was 88 degrees today, but it'll be a high of 55 tomorrow!

Wimoweh, wimoweh, wimoweh, wimoweh
Wimoweh, wimoweh, wimoweh, wimoweh
Wimoweh, wimoweh, wimoweh, wimoweh
Wimoweh, wimoweh, wimoweh, wimoweh

Wheemo-Whip  I haven't been sleeping all that well since the day of the patio Texas Rat Snake. Visions of reptile and rodent sugarplums in my dryer vent were keeping me awake in the wee hours. Glad to report I've made friends with a visionary problem-solver in the wire and screen aisle of Home Depot. He concocted a solution using a downspout screen stuck in the dryer vent duct and completely understood my rat snake issues.  Best of all, it cost $2.68 + tax.

In the jungle, the condo jungle, CollageMama sleeps much better tonight.  Good to know neither reptile nor rodents will breach my security perimeter. Alas, I can't be so sure about the demonic pronunciation gremlins.  

August gecko mosaic

http://365project.org/collagemama/365/2012-08-02

Every Wednesday for seven years I've rolled out the eleven recycling carts for our condo complex to be ready for the earlyThursday morning collection. Neither rain nor snow, heat nor sleet, preschool nose goobies or other wardrobe malfunctions. It's a little piece of my heart I give to my community so I don't have to ever serve on the HOA board of directors, thank you very much!


Each first Wednesday in August since 2008 I've been surprised to uncover a family of tiny geckos living under the same cart.  Love that I can almost set my watch by these baby geckos about an inch and a half long. When I roll away their shady home they scatter like a billiards break. The little one's reaction time was slow, and I was able to dig my phone out of my pocket after moving the cart. The sun was suddenly blazing down on the little reptile, so I wanted both of us to find shade soon! The rest of its family scurried down a crack in the sidewalk. Not a good photo, but I'm intrigued by the camouflage for life in a parking lot. Plus, I can imagine an intriguing mosaic project for somebody.


Just yesterday, way back in July, I was sight-reading hub.  Today I'm wondering about the hubs of hell. Does this expression come from Dante's rings, or from an hour spent in frustrating phone menu spirals? It's only 105 degrees here...

What would August be without Janis? The puzzles are Escher. The livin's easy.  

© 2012 Nancy L. Ruder

Whole lotta nature out there

In the Carboniferous Period of the Paleozoic Era, dragonflies grew to be fifteen inches long with thirty inch wingspans. When I finish my Time Machine, that will be one of my test destinations.

Took the trail to the pond at  this morning, and entered a dragonfly jam. None were Paleozoic-sized. Glad it was  Arbor Hills Nature Preserve, and not Jurassic Park.

Very cooperative turtle sunning and surveying his domain.

Heron on the far side.

Water beetle.

  

A cute stripey snake.

Hunting for dragonfly lunch?

Ew.  That's a big dang snake in the water.

Time to head back up the trail!

© 2012 Nancy L. Ruder

More powerful than a cultural reference

Come on down!*

Faster than a speeding bullet!


More powerful than a locomotive!

Able to leap tall buildings with a single bound!

More wonderful than rain in TX! Impossible.


More surprised than a spotted gecko in the dining room.





Flipped on the dining room light when I was heading out to the patio to watch the thunderstorm lightning.
The little gecko, about 1 1/2 inches long, moved almost as fast as those SuperPreschoolers on their new playground woodchips.

*The wonderful invitation to make money reading book reviews again this Saturday.


© 2011 Nancy L. Ruder

Sunny with a chance of hamburger buns

Bakery debris on the 75 expressway  was strangely peculiar.  First, I drove south through crashed pieces that might have been bakery trays. Then suddenly, I was driving though hundreds of sliced hamburger buns bouncing around, blown by passing cars, and getting squished between the Campbell and Arapaho exits.





After work I headed north up 75.  Took  the George Bush Turnpike exit on the high overpass through WHAT?  Remains of a watermelon hailstorm on the George Bush overpass!  Curving around the ramp to head into the sun and pulling down the visor, when bunka chunka chunka, I was zooming through the middle of the mess. Am I a road warrior or a picnic caterer?

Friday's walk along the  Rowlett Creek Trail  found me jumping the fallen log to photograph a fast moving skink.  As I went over, it zoomed under.  When it climbed up the other side of the log to see if I was gone, I wasn't.  Peek a boo.  It hid in a  pile of leaves with just the last blue inch of its tail visible.  We played peek a boo two more times before we both got tired.  According to the Texas Monthly Field Guide Series book A Field Guide to the Reptiles and Amphibians of Texas by Judith M. Garrett, my log-jumping partner is a five-lined skink, Eumeces fasciatus.

© 2011 Nancy L. Ruder