Sights of North Florida

My blogs lately have been few and far between. My camera sucks, and when I can't take good pictures to share, it's hard for me to get inspired to write anything. But last weekend, my sister showed me some pictures she took up in North Florida and I really want to share them with you. So all the pictures in this post were taken by my sister, Melinda. Kinda cool...hope you enjoy!

Swallowtail Kites...

Alot of 'em!

Mr brother-in-law with their Labs, Holly and Dixie

The property where they camp and hunt has these beautiful Buffaloes on it. And no, they do NOT hunt the buffalo!

A Coachwhip snake. They are harmless, good snakes...very fast. They remind me of cobras when they hold their head up in the grass and look around.

This is the scene they wake up to from their campsite.

My sis asked me what kind of skink this is, and I believe it's a Broadhead. If I'm wrong, somebody please correct me!

Not sure on this one. A Lined Skink? or is it Blue Lined?

Celebrating my brother-in-law's birthday at their place in Okeechobee. My mom had Publix do the cake, but it didn't turn out quite the way she envisioned it. I think it's still kinda cool, though.

My sister and her husband. I think they're a cute couple!

They took Sam out in the airboat and even let him run it. My sis said he did a really good job. I'm proud of him because running those things isn't easy.

Thanksgiving Weekend

Thursday morning, we left to go to our place in Lake Placid (just south of Sebring). On the way up, a familiar nasty smell hit my nose...burning cane fields. If you've never smelled it, consider yourself lucky.

The house below was not on fire. It's a sugar cane field far behind it.

We arrived at our home away from home and found the resident golden orb had moved from the back of the porch to the front. She's also grown quite a bit! None of us had the heart to disturb her, so we left her and her man-harem alone....until I couldn't stand her big, old web any more and swept it aside. It must have pissed her off because the next day she was gone. I'm sorry!

Thanksgiving day, we headed over to my mom's house in Okeechobee, about a 45 minute drive. I had my GPS with me and saw that we would be going right by a cache, so we stopped for it. Driving into a park by Lake Istokpoga, we were met by 3 Sandhill Cranes. Sorry I didn't get a better picture...

Who says we don't get to see Fall colors down here?!?

Looking for the cache... the area was so pretty. Lots of Cypress and moss-covered Oaks. It smelled like Christmas!

Finally at Mom's and getting ready to eat!

We had all the smaller stuff on the table, while the turkey, stuffing, greenbeans, etc. stayed on the kitchen counter. Just not enough room at the table for all of it!

My sister's delicious sweet potato souffle. YUM!

The day after Thanksgiving, we did chores like cutting the grass and burning leaves and branches. Then...Saturday we went to Disney World! It was Aidan's first time and he was SO excited!!!

In line for our first ride, "It' a Small World".

Next was the Haunted Mansion, my second favorite after Pirate's of the Caribbean. Aidan was scared to death, but I think he kinda liked it in the end.

Checking out stuff on Tom Sawyer's Island.

Mickey Mouse's Bedroom!

Can anyone tell me what kind of "palm" tree this is?

While waiting for Aidan and George to get off the carousel, Sam had to try removing the sword from the stone. He didn't quite get it out. Maybe he should've used both hands?

At night, they lit Cinderalla's Castle in blue lights topped with white "snow" lights. It was so pretty! Then, the colors actually changed from blue to pink and purple. It was really, really nice.

Toward the very end of the night, you could see all the colors. Isn't it gorgeous?

We left at 11:30pm. Aidan was asleep before we left the parking lot. It was a long, tiring day, but we all had tons of fun...Space Mountain, Thunder Mountain, Pirate's, Smnall World, the Jungle Cruise, the Speedway (Aidan's favorite), and many more. Oh, and I have to recommend the Monster's Inc. Laugh Floor. Not a ride, but a really cool comedy show. I don't know how they do it, but you sit down and watch a cartoon that actually interacts with the audience! Pretty dang cool. I didn't think I'd like it, but it ended up being one of the coolest things there. Oh, and I don't know how long ago they did this, but they've added Captain Jack Sparrow to the Pirate's of the Caribbean ride. He looks life-like and very much like the real deal.

I wanna go back!

Hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving!

Destruction of Americana

This afternoon, I was lying on the couch reading, when I heard the all too familiar sound of a sledghammer banging away next door. But wait...hadn't they already destroyed everything possible already??? Oh no. Not the BBQ pit! I called my son and asked him to look out the back door for me. I was too afraid at what I may see. He came. He looked. Yes, it was the BBQ pit.

I wanted to yell at those idiots and tell them to stop, but hey, it's not my house...nor is it my old neighbor-lady's home anymore, either. The new owner (whom I've yet to meet, but have seen) is of a Latin American decent. I guess he didn't realize what a piece of authentic Americana he had in his new yard. So, so heartbreaking...

It's gone. After the workers left, I went over and swiped a brick as a memento. Yeah, I'm weird like that. Now, I can't wait for them to put a fence up. None of my immediate neighbors ever had a fence, but I know these folks will put one up, and probably soon. That's fine with me. It scares me to think of what they're going to do to that old house, and I'd rather not have to look at it everytime I go outside.

On the lighter side, Aidan was being a goofball today. He decided to ham it up for the camera, so here are a few shots.

He's a constant pain in the butt, but I love him to death! Isn't he a cutie?

He has been showering Indy with hugs and kisses lately, and she has been letting him. Tonight he tripped over her and was very upset and apologized to her profusely. I think she accepted his apology :)

Yes, he ran around in just his underwear for most of the day. Hey, it's over 90 degrees outside!

Tomorrow is going to be a chore/caching day. Fun, fun, but today was a bomb as I had another migraine and didn't do squat. I owe it to the kids to get them out of the house tomorrow and have some fun!

Our Indy

Our almost 12 year old Black Lab, Indy (Indiana), has cancer. She had chewed off one of her dewclaws and it got infected...or that's what we thought. The swelling wasn't going away, so we took her to the vet. He wanted to remove it, so we scheduled an appointment for the minor surgery. When we picked her up afterwards, the Dr. said that while she was "under" he wanted to do a touch-up on her teeth, and when he did, he found another growth inside her lower lip. He showed me both growths and said he was sending them to the lab.

He also told me that when he went to trim one of her nails (on the same paw as the growth), it literally fell off! He didn't like that at all.

Indy was all bandaged up that evening and a little sluggish, but otherwise doing fine.

A few days later, my son took her in to get her bandage changed. As he was on his way there, the Dr. called me at work and old me that the results were back and that the growth on her dewclaw was a squamous cell carcinoma and the one from her mouth was a melanoma. He told Sam about it when he and Indy got there.

The margins of what he removed were pretty good and clean, so that's good...but he wants to amputate her little toe, the one that the nail fell off of. He doesn't want to take chances and feels that it would be best. I agree. Losing a little toe won't really affect her much. Hell, if he wanted to remove her whole paw, I'd let him if it meant giving her a year or two more of life!

So, next Wednesday, Indy goes back for more surgery. We'll discuss further treatment then...the Dr. says there's a vaccine that's been good against melanomas, and if it is right for her, we may give it to her. It's not cheap, but she is worth it.

So keep Indy in your thoughts and I'll post more next week on her surgery.