Aisai's Wildlife Weekend
6/18/1

This was wildlife weekend for Aisai, but we were too busy to actually go see the potentially lame movie that I wanted to see.

First, on the way out of our subdivision on Friday, Aisai stopped and helped a turtle across the road. Rather than being like the turtles that we get on the road on the way into work here, all scared and all, this turtle actually tried to run away from Aisai.

She picked it up. She told me later that she did so in the way that I�d told her I do so I don�t get peed on. The turtle didn�t urinate or wiggle or anything, just politely drew in its little arms and rode along.

Later, when she was driving by, she was looking to see if she saw the turtle in the yard she had put him in. So, she�s looking out the window with a smile on her face, looking for her little pal the turtle, and realizes that her gaze crosses some man weed eating.

Aisai thinks that she gave the man the impression that she was smiling at him, giving him a �Hey, big boy� look.

Then on Saturday, while I was putting the aluminum screws for the support wiring into the arbor, Aisai was mowing. As she got near the paving stone thing we have the garbage can on, she lifted the front of the mower so she could change directions, and a frog jumped out of behind the garbage can.

Aisai was so scared that she�d chop him up with the mower. But she didn�t. She did chase him into the garage, trying desperately to keep him from getting behind the hot water heater, where we�d never be able to get him.

She was worried that her gloves she mows in weren�t giving her enough tactile feel about how well she was holding the frog. She didn�t want to squish him.

I didn�t think that squish would be in Microsoft Word�s spell check dictionary.

She took him around the house to the toad house under the butterfly bush. She told me about it as she was taking him back, but I wasn�t at a point I could hop off the ladder and look. But she said it was green, which means it�s actually a frog and not a toad.

I should tell my frog in the shower story now.

This happened back in 1984 when my parents and I had just moved into our new house on Bluewood. I was taking a shower and I noticed that there was a little green tree frog on my shower curtain. He was on the outside but with his head peeking over the top. It was very intimidating. I finished showering and then caught him in a bandana and let him loose in the back yard. The back yard a Bluewood was all wooded, so he�d be at home.

The third wildlife event that involves Aisai is when we were driving up Monte Sano to go to the College Age Picnic. We aren�t college age anymore, but we are coordinators for that age group at church. In any case, we�re driving up the windy road to get up there, and all of the sudden a coyote runs in front of the car.

He wasn�t so close to the car that I had to slam on my brakes, but I did brake some. He just ran from the right side of the road to the left side of the road. He was very healthy looking.

The last time I saw a coyote was in front of the Redstone Federal Credit Union on Wynn Drive. There is a wooded area across the street, even though it�s right in the middle of the city, and obviously a coyote lived there. This was about 3 years ago. But the coyote was in the grass in front of the bank, rolling around in the grass. Redstone has a few acres of land in front of it, so it wasn�t like he was getting in the way of anything.

I�d seen what was probably that same coyote about three months before just walking across Bradford Street, but that was at around six in the morning. No one was really out so he could wander around.

I�m sure someone called animal control on him eventually. After all, he�s pretty much in the middle of a research park.

But we didn�t get to see Tomb Raider this week. I tried to talk Aisai into us going tonight, Monday night, but she claims that we still have stuff to do around the house for when her sister, Longwinded, shows up.

I didn�t give Longwinded that name. I don�t really think that she is longwinded at all. She has that as her email address.

She flies in from Louisiana tomorrow, but she�s not staying at our place. However, Aisai wants to rearrange the furniture and tidy here and there. I agree that vacuuming is way overdue, but since it�s my chore, I�ll keep quiet about it.

Actually, I�ll probably vacuum tonight.

I also have to put together the other chair we got from Ikea. It is one of the tubular steel Ellne (I think) chairs. They are cool looking, but they are hard to get out of.