Mom was okay with us skipping a visit this past weekend, because we plan to cater Easter dinner for her next Sunday. That left us all weekend to get a lot of things done. Sure, we did the usual grocery shopping. We also did “guy store” shopping. That meant Home Depot for a couple of potted perennial herbs, a six-pack of red leaf lettuce, a gallon of Ortho’s version of Round-Up 365, a dozen 1″ x 2″ x 36″ stakes, 50′ of 2′ tall chicken wire, and a dozen landscape timbers. Got that stuff unloaded, then headed up to Tractor Supply Company. That was a fruitful trip, in more ways than one. Got two blueberry shrubs, a good sized Elberta peach tree, both red and yellow onion starter bulbs, a pack of russet potato seed potatoes, 100′ of 5′ tall 2″ x 4″ welded utility fencing, and a pair of men’s/boy’s Levis on super sale (in my size, which almost never happens!).
I wanted to fence off the herb garden area from the chickens, even though I’m not sure whether they’re into rosemary, oregano, sage, etc., but wanted a low enough fence that I could easily step over it. The rest of the fencing materials are for the main veggie garden that we’re in the process of putting in. It’s been rototilled a few times; the first time was breaking up lawn, but once that was broken up, it was much easier for subsequent passes.
Then, I moved on to looking for swimming pool accessories. The old style super-sturdy canvas over rubber inflatable raft-like things we had when I was a kid, for beach or lake use, are still made, but are too short for an adult. It’s amazing how expensive some of these pool float things have gotten to be, when you’re looking for something that’s either unsinkable closed cell foam, or something inflatable that’s not easily punctured.
Anyway, I found what I was looking for, but in my travels, so to speak, I came across Nicky’s ghost shark!
It’s even got handles, so he won’t get bucked off while riding it bareback! It comes in a hammerhead model, too, which is probably more appropriate for FL than the great white model pictured. I once saw a guy hook a hammerhead along the intercoastal waterway between Daytona and Daytona Beach. The look on his face was “Oh, shit. What now?” Cut the line, buddy. Cut the line.
Nicky hasn’t posted anything interesting since his arrival in FL. Maybe he’s still overwhelmed by the change of scenery and climate.
Over and out for now. I’ve got a lot of yard work to get done today, along with planting a bunch of the stuff we got over the weekend.
He added two re-posts since the 8th.
Nothing of importance.
The cacophany of birds outside is fantaststic. Fish crows and plain old crows. There is a difference between their voices.
The quiet is deafening. The idea of Nick mellowing out in Florida and becoming a surfer has a certain appeal. That shark float tho’ ….
Gulf of Mexico off Florida has bull sharks in addition to more hammerheads and tigers and few great whites.
Not a rumored, urban legend bull shark, like Dagon of Nickolaus Albert Pacione’s “Yest Ye Become One”, but verified multiple bull sharks.
Florida may inspire Pacione to overcome his writer’s block.
Maybe coming soon: “Spawn of Dagon: The Abyss Gazes Back” …. with cold predator eyes, like something out of a Peter Benchley novel.
Maybe the sharks will inspire him to write a new story. Knowing Nicky, it will have to be about the biggest, nastiest shark he can imagine. A dogfish isn’t scary enough, even though it’s perfectly capable of taking out a good sized chunk of leg muscle.
I’m grossing myself out imagining Nicky in a pair of board shorts. Would he head for the bay, or the gulf? I don’t know. Pinellas Park’s about halfway between them. I assume he can swim, but he’s better off taking along some sort of flotation device, in case he gets caught in a rip current.
But I did just get the full SHARKASAURUS wrap cover back from the layout person .. so will be posting that soon, for some *real* sharktastic horror!
Excellent, Christine!
The timing is perfect, I must say.
If The Ghost Shark of Pinellas Park isn’t a Fossil Lake story waiting to happen then I don’t know what is.
Nicky tweeted that he’s ‘made it to Tampa bay.’ Perhaps ‘made it to Tampa bay without getting arrested’ or ‘made it to Tampa bay without losing an eye’ would be more accurate.