Life

I’ve been eye-balling the coconut tree on the corner. It’s next door.

This morning, I decided to step outside and make that sharp right to check out the ground beneath it. When I did, holy moly! I hit the mother load. There were stray coconuts everywhere. True, some where a little elderly, but that was OK with me. I grabbed an arm full and took them back to the Fort Doberdale Coconut Posse. I threw them on the ground, found my big ol’ white shopping bag, and took another sharp right turn back to that tree.

I returned home with a huge bag full of the precious nuts, proving I am the hunter that my dogs think I am, once again. (Yesterday I came back with chickens! I not only hunted them down, I cleaned, wrapped, and froze them for storage.) After unloading the massive bag of coconuts onto a lawn chair, I wiped off all the ants that accompanied the nuts over here and had crawled onto me.

One of the coconuts had a good sprout on it, but there was not enough color in the mix for artiste Luigi, so he added his yellow Cuz ball to brighten the pallet. Then he stared, waiting for something to happen.

Something did. Raven came along with the evil intent of taking his Cuz ball. And Leissl had the same idea, without the evil intent part. The three stood together psychically deciding the fate of the helpless ball.

When all was said and done, Leissl put her decision into action, and that was that.

Until later, when Luigi regained possession of today’s coveted Cuz, and planted it next to the newly potted coconut tree. Ollie was ready and willing to grab that ball.

Meanwhile, the Queen Mother, the Bahamian Baby, who taught these mainlanders what a coconut is for, pulled, tore, and enjoyed her Sunday morning coconut bash.

Lilian, who carries on as if she’s the ultimate Doberdiva, got coconut hair stuck in her teeth.

It’s a bit like walking around with spinach on your teeth. But curlier and you don’t have to smile for people to notice it.

Annie was more into hugging her coconut than using it on her teeth.

Bouchard, macho Frenchmann that he is, used the one-paw-holding method when pulling his nut apart.

Baby used the traditional two-paw method.

Ginger took special efforts to move her coconut around to the right spot.

Then she dug in!

Ooops! A little sprout. Another one that needs a pot of soil to grow up in.

While Lilian’s scanning for a spare pot, I’ll go find the soil.

I don’t want to forget this ever, so thought I’d write a quick piece on it.

After lunch, I was driving into the parking lot, which is 6 stories of driving a circular staircase. The only difference is, there are no stairs…just circulars. And you multiply that by 2, as each story takes two semi-circles to complete.

On my 4th circle, I spotted a fairly good spot, which I’d have to back into. When I started to arrange my back end, I noticed an even better spot two spaces away. That is two spaces CLOSER to the elevator! So I tried to fix the rear end of my truck to fit, but I was way off.

I pulled back out and looked both ways. Still had no one coming, so I tried again. Boy was I off for a second time! But now I had two cars waiting behind me and one in front of me. I felt defeated and a little embarrassed.

I inched forward to move onto another spot when I heard someone yelling, “You wan me to do dat for ya? Huh? You wan me to do dat for ya?”

I looked up and saw a short fellow, sort of having a Santa shape, with the car of his trunk opened and he was looking at me. I yelled, “I really could do it myself, but everyone’s got me blocked in now.”

Next thing I hear, “OK, move it along! Let’s go!” He’s directing people around me!

I yelled, “That’s very nice of you. Are you from New York?” Usually, I don’t think of the two in one sentence. Sorry. But I don’t run into many New Yorkers who want to HELP me into a spot. Most of the time, they are trying to run me out of one. So I was very confused. Greatful, but confused.

He cleared the way for me, and asked again, “You wan me to do dat for ya?”

I said, “No, really, I can do this. Just watch me!” And I did do it. With one full swoop.

After I got out of my truck, I asked him again, “Thank you so much. Are you from New York?” He did have an accent.

He told me he was not and did not offer his origin, so I figured I wouldn’t ask again. He was carrying his shoe shine box, and a smile on his face. That was enough for me. He was a nice guy. They are not as easy to find around South Florida as one would hope or think. It was my lucky day.

Today is Halloween! I took the day off to be with my Doberchildren and to enjoy this incredibly moody wind in South Florida. Intermittent rains pour down, and several of my Doberbabies have become Dobermaids. Dobermaids are cousins to the Mermaid, and enjoy a good romp in the wetlands in their backyard during and after a rain shower. Muddy paws are more important than wet ones to Dobermaids. You see, the maid part refers to me. I’m the one who cleans up after them!

On Halloween Eve, we were bombarded by a witch, but the Fort Doberdale Witch Posse stuck her to the ceiling where she’s hanging out for the duration of this holiday. If she tries to escape, she’ll be a holey witch!

This morning, I called into a Psychic talk show on Sirius. It was fascinating. People told some eerie stories from personal experience. I recounted my Ouija board story from when I was 15 or 16, and needed some hints on managing my personal rascal spirit, who laughs ferociously after knocking things out of my hand or off the counter, so I have to pick the stuff up. The host, Mary O, told me she did not feel I had any entities in my personal space, but when I have these rascal entities “busting my chops” (she’s from NJ), to repeat “Be Gone! Be Gone! Be Gone!” Then I need to explain to them it’s my turn, and it’s my life on the physical plane, and they need to butt out. I guess reasoning works, so I’ll try it. Especially on those days when I’m in a hurry, and someone unseen creates little nuisance obstacles. Though I do have another theory for that. It being that if I’m late, perhaps I’ll avoid something tragic. So I don’t protest too much.

Mary O also mentioned that having bells on doors will keep the evil spirits out. So in a backsided way, Raven’s stubbornness to housebreaking, which caused me to buy bells for the doors, was a good thing. Imagine that. I bet Raven’s really peeved that her evil peeing plot turned into a good thing for me. Hahahahaha!

Scary enough for you?

After listening to the entire 3-hour show, let’s just say that I’m glad my house is haunted by paws and not by the darker side of energy. Yikes! I thought politicians were scary!

Tomorrow is November 1st and the start of NaNoWriMo, which I’ve joined and my username is FortDoberdale. This is a yearly event for writers all over the world who want to complete 50,000 words of a novel. We have a month to do it in. I hope to go the course this month, and come out the other end with 50,000 words applied to the same novel. Lord knows I write at least that many words in e-mails every month! It should be fun, though my Doberchildren don’t understand why I prefer sitting in front of my computer screen instead of doing something really productive as in throwing the Cuz ball, petting their heads, or most importantly, fixing their meals. That reminds me, I need to go shopping for some lizard gizards, eye of newt, and bat wings for dinner tonight.

Enjoy the day! And remember to keep the chocolate and raisins away from your kids and keep them safe tonight. They’re precious. Even the evil ones. Tehehehe.

The Raven.