Paris Journal 2008
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As I write this today, a tropical storm named Fay is bearing down on Sanibel Island. It is a direct hit, but it is only a tropical storm, not a hurricane. This is what Bob S. is referring to when he writes in the guest book that we are “missing all the fun.” Bob S. is in Florida. It is sunny here, and there isn’t much wind. So I close my eyes and try to imagine the 35mph sustained winds, with gusts up to 75 mph, and pounding, driving sheets of rain. That’s my home. I also thought about home on the 15th, as I was scrubbing the shower floor in the apartment over in the 6th. Specifically, I was thinking about our alligators. The connection is, slimy muck. The alligators love the slimy muck in the pond in our back yard. I like to entertain people here with stories about our alligators. Europeans have are incredulous when we describe the creatures who are, literally, in our back yard. I tell the story about how an alligator woke me up one morning this past May. She was making lots of noise, crunching on a the head of a large fish. At first I thought it was a raccoon crunching a beer can in our back yard. When I awakened enough to realize that wasn’t possible, I went out on the porch and saw this not-so-big alligator with this big fish. In Germany, we told Mareen’s mother about the alligators. She was so amused that she came up with a name, Snappy, for the alligator in our back yard. The Misselhorns in Weisbaden enjoyed hearing about our alligators. They then told a story of their own about a fox that had wandered into their bedroom and checked out the surface of the bed, leaving its tracks behind. And I don’t know if you’ve heard this news, but he First Lady of France, Carla Bruni, has agreed to be godmother (sponsor) to a bear that is one of the creatures recently re-introduced to the wild in Southeastern France. We do love our wildlife, don’t we? Now our wildlife back home are all cowering from the storm, which will rage on until about 8PM Paris time. |
Tuesday, August 19, 2008
Alligator crunching on fish head in our back yard.
Crow decoration on a building in Alzey, Germany. |
