Thursday, December 20, 2018

Dream Big, Said the Blue Shell


Here's another shot taken on Tuesday morning, when the mist and the sun were blending in amazing ways. Unfortunately, the weather took a turn for the worse yesterday, and now it's pouring rain. I guess it's only unfortunate in that it limits our activities -- it actually sounds really nice from indoors.

We took Maybelline on an adventure yesterday. She lives in an enclosure on my step-mother's property -- a good-sized pen, but one she never leaves. She doesn't seem to mind it and as you've seen in the videos, she has a shelter and plenty of room to run around and she's well cared for. But you can't help but feel a little bad that she never gets out.

So Dave and I put a leash on her and took her for a little walk. Maybelline did not know what to think. She kept her tail between her legs, but at the same time, she was fascinated by everything -- all the new smells and sights. My stepmother is considering bringing in a dog-walker to train Maybelline and maybe take her out and about now and then. (She's too big for my stepmother to manage alone.) I think that would be a great idea.

After lunch, Dave and I went to the nearby Violet Cury Nature Preserve, where I'd hoped to show him some gopher tortoises. But apparently I am destined only to have bad weather experiences at that park, because about ten minutes after we arrived the rain began.


I had just enough time to find this peculiar blue shell along the trail. "You find the weirdest things," Dave said. We left it there, and turned back for the car.

We ran some errands in the afternoon, bought some last-minute Christmas gifts and went to lunch at a Chinese restaurant. Dave could not stop exclaiming about his General Tso's Chicken. There is something comforting about a basic strip-mall American Chinese restaurant -- the kind of place where you get food in a paper box and fortune cookies and orange duck sauce in little clear packets and the food marked "hot" on the menu isn't really all that hot. You know?

Dave and I played a game where you read your fortune aloud and at the end add the words "in bed." (Apparently this was a thing when he was growing up and he mocked me for not knowing about it.) His didn't work at all, but mine was something like, "Never forget what is worth remembering...in bed."

Anyway, we spent the rainy afternoon relaxing and  I finally got our charitable donations made. I sent them via Paypal directly from our bank account, thereby skirting the credit-card barrier. Voila!

11 comments:

Yorkshire Pudding said...

"You find the weirdest things". Dave's right. After all, you found him!

P.S. Only kidding.

jenny_o said...

What a great idea to get Maybelline out more. It sounds like she would like it.

Dave's right -- you DO find weird stuff. Or as other people (like probably most of your readers and certainly me) might call it, "good stuff"! There's nothing wrong with being a connoisseur of detail.

I didn't learn the "in bed" fortune cookie thing until I was in my fifties, and I love to pass it on to other people. It's always good for some laughs :)

ellen abbott said...

I've eaten plenty of Chinese food and fortune cookies but never heard about the 'in bed' bit either. must be regional. and poor Maybelline, never getting out into the larger world. If you stepmother does get a dog walker, that will be the high point of Maybelline's day.

The Bug said...

Love the picture at the top! And the blue shell.

I've heard the fortune cookie "in bed" thing before, but from my teenage years what I remember is that we would read the lyrics to hymns in church & add "between the sheets," which as you might imagine we found HYSTERICAL.

Sharon said...

There is something to be said for good old comfort food. I like to indulge in one or two every now and than. I've played that fortune cookie game before but, it was ages (and I do me AGES) ago. It seems to me that today's "fortunes" aren't as good as the old ones were. I heard on the news this morning that wet weather was in store for both the east and west coasts in the next few days. I hope you get some sunshine while you are there.

Anonymous said...

I hope your step-mom gets a nice dog-walker for Maybelline. She'll love it! You do find interesting things to photograph wherever you go. As the fortune cookie might say, "hidden treasures are everywhere... in bed." LOL!

Jennifer said...

Comfort food--oh yes. This time of year makes me crave salty, fatty, sweet foods that are NOT good for me. Nothing better than good old cheap American style Chinese food once in a while.

That blue shell really IS a strange find! And you can tell Dave that I'd never heard of the fortune cookie game, either. :)

37paddington said...

What a beautiful photograph on the sun and mist meeting at that gate. A classic. As for strip mall American Chinese food my fave is bourbon chicken.

Colette said...

I've yet to find a decent Chinese take out experience in Central Florida. Still looking. My go-to is Hunan Chicken.

Catalyst said...

I remember venturing into my first Chinese restaurant as a very young man and sitting in a red leather banquette, with red flocked wallpaper and buddha statues everywhere I felt very cosmopolitan! I, too, like that first picture. And I can't imagine the excitement coupled with a bit of trepidation that Maybelline must have felt on her (first?) walk outside of her normal boundaries. I hope she doesn't jump her fence now.

John Going Gently said...

Stunning photo stunning xx