Doe, a Deer

After I left Dunkin' Donuts yesterday morning, I walked back to my stepmother's house, and on the way I passed some woods where I saw deer quietly grazing beneath the trees. I didn't have my camera, so I kept going, picked it up at the house and went back for some pictures.

I think I've forgotten essential information about living in Florida. For example, you don't want to leave the house without considering the weather conditions. In England, you can walk in the rain and it's no big deal. Life goes on. But when I went back to photograph the deer, this happened:

It wasn't just rain -- it was a freaking monsoon. And did I have an umbrella? No.

I stood beneath a cabbage palm and for a few minutes it kept me surprisingly dry, but eventually it got saturated and lost whatever protective capacity it had. So I wound up walking home in the rain. I have never been so soaked in my life. I hope those deer appreciate my effort.

It was pretty rainy all day. Perhaps because I'm in the land of my birth and upbringing, I got to thinking nostalgically about weather forecasts. We used to have a legendary TV meteorologist in Tampa named Roy Leep, who I just learned died about a month ago. He was well-known enough that the writer John D. MacDonald, who was pretty famous back in the '70s and who lived in Sarasota, worked him into his novel "Condominium." On page 464, one of MacDonald's characters says, "You know, I don't ever really believe anything about the weather unless I hear Roy Leep say it's true." That's pretty much how everyone in Tampa felt.

When I was a local news reporter, back in the ‘80s, we used to call the National Weather Service directly to get a forecast. There was a toll-free number for weather in peninsular Florida, including a boating report. It was always a recorded message, made by a guy who sounded a million miles away, shrouded in the static of distance. He’d mention exotic parts of the state like Cape Sable and the Sebastian Inlet, and although it wasn’t always the same guy doing the recording, they all had the same mild southern twang that sounded comforting and peaceful coming through the white noise background of the phone line. "Bay and inland waters a light chop," he invariably said.

It's pouring rain right now, actually.

Anyway, yesterday, after changing, I met my stepmother, my nephew and my step-sister's husband for breakfast at a neighborhood cafe. Then I spent most of the day hanging around and reading. It was fabulous. I must admit I kind of like the fact that the guest house where I'm staying has no Internet. It forces me to focus on my book. My attention span is getting a workout!

Oh, and remember Maybelline? Well, she's still here, and she says hello. (When I made this video I had to pet her through the fence because I was on my way out to dinner, and getting into her yard would have meant getting enthusiastically pawed!)