Gator Buddha

Our canna lily bloomed yesterday, the first flower we've seen from it this year. The poor thing isn't exactly thriving -- where it once had multiple stalks, now there's only one -- but considering I bought it on a whim at the florist five years ago and wasn't sure it would live beyond one season, it's done amazingly well. It probably needs a new pot and some fresh soil.

We finally harvested some tomatoes! Dave picked these two yesterday morning. They're a little on the mealy side, honestly, but I still enjoyed mine because we grew it!

We spent yesterday entirely at home. In fact I put the yard waste out for collection in the evening and found the door still locked and chained -- or "ginked," as my dad used to say when I was a child. We hadn't unlocked it from the night before. That shows how domestic we were!

I worked in the garden, trimming some stuff and trying to keep our paths reasonably clear, so we could get to the patio without being smacked in the face by the undergrowth like a character on "Gilligan's Island." And I did see a couple of those nasty little flower bugs that give me such terrible bites at this time of year. They're definitely out there.

I did laundry. I cleaned the bathrooms. I vacuumed. That kind of thing.

I also archived all my pictures and backed up my computer, which is always a process.

I know some of you watch the show "Poker Face," with Natasha Lyonne. I was watching the night before last, and it was a kind of Florida-Man-on-Steroids plot, involving a jealous police officer who spikes a fellow officer's pet alligator, Daisy, with methamphetamines. Daisy then kills her owner and becomes a hunted creature, and it's up to Natasha Lyonne's character to return her safely to the swamps. It was a fundamentally silly plot, making fun of those wild Florida Man news stories we often see.

Anyway, at one point Natasha's character, Charlie, peers into the gator's eyes and sees a sort of cosmic, psychedelic swirl suggesting that Daisy is an elevated spirit, perhaps a divine creature. The final frame in the psychedelic swirl is the image above, which I took from the TV screen because I love it so much. I'm not sure a more perfect image has ever been created to combine the Buddhist and Floridian threads in my own past.

Anyway, it's my Facebook profile image now. I'm waiting to see if anyone recognizes the source.

Dave, by the way, doesn't like "Poker Face." He has trouble with Natasha's gravelly voice. I think as a musician he just hears vocal cord damage and it sends him over the edge.