Archive | homicidal pets RSS feed for this section

My First Visit to Grand Canyon

26 Nov

We had a great Thanksgiving.

My sister-in-law, Linda, and my brother-in-law, Daniel, came down to Monument Valley from Slat Lake City. I cooked a big Thanksgiving dinner, which we ate on Wednesday.

Also on Wednesday, we took Linda and Daniel to Corkscrew Canyon. It had rained recently, so the bottom of the canyon was full of water. Because of that, we only went in a little way, but Daniel was still able to get some good photos, and Linda and I got to talk a lot, so mission accomplished!

Linda

Finishing the work of Thanksgiving dinner turned out to be awesome because on Thursday morning, while I knew everyone else was slaving to cook Thanksgiving dinner, I could just relax. As Mole says in The Wind in the Willows ,

“…the best part of a holiday is perhaps not so much to be resting yourself, as to see all the other fellows busy working.”

I wasn’t sure that was true when I first read it, but I found it was true on Thanksgiving morning.

My husband and Daniel took a morning hike around the Mittens.

Thursday afternoon, we headed down to the south rim of the Grand Canyon.

We entered the east entrance and went straight to the watchtower.

We had to wait in line a bit to go into the tower.

Key Lime Pie
Banana Cream Pie

The weather was chilly and there were patches of snow on the ground, but it was warm inside the tower. The views from the rim were (obviously) spectacular and surreal.

Apple Pie

The inside of the tower had fascinating paintings, copied from ancient Native American art.

Scooter Pies
Skeeter
Zeke
Zekey Pie
Man of the House

After exploring all the tower had to offer, we continued along the rim, stopping at most of the overlooks, until the sky began to get dark and the air too cold.

Then we headed to an AirBnB I had booked in Williams, about an hour south of the Grand Canyon. It was a super cute cabin with a gas fire place. The kids loved it and ran up and down the stairs, pausing to bask in front of the fireplace and rest.

I had brought plenty of leftovers from home. And I made crab rangoon cups in the mini muffin tin for extra snacking.

Our original plan had been to return to the Grand Canyon on Friday morning and visit the main visitor’s center and maybe hike.

However, the morning was foggy and snowing, and the kids just wanted to stay at the cabin in front of the fire. Additionally, Linda had a terrible migraine, and my back was really hurting me. None of my usual stretches or creams were helping.

After discussing, we decided that we probably would not see much of the canyon with all the fog, anyway, and we just relaxed at the cabin all day. I lay on my back reading a novel, the kids ran up and down the stairs and watched Bugs Bunny on TV, and Ben and Linda slept. I have to admit, it was a great day for everyone (except Linda.) She finally called her doctor and got him to send a prescription to Flagstaff so that Ben could pick it up and ahead could have relief. Thus Ben and Linda took a quick trip to Flagstaff.

When she got her prescription, Linda bought tasty pizza for dinner.

Saturday morning we headed home, but we stopped at PetSmart in Flagstaff to fulfill my beginning of the school year promise to Isla.

We adopted Potato and Poochee

Potato

Potato is fairly friendly, although he bit me the first time I tried to trim his nails, so I don’t trust him completely.

Poochee

Poochee is very shy.

Do I regret getting pets? Time will tell.

This is definitely the kind of trip we want to have while we are living in Monument Valley.

Gross

27 Mar

Question: Do you know what happens when a turkey buzzard flies into the grill of your van?

It pukes armadillo chunks all over your windshield. 🤢🤮

Voice of experience: Wash it off before it dries. 😭

I’m being swallowed by a Boa Constrictor

19 Sep

 

image from here
 

This is a true story.  You might feel inclined to doubt it in the beginning, but it is all true.

I have a friend who has a friend (this is how urban legends usually start, I know, but I promise this is true.)  We’ll call the friend Molly.  Molly had a pet python.  Molly had owned this python since he was just a little worm of a guy.  She fed him & cared for him, and for fun, she would let him out of his cage to slither around the house.

This snake grew.  He grew and he grew and he grew.

One day Molly woke up from from her nap and there, stretched out full length beside her was the python.  Weird, she thought.

That day, or the day after, Molly realized that her snake hadn’t eaten in a long time, more than a week.  She took her python to the vet to have him checked out–make sure there wasn’t anything wrong.

Her vet told her, “You need to get rid of the snake now…..

….because he is preparing to eat you.”

Apparently, before a python eats an animal, it will stretch out full length next to the animal,  to make sure it is long enough to swallow the entire thing.

Are you freaked out?  I totally was.  But then, as I finished typing this last bit, I googled snake preparing to eat, and snopes popped up.  It isn’t true.  Rats.  I heard it from such a trustworthy source, too.

I guess it is a stretch for the snake to be problem solving like that.  “Just a little more, a little more.  Dang! 2 inches short.  I’ll have to wait to eat Molly a few more months.”

Here is something I saw with my own eyes, though.  On craig’s list a year or so ago there was a bunk bed/reptile tank for sale, only $300.  My friend sent me the link and I saw the photo of it with my own eyes.   The bottom “bunk” was encased in plexiglass so as to house the snake.  The top had a mattress on it.

I’ve always wondered two things:

“Who could stand the smell & heat so as to be able to sleep so near the snake?”

“Who would put their child in bed above a snake large enough to eat the child?”

–because a snake large enough to need a twin bed sized cage is pretty big.  I’ve seen one in a cage that size in someone’s house and it was creepy.  My whole mind was occupied with getting away fast.  And I’m not in general scared of snakes.  I just have a healthy respect for things that can crush me to death.