joe_haldeman @ 2015-08-29T17:02:00
On Friday, Lore and Gay and I took a bunch of visitors on a walk through Paynes Prairie, out to the lookout tower and back. Just shy of four miles, a nice walk through the mild clear day, about eighty degrees. We saw lots of alligators, to everyone's delight. And one snake.
I almost stepped on it – saw it at the last second and jumped back. I may have touched it with my toe, a little too close for comfort. An American coral snake, it's the most toxic animal in North America, and has a cross disposition. (Not as ill-tempered as the rattlesnake, but its venom is more poisonous.)
I was wearing trainers; left my sandals in the car because of the possibility of snakes. I shall continue that precaution in the future!
It was a beautiful beast, more beautiful of course because of its menace. But one doesn't go looking for them.
http:///Users/joehaldeman/Library/Containers/com.apple.mail/Data/Library/Mail Downloads/ig39_Coral_snake_02.jpg
That little frisson of danger added to the merriment. (Except to me, perhaps.) We then went on to Micanopy and had lunch at the Old Florida Café, a fine sandwich shop with outdoor tables under the rustling palms.
We had a rest and then went to the Hippodrome Theater, where Lore had engaged the basement floor for a sumptuous feast. It was a sizable catered affair, with an international combination of goodies, fifteen or twenty heated servers offering an assortment of Mediterranean, Asian, and Mexican fare. An open bar with a skilled and cute bartender. About 85 people from all over the country, including Alaska.
The conversation was bright and varied, friends of ours from many different places and times.
Lots of folks got up and told stories about us. Gay and I each gave a little speech, off the cuff, and Lore showed about a hundred slides, illustrating our fifty years and the twenty before – way too cute shots of me and my brother, sepia and black & white in the distant snows of our childhood. Aw-so-romantic pictures of Gay and me dating and getting married. A lot of poignant pictures of my brother and me raising various kinds of hell as teens and young men.
It was a wonderful evening, one of the best of my life! All because of Lore (with a little help from an innocent reptile).
But how could fifty years go by so fast?
Joe
I almost stepped on it – saw it at the last second and jumped back. I may have touched it with my toe, a little too close for comfort. An American coral snake, it's the most toxic animal in North America, and has a cross disposition. (Not as ill-tempered as the rattlesnake, but its venom is more poisonous.)
I was wearing trainers; left my sandals in the car because of the possibility of snakes. I shall continue that precaution in the future!
It was a beautiful beast, more beautiful of course because of its menace. But one doesn't go looking for them.
http:///Users/joehaldeman/Library/Containers/com.apple.mail/Data/Library/Mail Downloads/ig39_Coral_snake_02.jpg
That little frisson of danger added to the merriment. (Except to me, perhaps.) We then went on to Micanopy and had lunch at the Old Florida Café, a fine sandwich shop with outdoor tables under the rustling palms.
We had a rest and then went to the Hippodrome Theater, where Lore had engaged the basement floor for a sumptuous feast. It was a sizable catered affair, with an international combination of goodies, fifteen or twenty heated servers offering an assortment of Mediterranean, Asian, and Mexican fare. An open bar with a skilled and cute bartender. About 85 people from all over the country, including Alaska.
The conversation was bright and varied, friends of ours from many different places and times.
Lots of folks got up and told stories about us. Gay and I each gave a little speech, off the cuff, and Lore showed about a hundred slides, illustrating our fifty years and the twenty before – way too cute shots of me and my brother, sepia and black & white in the distant snows of our childhood. Aw-so-romantic pictures of Gay and me dating and getting married. A lot of poignant pictures of my brother and me raising various kinds of hell as teens and young men.
It was a wonderful evening, one of the best of my life! All because of Lore (with a little help from an innocent reptile).
But how could fifty years go by so fast?
Joe
No comments have been added yet.
Joe Haldeman's Blog
- Joe Haldeman's profile
- 2191 followers
Joe Haldeman isn't a Goodreads Author
(yet),
but they
do have a blog,
so here are some recent posts imported from
their feed.
