Be Careful where You Go

In seasons of drought we tend to forget about our diverse wildlife as the lack of water can either move some out of the area or cause some critters to become dormant until better days return. With the return of abundant rains this spring it seems our backyards have come alive once again. Some of the returning creatures are welcomed while others are remembered for their pesky annoyances and our willingness to eradicate them in any way possible. The squirrels are big and fat again with attitude toward the dog as to who owns the grassy area under and around the trees. Bella has laid claim on her yard and lies in wait for the squirrels to step foot on the ground, then the rodeo is on. It’s a game they both like to play and I won’t be surprised to see them playing and rolling around in the grass together one day. Late evening and sunset brings out the little green frogs to feed on some ground bugs while the hot sunshine tends to arouse the rebounding horned toad population who love to chow down on the ants which have been driven to the top by all the sub-moisture. That also includes those nasty little carnivore fire-ants who can ruin a picnic for even the innocent sugar ants. Fire-ants have a tactical way about them. Most of the time one never knows they are there. Somehow they get on your body undetected, then one of them blows a horn, or something, and they all go to biting at the same time. That perpetrates the involuntary engagement of the fire-ant shuffle, a dance which includes the rapid removal of shirts, pants, shoes (boots, sandals, flip-flops), socks and whatever else it takes to get to and brush off the ants that have set you on fire. One tends to take closer observance of where they stand following their first encounter with fire-ants. Well, snakes are another subject all together. They happen to be one of those necessary evils in the natural community, but most people view them as, the only good snake is a dead snake. It’s a big world out there so I give a wide berth to any snake so we both might live to do our work another day. Then there’s the alligator that decided to take a little vacation trip from the river the other morning. Problem is he got spied by some gun-toting dudes that deemed him a danger to the public, although already wrangled and tied to the bumper of the game warden’s truck, and killed him. Should have stayed with your own kind gator, down there in the river where people don’t care or know about you.

[Mark 7:14-23] July 2, 1982, Lawrence Richard Walters, “Lawn Chair Larry” took flight in a homemade airship. Wanting to take flight since a young teen, his intentions were to attach a few helium filled balloons to a lawn chair, cut the anchor, and float above his backyard at a height of about 30 feet for several hours. He planned to use a pellet gun to burst balloons to gently float him to the ground. Dubbed “Inspiration I” the flying machine was an ordinary patio chair with 45 helium-filled weather balloons attached to it. He cut the anchor and rapidly ascended to a height of 15,000 feet and floated from his home in San Pedro, California directly into controlled air space near Los Angeles International Airport. After 45 minutes of flight he shot several balloons, then dropped the pellet gun. Descending slowly, hanging cables got caught in some power lines causing a black-out in Long Beach. Needless-to-say, Walter was in great trouble. It is said that sin will take us to places we never intended to go; keep us there longer than we intended to stay; and cost us more than we ever intended to spend. Evil lurks within us all and Mark reminds us, “What comes out of a man is what makes him ‘unclean’.”