Thursday, November 27, 2008

Thanksgiving at Tim's Place at the Channel Mark


Met Canadian Connie at Tim's Place for Thanksgiving. (This photo is from one evening last summer when we decided to walk the beach with the dogs.)

She brought her 28 year old son and the three of us had a fine time.

Temp was about 72 degrees - that's on the verge of cold for some of us, so we sat in the sun on the rail overlooking Hurricane Bay. I got a call from a friend in Michigan and didn't get much sympathy for having to wear a sweater.

Tim's Place was EMPTY compared to last year - but the food was outstanding. Connie let me taste her pumpkin soup - I need to track down that recipe. And their cranberries had bits of nuts and cherries ... they were heaven!

I told Connie the girls at work were telling me I need to start going to the Edison on Wednesdays because they have a "Cougar pit." Well, I won't have her to go prowling with; if I ever do.

Connie is moving to the Washington DC area in mid-December. I'm excited for her, but I'll miss her. I need pleasantly strange friends and there aren't a lot like her in these parts.

Connie is perhaps the only other person on the planet who has been watching what's going on with pythons down here. I read an article yesterday that said there are from 5,000 to 30,000 in the Everglades area and points north.

I know, that's a weird gap in reporting the numbers.

The author said people buy the babies as pets, thinking they're manageable and only need those little aquarium things; forgetting that down the line they will need their own room.

The article was sort of hilarious. It was like the guy was saying "I know what you're thinking - let's round them up and use them for food for the needy." (I believe it's open season on boars right now. Not the kind you find in bars, the kind you find out in the woods.)

Unfortunately, the author had actually eaten python and didn't like it. Yeah, we're hoping for "tastes like chicken" when we read an article this unsettling, but did not have that satisfaction. He said pythons are "all muscle". So I'm imagining "chewy". Like trying to eat a wetsuit.

He said maybe with the right ingredients they might be ok. BAM!

I was telling Connie they want herp owners to "chip" their pythons. She didn't get it ... her son explained "microchip - like in dogs."

Then he started telling us about a classmate who is a stripper in Fort Myers. She raises (?) and sells pythons on the side, keeps them out back in Lehigh Acres and has a supply of rats for feed. (What kind of person can feed living animals to snakes?)

When they get too big, she just lets them loose. Nice.

He said she wears see through blouses, shorts exactly 4" wide and got off having to turn in a paper on time by telling the Humanities professor she has chlamydia.

However, she has accepted Christ as her personal savior.

I don't make this shit up.

This was a great Thanksgiving. I miss family and friends up north, but it sure is nice being out enjoying the sunshine on the big holidays.

1 comment:

David deMoya said...

5k to 30k pythons? Someone should tell them all to line up and be counted!
Yep, that's what I've always wanted, a warm and cuddly snake for a pet that you can play frisbee with and take for long walks on the beach. How do you protect them from sunburn though, snake oil?