Larry and Ryder

The other day I put a picture on my blog of the turtle that Teri bought me when she last visited me. I knew I had to have a name for it and but couldn’t come up with anything. And then it struck me! You know the story of a woman who had to drive herself to the hospital when she was in labor because her husband was golfing and late getting home? We all know about golfers and how they have things on their minds other than golfing which may make them several hours . . . or even days . . . late getting home. So the woman pulls over to the side of the road to use her cell phone as she can’t use it while driving as she might get arrested. And also, she’s in Arizona and is a Latino, and she’s worried that a cop might arrest her because she looks illegal, but she actually isn’t. So while she’s calling 911, a guy stops by to see if he can help. While he’s there, he delivers her baby for her and doesn’t even ask to see her passport or birth certificate. So everything turned out quite well for her. She was so pleased with the stranger that she named her baby boy after him – Alejandro. That is actually much better than her husband’s name which is Horace. So after thinking about that story, I decided to name my turtle Ryder after the nice guy I dragged onto my deck to hang the turtle. I gave the real Ryder some cookies I had just baked and haven’t seen him since! Of course, he didn’t deliver my baby, but he did something that I couldn’t have done myself which is just as good.

I’ve written about Larry, my little sparrow, several times, and here’s a picture of him up a little closer. He’s still around and there’s another one sort of like him that I call Larry also. I call them all Larry. There are also a couple that I call the husband and wife that come every day several times and jump all over the place. They are house finches – the male has a lot of red on him and the female is just plain drab – no color at all. She could use a good makeover. I think they bring their child with them sometimes or maybe it’s a second female. I don’t know what they’re into, but they jump around all over the place. My sparrows are quieter, and in the late afternoon, Larry will just sit and stare into space. He doesn’t eat; he just sort of scrunches down and stares. I think that’s what I do a lot in the late afternoon when I sit down.

I finally decided to name my flamingo. Maybe I did it a long time ago, but I can’t remember. Anyway, from now on I’ll call her Frances. Why Frances? I really don’t know!