19 May 2024
Yesterday was a mini-disaster trying to hang a 65 inch, 45 pound tv on a wall for John. First, we couldn’t locate a single stud in the wall even with the help of a stud finder. John had some super anchor screws and after we put those in and got the wall mount affixed, it was time to try to hang the tv. The top row of anchors came out of the wall. The good news is we didn’t drop the tv. The only good thing that came out of it was John provided lunch from The Lunch Room and a miniature bundt cake from Nothing Bundt Cakes. I was completely wiped out by the time we gave up. John’s researching other options today.
I had a visitor the last three days. He really was very considerate except for leaving little calling cards on the kitchen floor. It was a black spiny tailed iguana that somehow got into the house.
The photo is not him but you can see what they look like. Mine was a very small one, about 10 inches long. It took me a couple of days to usher him out the door. The only reason I knew he was in the house was I kept hearing rustling of the vertical blinds.
I guess we can say it’s officially summer in South Florida. We have another heat warning in effect, and the temperature on my morning walk was 82°F but felt 95° F with 68% humidity. Another reason you can tell it is summer is we are predicted rain for six of the next 10 days. We get most of our rain in the summer. Our rainy season begins May 15th so we are a little late.
Another summer indicator is the Queen Crepe is starting to bloom.
By the way, there are two acceptable spellings for the common name: Crape Myrtle and Crepe Myrtle. In the South, the preferred is Crepe Myrtle. I guess it’s kinda like the fish crappie, which is not pronounced CRAP ee.
The flowers and leaves of the Queen Crepe are much larger than the regular crepe myrtle we are familiar with (Lagerstroemia indica). The Queen Crepe also gets to tree size while the regular crepe tends to be more shrubby in growth form.
Even though this is a dicotyledonous plant, the flowers typically have six petals (typical of monocotyledonous plants like corn). There are numerous stamens and a single, superior ovary. The fruit is a wood capsule.
Riverland Road is lined with large, tree sized Queen Crepes and when they are in bloom, they are quite attractive. When they shed their capsules, it can be painful to walk over them, particular for dogs on a leash.
Since I was helping John yesterday, my wash, dry and fold didn’t get finished until 4:30 pm. I was so tired, I went to bed for a while. This lack of stamina thing is getting old.
After unloading the dishwasher and loading some dirty breakfast dishes, and making my bed, I don’t plan on doing anything else today. Veg out time!
Stay tuned!
Just a couple of random comments. First, I am thankful you didn’t have one of our huge iguanas sneak in. We had one in the garage, but no further. We also had two (2) black racers in our hallway when the niece and nephews were visiting. Who knows how they got in, but I escorted them out before the niece and nephew woke up. Good thing. Could of been a panther or black bear.