Thursday, June 9, 2011

turtles all the way down

My brain melts at temperatures above about 85°F (that’s about 30° for you metric system people out there). So imagine my delight at the prospect of a six hour drive from New Jersey home to Vermont in the upper nineties, in a vehicle with no air conditioning.

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Looking my All American Best. No, wait, I can do better than that.

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Did I lose you yet? Are you still here? Want to see some flower pictures? I struck a deal with the Universe: ease up on this traffic jam, and I’ll take pictures of whatever flowers there are at the next rest area.

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“OK”, said the Universe.

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Whew. That’s better.

Soon after we crossed the Vermont border, this happened:

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A glorious thunderstorm that knocked 20 degrees off the thermometer.

And then, a half mile from the house, we came across a mom and two kids, standing guard over a foot-long snapping turtle on the side of the road. We pulled over, and I went and got a neighbor and two shovels. Nobody else wanted to mess with it, so I scooped the shovel underneath the turtle and contemplated my lack of leverage and upper arm strength. And then the turtle got good and fed up with us and walked into the grass at the edge of the road.

Two hours later, I headed back out for our last (help! help!) rehearsal of Beethoven’s 9th, and whaddaya know, there was a snapping turtle, presumably that same one, this time on the other side of the road, contemplating a crossing. Two sightings in one day! What a miracle! I waited a few miles until I was in cell phone range, and called my animal control officer brother to gloat. And while I am in his voicemail?  I see ANOTHER foot-long turtle. Couldn’t tell if it was a snapper or a wood turtle.

Turtles, all the way down, baby.

2 comments:

  1. I KNOW!!! I didn't have my camera with me for ANY of this. Grrr! Say, have you considered cold-blooded murder for your squirrel problem? =)

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