Rowdy Ate Larry!

I should just call this post all words Wednesday. I was unable to obtain any photos of the following events, and as Martha would say -- it's a good thing!

Yesterday I was floating in the pool on my back having an almost Zen moment. The sky was vivid blue, the water was warm, and dragonflies were dipping in and out for drinks. All this while I was listening to Dave Matthews singing End of the World.

I heard a loud squawk and looked up on the wall. There was Rowdy, the big roadrunner who likes to prance up and down! He's a comical character and seems to have no fear of humans. How cute!

I think Rowdy likes to show off. If I'm in the pool mid-morning, he often appears and will just hang out. I guess he's as curious about me as I am about him. Suddenly, I realized he had something large hanging out of his beak. At first I thought it was a mouthful of dried palm fronds to feather a nest, but I looked again and oh my God! It finally hit me. It was Larry!

Larry's the large lizard who races up and down the wall teasing Saby. He's distinctive because he's so much bigger than all the other lizards in the yard. If we're in the pool, he's tall enough that we can see him walking across the paver patio.

My Zen moment ended. I yelled and splashed at Rowdy, hoping I'd startle him into dropping Larry. Rowdy just stood and smirked. More than nauseated, I screamed get the hell out of here, and Rowdy finally went down the other side of the wall into the park. Yuck!

Poor Larry. I'm not sure if he was playing dead by freezing, or if the roadrunner had already done the dirty deed. Less than a minute later, Rowdy popped back up on top the wall right in front of me with Larry's appendages still hanging out of his mouth. I was flabbergasted. Rowdy stood and stared at me again, like a pet cat with a mouse present. Once again I yelled at him and he did the little acrobat act walking towards me with Larry's legs sticking out. I'm hoping the neighbor behind wasn't staring out her second story bathroom window at the middle-aged nut job in the pool in back screaming and flailing in her pool. Oh well! Rowdy pulled his little act a third time before he finally disappeared.

Craig came out ten minutes after Rowdy's final act. I'm sure he thought it was another one of my tall tales, but he did say a roadrunner can take on a rattlesnake. Maybe that's just another one of his tall tales!

Speaking of Craig, last night he tried to lure me into breakfast at the neighborhood grocery store by tying it into our 6 a.m. bike ride. Actually, I call the place the neighborhood Quik Trip because anything that's not a sale item is two dollars higher than the same item at any other grocery store. Seriously, I'm not kidding! He's been eyeing their cheap breakfast offerings since the day he retired -- specifically the scrambled eggs, bacon, hash browns, and biscuit meal for $2.59. He made the assumption that it would be good since the store has that expensive allure. He even promised me a cream-filled coconut donut if I'd accompany him.

As appealing as that pastry treat offer was, I insisted on taking our normal five mile bike ride in advance since the store's only a mile away. He was still craving that fabulous breakfast deal afterwards, so we hopped in the car. I decided on a Starbuck's light frappe sans donut while Craig lined up for the $2.59 special. We sat down at a table in the bakery and he grabbed a big plastic forkful of the powdery scrambled eggs.

I took one glance at his feast and thought it looked like a bad breakfast buffet at the Comfort Inn. Sure enough. Craig was relieved I didn't have my camera to record the event. LOL! I truly think he was channeling Breakfast at Larry's from our Bellevue, Washington years. Larry's is a big gourmet box type supermarket that has great deli meals -- kind of like Whole Foods (Whole Paycheck), just not as organic.

Anyway, I won't be hearing about Breakfast at Basha's again. He even spit out the biscuit!

Too bad Rowdy didn't spit out Larry!