Saturday, September 14, 2013

News From Florida....

"RECORD GATOR CAUGHT!".....Holey Moley! This one's a humongous one! With an ugly mug for sure! BUT, it wasn't caught in Florida, it was caught in Mississippi. Oh, well, you know Sparky loves gators so she just had to share this gator news with ya! Over seven hundred, twenty-seven pounds and thirteen feet and three hours to land him....
Speaking of gators, did you know that truckers refer to blown tire debris as "gators"? The #1 road debris is blown tire pieces on our nation's highways. "Gators" are shredded remnants of 18 wheelers' truck tires. You can see why they call they call them gators after seeing the photo above, can't you? Most of the blown tires come from retreads or capped tires, news sources say. Since a new truck tire can cost 600 dollars or more, and a retread is around 200, you can't blame the truckers for purchasing the cheaper tires. Does it seem like there are a lot more "gators" on the roads these days? In our travels, it sure seemed that way. We've had a couple close calls from tires being blown right as we drove by a rig or two. Trying to avoid road debris is the cause of over 25,000 accidents a year in Canada and the U.S.

Other news....A young man was caught on a passerby's camera, messing with a turtle's nest here in Sarasota. Someone nearby saw him uncovering the nest and taking turtle eggs! He said it was an older nest and he was going to take the eggs home and release them later. Yeah, right, buddy. SHAME, SHAME! There are warning signs posted all over the place. He's a Florida native, he should know better! But, thanks to social media, they found him and fined him. Messing with sea turtle nests is a third degree FELONY, you can receive a fine of up to $5,000 and/or jail time of one to five years in prison. With only one in 1,000 baby turtles surviving birth and the arduous trip from the nest down to the water's edge, it's a miracle they even make it at all. Seagulls swoop in for the kill as the hatchlings make their way to the water if they don't manage to head in the wrong direction or the eggs and hatching babies get eaten by raccoons, fire ants or ghost crabs.

If you missed Sparky's post about the video of sea turtles hatching, be sure to check out her Facebook timeline page where the video is posted. (find me under "Jeannie Sparks") When you see how these little newborns struggle to get over little sand mounds to make their way to the sea, you will be all the more amazed at that they make it at all. No wonder turtle researchers and volunteers who work to help  them want people to fill in their sand castles and digs if they are near the nesting grounds.

OK, this is not really Florida news, but have you seen the cute Chevy "Spark" model cars? They come in Florida colors, at least this one is...Why does it not surprise Sparky that it is mauve? (The color EVERYWHERE in the house we bought!) And look at those pretty multi pastel houses just beyond the car. This was on Anna Maria Island, one of the hottest growing tourist destinations these days and a very charming, beautiful community.

Sparky has heard that pink is passé, and now the new color in vogue for 2014 is "Grape Ice" for this model. She'd be able to find her car in a parking lot a whole lot easier with this one! Jalapeño lime green is another choice for these cute little cars....(Oh, boy, hope she isn't thinking about a new car! says E.) Nope! Just got the Honda paid off, so gonna wait for awhile...Unless the car starts having problems which usually happens when you get the darn thing all paid for, right?
Back to gators again...Eldy just told Sparky that one of the subdivisions not too far from us, Heritage Oaks, sent out a newsletter to their residents to check the community pool before jumping in. Apparently, an alligator thought one of their pools looked very inviting, and decided to go for a swim!
Our community pool is safe, so Eldy went for a swim....a rarity!

And that's all the Florida news that's fit to print for today.....Bye for now....

Love this plant! It's called the Bird of Paradise -- seen all over our neighborhood

5 comments:

  1. I am glad to see Eldy enjoying the pool, but don't you have your own pool?

    Glad to hear you got the MH sold. I was surprised you didn't post about that big event on this site instead of the other one.

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  2. Yup, Gators! When we're traveling, that's the thing I keep an eye out for, the black Gators on the road :)

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  3. WOW I think I got information overload. Thanks for sharing. We saw a photo of that gator, do you know why they had to kill it? I love the Bird of Paradise too, so unusual and so pretty.

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  4. I agree, it's a shame they killed that big old guy. He was probably quit old and had not bothered anybody. I'm sue he was a well known critter. MEN!

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  5. I think Sparky needs one of those Chevy Spark cars, they were made special for her.
    We came over a hill one time and a "gator" in the middle of the road, it went under our coach no problem. but did manage some minor damage to our toad.

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