How to Use a Turtle

I seem to be living up to the Reclusive part of the name lately, happily tucked away at Happy Holler with my fiber and fur. The weekend brought good deck-cleaning weather and my muscles ache from unaccustomed activity.

For some reason this morning I was thinking of my uncle Gordon, who was a good deal younger than my stepmother (his sister) and worked with my dad on pipeline contracts when I was very young. My brothers and I were rarely left with anyone and so it was a rare occurrence one day when my parents went out and left us with Uncle Gordon.

It might seem a daunting task for a 24-year-old young man to be left in charge of three children aged 3, 4 and 5, but he had a special plan. He caught a turtle and placed it in the doorway between our bedroom/playroom and the living room. He informed us quite seriously that it was a snapping turtle and that if we came too close it would snap at us and bite us. It was, he said, strong enough to take a finger clean off.

Well, we valued our digits highly so we stayed in our bedroom the whole afternoon, glancing over at the finger-hungry turtle every so often to see if it was still there. It wasn't until years later that I realized it was just an ordinary turtle and I'd been had.

It's a good thing the weather is warmer, because this glove isn't captivating my attention enough to be wearable any time soon unless I had indeed lost a couple of digits due to the turtle torture.

Instead, my attention has been focused on the Blue-Faced Leicester, of which I have about three or four pounds. But it spins up nicely and I've learned to lounge on my futon while spinning and watching tv.

Meanwhile, I look out my window and what do I see? A two-tone squirrel a-lookin' at me!
I look a little closer and it appears to me that this little squirrel wears a bikini!

Finally, Sherlock wishes to join the hordes of makeover pictures after his grooming on Friday.

Posted by Sheila at November 8, 2004 08:07 AM Posted to | TrackBack