Around Here

I heard the crash, grabbed my videocam, and ran downstairs...

It's a jungle out there. My favorite photographic quarry remains the endemic and unpredictable homo sapien, but once in a while their terrestrial, aquatic, or airborne companions catch my eye... Iguana mia! A small population of what were probably released pets stalks the canals and mangrove-choked edges of the city. "A wonderful bird is the pelican; his mouth can hold more than his belly can." The grasshopper that ate Miami. The Burrowing owl is the official city mascot. Creating backyard habitats for the protected critter is a popular hobby. A golden orb weaver. Looks scary, but is only dangerous to the male of the species. Let's not go there. A crested heron in a mangrove. The eastern pondhawk dragonfly is an alpha predator. Florida anglers tend to be a bit territorial. A hammocktite recumbus. An avid shade dweller.

...to say nothing of those in the car, the closet, the hamper. Where do they come from? Where are they going? Why are they here?

The rest home, Shady Glen, was located at a busy intersection near the shopping center. What it lacked in shade, it enjoyed in shopping convenience. As I pulled into the parking lot, a couple carrying Walmart’s turkey-and-pilgrim Thanksgiving shopping bags were migrating toward the door. The receptionist, in her huge inverted glasses, was feckless, but resolutely non- peevish. A classic passive-aggressive who left me feeling entitled to be annoyed, but with little tangible reason to be. She couldn’t find Evelyn’s name. She couldn’t tell me where Evelyn was. “Have you ever been here before?” she wanted to know. I told her I that could find the room on my own… would I really not mind? The facility was not large. I managed to keep the glimpses of wheelchairs, walkers, gray halting figures more or less on the periphery of my perception as two or three instinctive maneuvers steered me quickly to Evelyn’s wing, her hall, her room. But my concentration gave out. Just as I was about to enter E...