Speedy PedroMarco

Got hooked into my brother's cable modem finally, so I'm back on broadband!

Work has been stressful the last couple days, and add to it an hour and a half in bureaucratic hell getting my license changed, dashing out to the busiest highway in Tampa to rescue my sister, whose car died right in the middle of a lane of traffic, and sorting out what stuff I brought and what I forgot...

Then, tonight, I sat out on the back porch: mid 70s, right next to an orange tree heavy with fruit and a palm tree swaying in a balmy breeze.

The last two nights, falling off to sleep, I've heard foghorns in the distance.

Bliss.

Oh yeah...

I meant to post about this. Last Sunday, some friends and I went fishing in canoes by Weedon Island, which is somewhat of a mangrove salt-water lagoon system on the St. Pete side of town. There were parts we canoed through that were overhung by mangrove trees -- narrow corridors of plantlife with tree crabs skittering by, and the occasional water snake sampling the air. Just when we were wondering where the heck we were, we'd come out into these huge clearings of water...anti-islands that reminded me of the African Queen. They would be full of fish leaping out of the water and would be maybe knee-deep at the center. I watched snook slide under the canoe and zip off into the mangroves, leaving a bubbling vee-wake behind.

Unfortunately nothing was biting but some needle-fish and the noseeums. Still a lot of fun, though.

It's the insect bites that prompted me to post -- I am itching like mad.