Stephanie Newton Books » florida living

Six Reasons Not to Walk After Dark

Stephanie Newton — Tue, 22 Sep 2009 15:40:46 +0000

1. Coyotes. Anything that looks like a dog but isn’t, and eats livestock…shudder.
2. Mutant mosquitoes. I probably got that new disease out of Africa, the one that the enormous freaky striped mosquitoes carry. Any mosquito that can create a breeze as it flies by is too stinking big.
3. It’s too hot to exercise. Seriously, when it’s 98% humidity and you’re sweating inside the house, it’s crazy to go outside. (First day of fall? Ha!)
4. Bats. Enough said.
5. Serial killers. (It’s possible that I have watched a few too many Criminal Minds episodes…but it’s safer to stay inside, am I right?).
6. Raccoons. They’re nocturnal…and they carry rabies. I really don’t want my obituary to say, “Bit by a rabid raccoon.”

A few things that made it bearable:
1. Thinking of the most insane complaints possible and making my daughter laugh.
2. Double dog daring her to make a sand angel in the bunker on the golf course.
3. Calling her names when she made fun of my huffing and puffing.
4. Knowing I got to watch the new episode of House when I got home. My reward!

Sunset Cruise

Stephanie Newton — Mon, 24 Aug 2009 12:13:21 +0000

Yesterday, the husband and I took a little sunset cruise. It’s the perfect time of day to be out on the water. We cruised around a little bit, let the dogs bark at the pelicans and seagulls (their favorite thing to do on the boat), then decided to head back to the marina. As we rounded the point into the lagoon, I saw the dorsal fin of an enormous dolphin break the surface.

I jumped up so I could see better and the poodles went crazy. And I know that dolphin heard the dogs. For the next ten minutes, he swam right alongside us. Every little while, he would come up and look into the boat to see what in the world was making all that ruckus. Then he swam away, back into the bay to get his dinner. It’s not unusual at all to see them swimming, but to see him up close like that and for him to come up and “say hello”…that was really cool!

(I was soooo wishing for my camera!)

Wildlife

Stephanie Newton — Wed, 22 Jul 2009 14:29:22 +0000

The other night we saw a huge coyote on the golf course. I didn’t get close enough to it to take its picture (unlike my friend Brenda Minton who does take pictures of dangerous wildlife ) but it looked something like this:

Seriously.

Wildlife

Stephanie Newton — Mon, 06 Apr 2009 12:09:00 +0000

I’ve been really jealous of the people who live on the other ponds in our neighborhood. They have ducks and turtles and stuff and ours was just…a pond. I even considered buying a couple of ducks for the pond. I love ducks. Maybe it goes back to the baby duck I got for Easter the year I was three. The cat ate him…that was the year I learned about the circle of life. But I digress. Ducks. On my pond!

When we got back from our little spring break trip the other day, I was ecstatic to see a family of ducks on our pond. My daughter and I grabbed the loaf of stale bread and ran down to feed the momma and daddy, hoping to lure them into staying. Apparently we also have big turtles now, too, which, I’ve been informed, like little ducks. And there’s a fox or two in the neighborhood…I saw one slinking across the street a month or so ago. And raccoons. We have those too. All things that are baaaaad for baby ducks. So, I’m praying that they survive, because they are so darn cute!