(And a Couple More of) The Many Ways to Die in Paradise

Earlier in the week it was all about being struck by lightning while strolling on the beach.

(Surfing with Death)

(Death)

But you can also go down to the beach and get infected by flesh eating bacteria. At least ten people have died so far this year from flesh eating bacteria. They (the bacteria, that is) live in the warm water and enter the body through open sores or wounds. Or you can eat tainted shellfish. And if your immune system isn't perfect, the death rate can be up to 50%.

Or you could stay out of the water, watch what you eat, and only go to the beach on sunny, cloudless days. In which case, an airplane will land on you. They do it all the time.

(One of) The Many Ways To Die in Paradise

We're not quite Australia when it comes to killing off our residents and visitors, but we're not bad at it either.

One way we do it is with free-range electricity. While we don't get a lot of people that way in absolute numbers, we are the best in the nation when it comes to surprise, unsolicited (non-judicial) electrocutions.

Last week, three people were struck by one bolt of lightning on one of our barrier islands. An older guy, his teenage niece and her teenage boyfriend. The uncle apparently took the bolt directly to his head and, rather unsurprisingly, died instantly. The same bolt then jumped to the young man burning a hole in his chest and temporarily killing him, too. (Rescue workers, and his girlfriend were eventually able to revive him but he'd been out for almost an hour and, although he is now in the hospital and expected to live, the doctors are pretty much hinting that brain damage is a given.) The young woman escaped physical damage but, even with counseling, the psychological scars and probable PTSD may never go away.

They'd gone out strolling on the beach when it was clear but the clouds rolled in fast and they were heading back to shelter when they were struck.

Further Blurring the Distinction Between Here and There

It was a slightly less humid than normal evening last night, so when my brother went out to the bar to watch his Red Sox play (the local TV only carries their games regularly during Spring Training when they play right across the river, besides it's a good excuse to get out for a while) he let the cats out onto the foyer. Mittens wasn't interested but Jasmine and Paribanour took up the invitation.

An hour or so later, having put food in their dishes, I opened the door to collect them only to find both cats hyper-intensely poking at the base of the wall. I thought at first I might have to take another lizard away from them (all three of them had found one in my room a few days ago, sans tail (no idea if that was their doing), causing me to lock them out when it disappeared under the desk where I couldn't find it until I caught Jasmine with a tailless lizard corpse after I suspect it tried to get out of my room on its own) but I was wrong.

They had cornered a baby snake.

It couldn't have been more than a foot long and looked more like a really energetic worm. How it got inside? The same way the lizards do, I'm sure, probably even easier without legs sticking out. Why it came in FSM only knows. I confess to dancing out of the way when it wriggled too close; my excuse is I was barefoot.

I had to physically toss the cats back in the house (Jasmine twice) to get them to leave the poor thing alone and by the time I succeeded it had managed to hide itself off in some nook or cranny and I couldn't find it again. If it's smart it will figure out how to get back out in the garden where it belongs.

Consequences and Repercussions

I failed to qualify to donate blood/platelets for the first time, ever, yesterday. My red blood cell count was too low. We tested it twice to be sure.

And then we all suddenly remembered that last time they took a unit of red cells (by accident) along with the platelets and, of course, it takes time for the red cells to be replaced which is why whole blood donors are limited to once every eight weeks and platelet donors can give as often as every other week. So they got the unit of whole blood but now they've lost the unit of platelets.

And I was disqualified. They had to dismantle all the tubing and bags and stuff from the machine (since no one else was scheduled for platelets after me). I hung around for a few minutes and we discussed cats and mango recipes and then I took a cookie for my troubles and went home again.

My next scheduled appointment is right at the eight-week window so I should be good to go by then.

Let's All Get on the Same Page, Shall We?

The local deadtree news had an article the other day noting this year's mango harvest was due to be much smaller than usual thanks to a very wet winter out on the barrier islands that produce most of our commercial mangoes. Some farmers have basically closed up shop and not even bothered to harvest this year.

Of course, the article came out just days before the mango festival and now the organizers are busy reassuring everyone that, no, in fact, there will be plenty of mangoes for the festival, please come on down and don't stay home with your money.

All I know is yesterday's breakfast was yogurt loaded up with an equal volume of mangoes. Lunch included a helping of mango bread pudding. Dinner was a chicken breast over rice smothered in mango salsa. A couple slices of mango bread (with cranberries and walnuts) made for a late snack. Breakfast today was corn flakes covered with chunks of mango. Lunch included another slice of mango bread.  Dinner tonight will be lamb vindaloo with a side of mango chutney and a dish of ice cream topped with chopped mangoes for dessert. The kitchen counter is covered in a layer of mangoes waiting to be peeled and chopped. There are another half dozen+ whole fruits in the refrigerator along with seven containers of prepared fruits (although, in all honesty, some of them are smaller "single serving" size cups).

But then, that's just our one tree. And it's pretty much done for the season, now.