The Call of the Wild

Have returned this afternoon energized after my morning language lesson. I’m beginning to feel better about these sessions and I think that the major portion of it is that I’m a bit more comfortable with the language and I feel like I’m starting to get more out of it. Of course it helps that I get to chat with Mags and Jane over lunch and practice my other accents too. Never underestimate the power of girlfriends. So anyway, I get home and it’s bloody hot outside and it doesn’t feel any better inside. So I figure I’ll sit out on the back porch and read a bit and get some sun on my legs while I sweat. I go out and put the cushions on my ‘chaise longe’ take a long drink from my icy cold Pepsi and get settled in to read. Then as I start to open my book I catch a small movement out of the corner of my eye. I look over toward the large makeshift picnic table in the corner and dangling underneath it I see this:

Yes, it’s a small lizard dangling by its tail, about 2 inches from the ground, from a spiders web. At first I think he's dead and just twirling in the breeze, but then as I move in for a closer look the little thing moves and flails its little arms. At first I think it’s an attempt to pull himself free, but then another movement catches my eye and I see this…

…bully spider scurrying away up his web. Of course instead of freeing the poor lizard I go and get my camera. When I come back to take the photo the bully spider has returned and is starting to wrap the lizard up in his web. As I approach for the picture the lizard twitches again and I realize that it's because the spider is stinging him. Then as I go to take the picture the spider runs up the web again. Coward. I am torn at first with the whole survival-of-the-fittest-Darwin dilemma but then I’m so creeped out by the whole thing I just grab my stuff , go inside and leave them to their own fates. You know, the lizard is easily 10 times bigger than the spider and if he can't get away (and was stupid enough to get caught in a spiders web in the first place for gods sake) then he deserves what he gets. Besides that, I hate spiders, and I’m not too fond of the lizards either as they keep trying to come into the house, so I figure let nature take its course. And the funny thing is that hours later, as I type this, I’m still so creeped out by the whole encounter; I’m sitting in my desk chair with my feet up under me. Eeeewwww I HATE CREEPY CRAWLY THINGS!!!. All right then, to go along with todays theme I have this story. On Saturday S and I went into Toulouse to go to an 'open air' market at Place Victor Hugo we’d heard about but had never been to. Well, it’s sort of 'open air' but not. It’s actuall in the ground floor of a downtown parking structure. It’s really rather cool. The market is really several semi-permanent shops all sharing this ground floor space. There have to be at least 8 or 10 different butchers and about as many sausage places, also several wine and cheese shops and three or four small bars strategically placed throughout the market (so you can grab a beer after every 10th shop or so to keep your strength up). Along the outside, actually in the ‘open air’ are about 4 or 5 green grocers where you can purchase just about any fruit or vegetable known to man (except not jalapeno’s, celery or sweet potatoes. [which is what I was looking for.]) On the next floor up there are several restaurants where, we've been told, you can take your fresh purchases and they will cook you a meal with them. We didn't get a chance to try this because we arrived too late. Anyway we stopped at a cheese shop…

...for a free nibble, and then as we moved on and came round the corner we saw this fellow:

Actually when I first saw him there was more of him but by the time I dug out the camera his fin had been removed and about a 12 inch length of him had been removed and was being quickly cut into steaks. Can't say the fish isn't fresh. Well that's all for 'Mutual of Omaha's' Wild Kingdom tonight.