Pollen Rainbows / Meet "Fifty Cents" the Turtle

It was a very strange day, weather-wise. Since it looked like the day itself would be mostly clear, with some thunderstorms expected after 6 p.m., I did a load of laundry and hung it on the line over our deck. A hot wind, like the breath of God, came by and dried it all up.

By the time the afternoon ended, temperatures were weirdly approaching 80 degrees. It didn't look good for the storms. In fact, the heat provided great fuel for a major storm system that pounded us and about scared us to death with lightning from around 7:15 p.m. until midnight.

The power flickered at 7:15 p.m., but came back on right away, and fortunately, it stayed on the rest of the night. My husband and I, worried the power would go out again, and perhaps dramatically, skipped trying to watch any TV or videos or DVDs. 

So it was that we missed the big Billy Joel concert on TV. Oh well. We packed a cooler full of cold drinks, and spent the evening in the living room, listening to music on a tunes box connected to a speaker, playing games, and watching the lightning out the window.

I lost to my husband at Trouble (remember pop-o-matic!?), beat him squarely at five-card draw, and lost at Uno. "I wish they could sing some other song," my husband growled, as R.E.M. sang, "It's the End of the World As We Know It," and lightning and thunder crashed around us and rattled the window panes. I was forced to eat gummy worms to help get me through the trauma.

BTW, here are some things NOT to say while playing Poker:
Me: "I don't even know what's going on here."
Husband: "Do you want to bet?"  Me: "I don't care."
Me: *looking at new cards* "This is a whole other barrel of noodles. Or fish. Barrel of fish. Kettle? Kettle of fish!"

So the good news is that we survived the storms, which were very, very bad. But before all of that, after I did the laundry, I took my bike over to the Barrens, and I saw some fine pollen rainbows on the second pond (see above). And I met a tiny little turtle, whom you may see in the extras! So here is the story of "Fifty Cents" the baby painted turtle.

There is a tiny little pond under the power lines before you even get to my favorite "first" pond in the Barrens. When I walked in, there was one tiny turtle there. When I walked out, there were two: the tiny one, and a bigger one. (There were also FIVE turtles on my favorite pond!)

I have named the tiny one Fifty Cent Piece (or Fifty Cents, pronounced "Fitty Sense"), because that is about how big it is! (But it's got a BIG attitude!) I looked at it again in the pictures, and calling it Fifty Cents is truly generous. 

It's actually more the size of a quarter, but my husband says giving it a name that's twice its size will give it some goals to work toward! In the extras, you may see *looks closely* what I originally thought was a spiky tail in the back left, but have realized since is most likely a back leg/foot. What!? Fifty Cents is doing YOGA! Very cool, very Zen. Way to go, little friend!

I have two pictures and so I'm going to give you two songs. But they are for the evening's big storms. Here is REO Speedwagon, with Riding the Storm Out. And here is R.E.M., with It's the End of the World As We Know It (And I Feel Fine). Now, pass me those gummy worms, place your bet, and deal me three cards - I've got a Poker game to win here!