[Normy]

It went down to 38 degrees at my house last night. Pretty bad huh?

-I live in Fort Lauderdale!

Well, a whole bunch of my plants are dropping leaves. NO, we didn't have snow flurries here yesterday. No, there was no frost. That means that my favorite tree, the royal poinciana that I germinated from a seed that I collected in Key West in 2003....probably made it. The leafs are still intact, a good sign.

[That seed? It has turned into a tree 20 feet tall and probably 30 feet wide! It was 5 feet tall and 1 inch wide when it was strapped to my patio railing at my previous house in Orlando during 2004's Hurricane Frances. A live oak in my back yard fell over against the fence and bent this tree nearly 180 degrees! The large tree in my back yard still has a small kink in its trunk from Frances. Last night, I put my barbecue grill under it and turned it down real-low, let it run all night. The idea is the same as the "smudge pots" that the citrus growers use, which are really just a roll of toilet paper soaked in kerosene in a coffee can. The gentle heat is enough to prevent the tree from frost, so it lives. This poinciana is my singular success with plants. It's seed was transported from Key West to Orlando where it was germinated, and then nearly killed by a falling live oak while it was strapped to my patio railing. Later, when I moved to Fort Lauderdale, I used the 928 to move the now 5-foot twig back down to my new home. This tree has spent over 600 miles in a Porsche~]

Same with the 5 coconut trees that kind of define my house in this neighborhood. They don't seem to have been hurt. I wouldn't want to replace them- they are big enough that they are probably worth $5000 each.

[Well, if they died....I wouldn't have to deal with my yearly crop of 200 coconuts~


On a positive note....today, I found a "cuban knight anole" laying on his side, nearly dead, next to my lanai. These are similar to the "chameleons" that are sold in pet stores in the north, but this guy was about 20 inches long and has a jaw about 2 inches. Which means that boys hunting lizards probably don't want to use this guy as a "lizard earring", since if they place this guy's open mouth next to their earlobe as countless kids have done with the smaller green and brown anoles....they are likely to lose that earlobe!

I gently picked up the lizard, and he felt lifeless in my hands. I was sure he was dead, but to make sure, I wrapped him in a couple of paper towels and set him on my workbench in front of my 928, which I had just driven. A few hours later, I came back and poked him with my finger. The garage was cold, but he tried to turn over, so he's alive. I placed him in a bucket and then put it in my warm utility room. I covered it, and since it is dark in there, he's slept all day long. It is going to get cold again tonight, so I think I'm just going to leave him there. I put some water in a tiny dish in there, but since reptiles can typically go days without eating with little effect, I'm going to leave him there until tomorrow.

This is bizarre! This is Memphis weather in south Florida! They say that this sort of weather occurs every 25-50 years down here. Oh well, my house doesn't have heat. I have a heat pump, which is really just an air-conditioner that can run in reverse. Compression heat is what is heating my house right now, since it is 40 degrees outside!

This is ridiculous- but nobody makes the weather. We just get to deal with it! That and it is FAR worse in other places!

N!