Snakes Alive! New Year's Resolutions

Does one of your New Year's Resolutions happen to be experiencing more adventure in your life?

Did you write down that you're determined to be brave, bold, and daring in 2020?

Well, here's your chance!

It seems that not a lot of people like snakes much.

I'm not one of them.

Neither is Aspen Mahan, who has caught and kept snakes since he was 12 years old. He's even done educational programs for schools and other interested groups.

He's careful to pick the right reptile for the right person. Here's my little sister Carolyn, delighted to hold a little hog nosed snake.

She and I joined forces to experience the feeling of smooth python muscles running through our hands.

Some of Aspen's snakes are for viewing only.

But if you have the skill or desire, you could try communicating with them.

Aspen is very accommodating, even to showing us other interesting critters he has, such as this tarantula spider.

This is a different tarantula spider.

He even has a scorpion, one of several species, and if I remember right, one of the most poisonous. (There's some adventure for you!)

This is not a real spider. It's a fascinating spider skin that one of his spiders crawled out of when it got too big for its britches. Aspen told us that young spiders can shed their skin several times a year because they grow so fast.

If you want an unforgettable experience, then contact Aspen (he lives in southwest Utah) to schedule a time to see all the interesting critters he has to show you, and listen to all the fascinating facts you can learn.

You'll never know unless you go!

Contact Aspen at aspenhmahan@gmail.com, and he'll be happy to give you a tour, just for the joy of learning.

It looks like his snake is ready to go off the picture and learn something new, too!

Do you like to try new things that seem initially difficult, or are you happy with the comfortable status quo of daily life?

Looking for Santa

Christmas is so close, it looks to me as if our son Brian's cat is going to great lengths to watch for Santa.

Animals live in a different world than we do, with different points of view and expectations. 

(I can't tell you what they are. I'm not a cat!)

Have you heard the tradition that animals speak on Christmas Eve? Mental Floss offers an idea of how the legend came to be, and the variable outcomes, from animals worshipping the baby Savior to animals planning/predicting the deaths of their owners.

There's a movie about this tradition, too, The Night The Animals Talked and a song titled The Friendly Beasts.

Sometimes our pets "talk" to us on days other than Christmas Eve, such as when they meow at the door in unquestionably high decibels to tell us they want to come in!

What do you think about the animals speaking on Christmas Eve tradition?

Do you have pets?

Do they "talk" to you?

Would You Eat This?

I found this elegant chocolate confection for sale.  

(Check out the fancy name! There's even an apostrophe in it!) 

As I studied the treat that cost more than a giant sized candy bar, I wondered what the appeal was. A dried apple ring, okay, I've managed to chew down a piece or two of dried apple in my life. It would give the treat staying power, for sure, but what about the dried oranges, including a petrified rind as hard as old leather? I would not choose to try eating that.

And what's with the flower petals scattered down the middle? I admit that I eat flowers: broccoli flowers and cauliflower flowers (rock on, redundancy!) but I have no desire to eat random flower petals of questionable food grade.

I can't help wondering who thinks of these things.

Did the inventor of this questionable confection even taste it before putting it in a pretty box on the shelf?

Do you understand this candy?

Would you eat it?

Why Park By Me?

After experiences of having my car doors dinged by neighboring vehicles with no manners, I prefer to park far away and by myself in a parking lot. 

Which is what I did with my little blue car.

 But when I came out from the store, what did I see? A big ol' white car parked RIGHT NEXT to me.

Was I in a premium spot, or what?

Did the big white car have a crush (how punny!) on my little blue car?
Did the big car think my little car was lonely all by itself?
I just didn't get it, and didn't stick around to ask.

How about you? Have you had your car doors dinged?

(Or are you a door dinger?)

Whatever you are, you might be better at it if you apply this license plate's advice.

 I've heard that success is 90% determination and 10% inspiration...or 99% to 1%...or 95% to 5%...whatever the ratio, determination always comes out ahead, even if you're determined to park by the only car in an isolated place in a huge parking lot!

OFFBEAT BAHLMANN THANKSGIVING TRADITIONS

In the Bob Bahlmann family, Thanksgiving means the guys are in the kitchen cooking.

When the bounteous food is ready, they eat however they can - big guys, little chairs, whatever works!

Then it's time to settle the meal to make room for dessert, which means WRESTLING!

You know life will never be the same when a son can lift his dad!

More of his kids complete a take-down!

Even the little ones get in on the wrestling game.

The two-year-old is determined to take you down with her somersaults!

Some of the wrestling moves look more like hugs.

After dessert (no pictures here! Imagine your favorite one...then you'll want to go eat it! Heh-heh) the girls clean up the dishes and put the food away while the guys fold up tables and chairs.

If anyone happens to think there's something wrong with the women cleaning up after the guys fixed the food (but Jamie DID stir the gravy!) then think of the story of the woman who removed the doing-dishes-resentment by feeling intense gratitude for having food and the dishes to eat it on while she washed those very dishes.

Life can appear drastically different with a shift in perspective!

Have you ever had a shift in perspective? 

What happened?

Thanksgiving Decoration!

I've been looking for a few Thanksgiving decorations. Once upon a time, we had a five foot tall air-filled turkey on our lawn, but that flew the coop. 

Not only that, I wanted something a bit more specific to the "Thankful" part of the holiday, so when I spotted a piece of turkey-and-pumpkin fabric on sale, I took it home. (After I bought it, I mean.)

 With my magical marker, fabric paint, glue, and sparkles, I wrote the biggest letters I could make fit on the fabric to spell out a reminder to be grateful. When I take time to think of it, there are SO MANY THINGS to be thankful for every day! Just a very few things are air, water, food, shelter, clothes, people to love, transportation, a body that works, and thoughts to think.

What are you grateful for?

Wild Tame Turkeys

There's a flock of wild turkeys near our house.

I don't know much about wild turkeys, or any turkeys, really. Are they eating bugs, worms, grass, or some other turkey food when they have their heads down in the greenery?

Do you think they look rather majestic, especially with that mountain in the background? 
This reminds me that Benjamin Franklin suggested the wild turkey as the national bird, rather than the bald eagle, which may not be as weird as it sounds, considering that bald eagles are scavengers and wild turkeys are highly intelligent. 

I've heard of a cat on a hot tin roof, but here's a bird on a wire. 
How long do you think that wire can hold a big, fat turkey?

He turned his head...it looks like he heard something.

There he goes! He made the great escape!

Do you like turkeys, as food, friends, or our alternate national bird?

Flintstones? Or Rubbles?

Recently we went on a ride to visit the "Flintstone House." Our first attempt to reach it was blocked by a rock wall so steep, we chose not to try climbing it.

The "back door" approach took us up a sand dune hill that stopped our tires, so we let gravity help us back up to turn around, but stopping only made us get so stuck that our tires spun sand up into the air... 

...until they were half buried!

Bob was prepared with a winch, and pulled it toward some handy bushes to tie it around to help pull ourselves out.

But before we got the winch cable anchored on anything, a bunch of people stopped to help pull and push us out of the sand. 
I thought they'd saved our lives, but Bob said that even if they hadn't come along, the winch would have probably pulled the bush out of the ground, and then we could have dug sand out from beside the tires and put the bush there for traction and gotten ourselves out.
(Sounds so hot and sweaty, I'm extra glad the people stopped to help us!)

One of them even took Bob to an overlook to see where the Flintstone House was.

"Just over there."

(Ack! The sand tried to eat our ride, and now it's eating Bob!)

It didn't take much thought for us to decide that we appreciated where we were, with medium solid ground beneath our tires on the edge of the sand dunes.

The rock formations where we ended up still looked like a house...kind of.

So if we couldn't get to the Flintstone House safely, then we'd just explore their neighbors, the Rubble's, house!

We decided this must be their kitchen, with all the little shelves and cupboards in the wall.

Carolyn's ready to stay awhile!

So I'm curious to know...if you got stuck in the sand on a journey to a particular destination, would you stop where you were to enjoy what was around you?

Or would you take getting stuck as in lesson in how not to get stuck, and persevere in your travels until you reached your original goal?

How Many Halloween Costumes Are Enough?

Some people go to a Halloween party...but someone I know goes to Halloween partieS!

(I think her real name is Party Girl.)

She was a witch at one party. (The pointy hat kept falling off, but she kept her witchy purple hair, with one magical streak of blonde.)

Then, at ANOTHER party, she was Cinderella! (Oh, yeah, she's got the princess attitude, bearing, AND sparkly dress. No question that she's royalty!)

And then when we went to the haunted Desert Gardens, she was fearless Malificent! Nothing scared her. (She just scared it right back!)

If that's not enough, she was Pumpkin Girl at home. (It even looks like she has little pumpkins on her head!)

So if you're a party person, you'd do well to hang out with Carolyn.

Do you like to go to parties?

Or would you rather stay home?