Author David Taylor Black

This thought seems particularly important these days.

(if this image is copyrighted and you are the copyright owner, please let me know and I’ll remove it immediately)

The Abacos in general, including Hope Town have been devastated. I’ve been watching videos and updates all day. I can’t imagine what the people there have been going through. From what I’ve been able to see and find, the lighthouse in Hope Town is okay. For those interested and able to help, here’s a link to a local GoFundMe page: https://www.gofundme.com/f/Hope4HopeTown

“Few squirrels were better accomplished, for he had a good education, had traveled far, and seen much of the world.”
—Benjamin Franklin

I had no idea that, among Benjamin Franklin’s many quotes, his eulogy of his friend’s pet squirrel, Mungo (who was seems to have been killed by a dog name Ranger) would become my favorite. Apparently, squirrels were once a popular pet.

https://getpocket.com/explore/item/when-squirrels-were-one-of-america-s-most-popular-pets

Those who know me know that I’m not a great Facebook person (or blogger, clearly, as evidenced by the lack of frequency in my posts). But, I recently responded incorrectly to a quiz that a friend of mine posted and, as a result, I must post a picture of her choosing. This is the photo she chose.

The monkey’s name is Alex. This was in the Mosquito Coast region of Honduras. For some reason, he took a real liking to me and spent a good part of about a week and a half on my shoulder. His best friend (besides me, of course) was Rachel, the parrot.

What does it mean when during walks my dog, William, barks back and forth with every dog in the neighborhood, except one? They just stand and stare at each other.

We saw lots of alligators at the swamp we went to. It was a nice, sunny day and a number floated on the surface to get warm feet away from where we were walking (without protection). Most were small to medium sized, but one was about 12 feet long. Here are a couple of the smaller ones.

I just got back from New Orleans. This trip, we spent a lot of time going to the areas around New Orleans. One of the places we went was the swamp (I’m pretty sure it was the Barataria Preserve) at Jean Lafite National Park and Preserve. It was really beautiful.

That’s all.