UFOs, TURTLE LOVE & PERCY SLEDGE

One of the many benefits of insomnia is that you get to witness things in the wee hours that you might otherwise miss.  While sitting at the picture window this morning as dawn was breaking, sipping my coffee and waiting for the first painkillers of the day to make their welcome presence felt, I noticed this strange pair gliding through my sphere of consciousness hovering somewhere between me and the shadowy wood:

Nahh, not really.  Although I’m sure it would be a delight to meet Alicia Richards, I have no desire to become the subject of a Channel 21 News exposé, so I’ll come clean.  I have too much time on my hands.   This is a doctored photo of the pair of lovesick snapping turtles I wrote about on Sunday.  I just thought it had a certain mysterious charm that was too cool not to share. 

But on a related note, here’s an actual photograph I took of our lovesick turtles, Brad and Angie.  All creatures that impact our little world here in Honey Grove get names, whether they want them or not.  Among them, there was little Paco, the baby opossum who nearly died of starvation until he happily discovered that he adored the crunchy flavor of cicadas; there was Pooh, the little fawn who got her neck stuck in the white picket fence out back; and there was Kitty, the two-pound toad who claimed undisputed ownership of the stone steps beside the house.  The list goes on.  But let’s get back to the photo, which I took just moments before these crazy kids’ foreplay evolved into the “next step:” 

Having witnessed the “next step” first-hand, trust me when I tell you that Honey Grove’s Brangelina is not considering adoption. 

Now I personally think it’s a little tacky to post embedded music on an otherwise perfectly good web page.  If nothing else, it puts the user at risk for some awkward moments in the workplace.  So I’ll leave the choice of a sound track to your imagination and/or your situation.  Although, if you’re looking for a suggestion, Percy Sledge’s “When a Man Loves a Woman” seems to work nicely.  I can’t imagine Brad would hesitate for a moment to “…give up his comfort, and sleep out in the rain…” for Angie, can you?