13 on Cedar Key
1. Most overheard words spoken by Colleen in Cedar Key: “That house could use a little pink paint.”
2. According to the placemat at the Seabreeze Restaurant, Cedar Key is known as “The Oasis in time.” According to the Cedar Key Historical Museum brochure, which I read on Valentine’s Day, there’s a small key near Cedar Key that’s called “Kiss me Quick.”
3. Watching the pelicans roosting on the dock from the restaurant window while eating mullet fish, I noticed that when they bend their necks back to stretch, the length of it, their beak, and pouch forms a long vertical line and makes them look like more like a Venus fly trap plant than a bird.
4. In March of 2006 we were camping on Hunting Island in South Carolina and I said this on my 13 Thursday that week: Pelicans look like cartoon characters to me, and when they crash down into the water to catch fish, it looks like slapstick.
5. Cedar Key Mullet fish jumping in and out of the water like large skipping stones make me laugh and also look like cartoon characters.
6. While strolling along the shore, I walked under a kite string. “Is it bad luck to walk under a kite?” I asked its owner. “No, it’s good luck,” he told me.
7. My friend who moved to Cedar Key from Floyd has a 6 foot tall plant that looks like a giant aloe-vera in her front yard. It’s actually called an Agave and is used to make Tequila.
8. She has another plant in her backyard called a Spanish bayonet. It has razor sharp long stiff leaves that end in a dangerous point. “A plant that acts like a watchdog?” I asked. “Some people plant them under their bedroom windows for just that reason,” she answered.
9. This photo I took of two pelicans facing each other and resembling a heart is my official Valentine’s Day greeting to everyone.
10. While driving to Cedar Key, Joe and I were listening to a radio news story about Afghanistan’s poppy crop. The newscaster kept saying “poppy crop,” and after saying it several times, I could have sworn she was saying “poppy cock.”
11. Unlike in rural Floyd County, when they say “a cow and her calf” in these parts of Florida they usually mean a manatee and her baby.
12. Picking up a wireless connection at a campground is a lot like finding a cell phone signal. I was told that there was no wireless connection on the grounds, but on the fifth day I got a useable signal in the clubhouse. The next day I couldn’t repeat it unless I stood in the middle of the room and held the computer out and up nearly over my head, as if I was offering a sacrifice to the computer gods.
13. After saying that “I’ve been all over tarnation looking for a wireless connection,” I realized that I grew up hearing the expression “all over tarnation” but I never really knew what it meant. Once I looked all over tarnation and eventually found a wireless signal, I looked up the word tarnation. See what it means HERE.
Post note: Thirteen Thursday headquarters is HERE. View more 13's HERE.
Comments
I LOVE that pelican picture! Care to trade for one of mine?
#4: I remember that and I think I said, I love pelicans!
Glad you're having a great time! We had 8 inches of snow yesterday!
Posted by: Janet | February 15, 2007 2:28 PM
That's a sweet photo of the pelicans. Thanks for sharing it.
I've heard some mis-said words on TV. The newscasters repeat it enough and it's either a tongue twister or your ears start to play games with you.
Happy TT.
Posted by: InterstellarLass | February 15, 2007 2:47 PM
Great list. I loved the pelicans (whose beaks can hold more than their belly can)... And you look very peaceful sitting in the (?) Adirondak chair. I'm going out to plant Spanish Bayonet plants under all my windows now.
(I played)
~S :)
Posted by: Shephard | February 15, 2007 2:53 PM
Oh no. After catching up on your blog, I find myself wanting to go south...badly.
Maybe I should consider Cedar Key!
Posted by: Ampersand | February 15, 2007 3:43 PM
That's why I like TT - I learn things like where tarnation is!
Happy Thursday.
Posted by: Robin | February 15, 2007 4:22 PM
Okay, third day without power here in Floyd. We hooked up to emergency generator to find out how you're both doing!! You enjoy it while you can. We're loving your pictures. 8 degrees here this morning!
Posted by: Gretchen | February 15, 2007 8:36 PM
Even Florida is starting to get nippy now! It hasn't been bathing suit weather but is definately a break from winter!
Posted by: colleen | February 15, 2007 8:57 PM
What a cool Valentines photo!
Posted by: catherine | February 15, 2007 11:28 PM
I have about 50mor 60 Agave's in my garden, of maybe ten types....I LOVE them...!
I hope you will take a picture of that plant you described that could go under a Bedroom Window! (lol) I'd love to see it!
I wish someone would name a town "Tarnation"....So that when someone asked where you lived you could say, I live in Tarnation, sometimes called Hell or Damnation!
You look like you are enjoying yourself in that picture Colleen...but it looks like it may have been a bit chilly....was it?
Posted by: OldOldLady Of The Hills | February 15, 2007 11:50 PM
You look nice and relaxed on that nice pink chair, lovely Photo's of the Pelicans.
Posted by: Jeanette | February 16, 2007 4:06 AM
5. Cedar Key Mullet fish jumping in and out of the water like large skipping stones make me laugh and also look like cartoon characters.
"Why do mullet jump?" one angler asks another. "Because they don't have fingers," the second angler replies.
No one is certain why mullet jump. Some biologists believe the jumping is connected with oxygen content in the water, or that it helps the mullet remove parasites. Others believe they jump because it is part of schooling behavior or simply because they can.
Posted by: stu_art | February 16, 2007 5:59 AM
Actually, "Kiss me Quick" is an area off SR 24 and very close to it is "Hug me Tight".....and yes, there's a definite story as to why these areas are called this.
Stay tuned to my blog and I'll share the stories, told to me by a local.
And.....it'll be 23 degrees here tomorrow morning, so winter arrived on the island! Burr!
Posted by: Terri | February 16, 2007 10:39 AM
It sounds like you are truly in paradise, I know it will be hard to come home. It was 18 degrees here this morning! Soak up all the warmth you can before heading back. Have fun!
Posted by: susan | February 16, 2007 10:54 AM
Tarnation sounds so peaceful and more of a positive then a negative.
It sounds like it comes from the word "Tarnish".........so I think of an old castle with knights and swords and that is what I always thought it meant.
Posted by: Sherry | February 16, 2007 10:54 AM
Looks like you are flourishing down there! When in tarnation are you returning?!!
Posted by: ruth | February 16, 2007 11:36 AM
I always learn something new here, like 6, 8, 11.
Posted by: Pearl | February 16, 2007 4:57 PM
Isn't there a funny poem by Ogden Nash about pelicans.....???
You look warm.
Posted by: srp | February 16, 2007 6:13 PM
Here's what I found when I googled "pelican and Ogden Nash: A famous limerick about the pelican is often erroneously attributed to Edward Lear or to a more modern poet, Ogden Nash. But The Pelican was actually written in 1910 by Dixon Lanier Merritt:
A wonderful bird is the pelican,
His bill will hold more than his belican.
He can take in his beak
Food enough for a week,
But I’m damned if I see how the helican.
We're making our way north slow but surely.
Posted by: colleen | February 16, 2007 11:03 PM