It's been a pretty good day today. Alex was not at his best early this morning and I feared we were taking backward steps. Not so, thankfully, as he ate a HUGE amount of food today and was bouncy and barking and pretty much his normal self after getting over his early morning grumpies.  Yeah, Alex! The back side of this is that he goes back in two days for yet another chemo treatment. Hopefully this next one won't affect him as much. Fingers crossed.

We had a lap fest in the pool again tonight. The water temp is at 86 freakin' degrees. It's like a hot tub. I did 30 lengths and could have done more, but I stopped while I was ahead of my game. The water is luscious. Warm. Inviting. Only one bat tonight. It seems the bug population is not to their liking. We still have a few fireflies on and off (more off than on) and the cicadas have not yet really arrived.

We are in the midst of a heat wave here. The heat indices have been over 100 degrees F for the past couple of days. Tomorrow is supposed to be our hottest yet. It seems silly to say, but it can be too hot to be outside in the pool. I hide in the air conditioning with the dogs. I don't think we've had the house open for about a month now. We really need two zones for our house to keep it cool upstairs which we don't have, so we have a room air conditioner in our bedroom that runs constantly at night. During the day of course, we keep all necessary rooms closed off. I try to get everything done that I need to do such as watering outside plants, errands to the store, etc., done before the afternoon heat sets in. It's supposed to end this weekend with a round of (naturally) severe storms. We need a break.

But for now we'll enjoy the crazy pool temps and lap it all up.

I did a little research on my orange buddy this morning and found out that he is in fact not a lizard but a Red Eft, or also called a Red-Spotted Newt. Their life story is pretty interesting. I found this short description on a blog of someone in Pennsylvania.

"A Red Eft is the young woodland form of the Green Newt, a type of salamander. After the eggs hatch, the babies leave the water for several years to roam the moist woods. They eventually return to the water to mature and spend the rest of their lives. The adults are green with bright yellow bellies and tails like tadpoles. You often see them in aquarium shops. The Efts are harmless, gentle beasts, about two inches long, and are quite startling with their brilliant coloration. After a heavy rainfall you sometimes see hundreds of them emerging from under the leaves and moss."

Here is a link to learn more about these fascinating little creatures. I have no idea where he came from. We do have a small stream that runs through our property, so maybe he crawled up from there. I'm glad I went out to feed the birds yesterday morning at that particular time or I might never have seen one. I'm also grateful that he stayed put long enough for me to run inside and get the camera.

 This colorful tiny lizard was at the foot of the tree where I toss food out for the birds this morning. When I first saw him I thought he was a plastic toy, as those kinds of things pop up in my yard on a regular basis from the kids that lived here years and years ago. But he was real enough and very pretty. I've never seen one like him before.

First off is an update on Alex. I'm glad I had that moment swimming on Saturday night because the past two days have pretty much been hell. Alex had a bad reaction to the chemo treatment and spent two miserable days not eating, having diarrhea, and basically lying around feeling crappy. It was scary. We plied him with anti-nausea meds and anti-diarrheal meds. Last week he had one off day; this week he had two. The vet said this is not uncommon at all and we just have to ride it through. Thank goodness today he is much better, eating a little and barking and wagging his tail again. He's not on the top of his game, but way better than he was. I try to let it not affect my life but it does. My stomach churns and I worry that we are doing the right thing. After all, Alex can't tell us if it's all worth it or not. It weighs on me. Heavily.

The vet visit last Friday went well and he declared Alex in partial remission from the lymphoma. He said that one set of lymph nodes on the front of his chest were still a little more enlarged than they should be but not by much. He was thrilled with his progress! Yeah! Now I can't even feel his nodes they are so far down. So, that's the good news. As long as he has more good days than bad ones I think he'd agree it's worth it.

We have a bear in the neighborhood. A big one if the information coming from two of neighbors is correct. Aileen said he looked like a big black refrigerator. Kim has seen it too, but not me. Not yet.

The fox (or a fox) is still living under the deck. I saw it just the other day and it looks bushy-tailed and healthy. It has not been a problem at all except for the turkey foot I found in the yard. I was wondering why I hadn't seen any turkeys in a very long time. I'm afraid the fox is dining rather well. I can't do anything about that. It's nature at work. 

I have to fish a frog out of the pool quite frequently in the morning. 

Not much is going on right now. I am in the role of care giver and there isn't much space for me. I don't like it, but there it is.

I have no photos.

Swimming 20 lengths of the pool.

Bats flying overhead.

The occasional lost firefly blinking on and off in the woods.

After the 20 lengths, floating face up listening to my heartbeat, watching the bats flying above me. I felt as if I was still afloat in amniotic fluid. A child reborn.

Frogs croaking.

A dog doing so well after his second chemotherapy treatment that it makes my heart sing.

The first cicada heard today while floating in the pool with hubby. Not the guest cicadas, but the real ones that come every year. Welcome, cigales.

Goodnight world. All is well. At least for now.

I seriously need to post about Cartagena or I'm going to forget I was ever there. Not to mention the fact that whoever reads this blog has already forgotten I was ever there!

Fruit vendors were everywhere on the streets of Cartagena. Some sold freshly pressed juice while others sold cups of freshly sliced mango and watermelon sticks that looked like fruit fries.

Coconuts were plentiful too. They sold the juice, they sold shaved coconut, and I think they toasted some of it. The juice carts vendors squeeze the juice right there while you wait with a press they have on their cart. There are also vendors with ice shavers from which they made a snow-cone and flavor it with your choice of syrups. I didn't manage to get an actual photo of one of those carts, but to show you how popular they are, they even have a metal sculpture  of one in one of the main squares of the city.

The other kind of fruit vendor was my particular favorite: the native women dressed in colorful clothing. Even though I know they dressed for the tourists, I still thought they were wonderful. They usually had a big bowl of fruit which featured watermelon and pineapple as the star attractions, but also included bananas and strange melons I had never seen before.

And of course, there was the opportunity to pose with them for a small gratuity, which I personally would have found demeaning, but I guess money is money.

It's a true art to carry a heavy bowl of fruit on your head, trust me.