November 2013 in pictures

Happy holidays!

It was a month filled with 3:30 wake up calls and long runs.  I dreaded it and enjoyed it all at the same time.  It was all in preparation for Ancient Oaks in Titusville, Florida on December 21.

Beautiful, foggy morning.  Peace River

Downtown Punta Gorda, Florida.  I love Christmas decoration and palm trees

Awesome haul during a run.  Webbing, CD (it worked), 3 Visa gift cards (they did not work), money, 4 range balls, a socket and some fishing line

Ran past the Spring Training place for the Tampa Bay Rays

The way to Cheerful is definitely not via S. Access in my world

I ran to Manasota Key one day

The Gulf of Mexico at Manasota Key.  It was a high surf day and very windy

This street was named after Heather N and I

I went down to Bird Gardens of Naples, an exotic bird sanctuary.  All of the birds here are unadoptable or downright dangerous.  Some viciously attack humans and some are handicapped.  I was lucky enough to be in a flight with some of them.  Very cool!!  Keri does an amazing job with these unadoptable birds and has saved them from being euthanized.  She has about 250 birds on property

This is a Goffin Cockatoo named Al Qaeda.  He's vicious and dismantles every cage he's put in.  Here he is seen attempting to dig out of his flight.  Bird Gardens of Naples 

These guys took up residence for a few weeks in my rain gauge.  At first, I was shaking them out because I was afraid they would die.  They kept coming back.

Sunrise over the Peace River

Pelican, Peace River

This 50 yard strip of trail is my ONLY trail on the vast majority of my  runs.  I'll take what I can get!

Found near I-75 on the road

Swiss Franc found during a run

Messing with my bird.  I like to keep him on his toes.

October 2013 in pictures

What a crazy, hectic month.  We moved the birds into a larger space (1205 Elizabeth, Unit I, Punta Gorda, Florida 33950), Pam and I did a TV spot for Fox4 News and the following weekend was Big's Backyard Ultra, after that, just catching up.

This is Easy.  My son Zane and I caught Easy near the beach in Englewood, Florida.  Easy was a squawker and not terribly friendly until Catherine came along.  Catherine and Easy are in love.  Easy is very gentle and sweet now! 

Easy could easily break my wrist but is just curiously checking it out

When Pam and I went to Fort Myers for the Fox4 taping, one of the Rose Breasted Cockatoos escaped and the anchor picked him up and did a transition with him.

Here is one of the stupider things I've done.  Saw this snake on the road.  It was three or four feet long.  I tried kicking it off the road with my foot.  It coiled and exposed its mouth.  Someone came along and helped me by pushing it with an umbrella but not before I had taken a picture.  Turns out this sucker was a cottonmouth also known as water moccasin.  I will be more careful in the future.  No, I'm not afraid enough of snakes.

Trying to get the dog to stop being so scared of the bird.

Wood storks next to the road.  Faces so ugly, only a mother could love them.

Sunrise over the Peace River

Moving day.  All the birds outside waiting to get into their very clean cages

Road treasure!

You're going to kill someone

I believe this story was passed on to me by Steve Tursi, an ultra friend of mine.  This post is dedicated to my friend Bogie D who was hit by a car in Boulder in October.  His hip socket was broken from the impact.  He was riding a a bike.  He's an incredible athlete who has done some crazy, cool stuff. By the time this post comes out, he should be healed and back to running and biking.

Please take a minute and read this:

You're Going to Kill Someone

September 2013 in pictures

Judging from my September pictures, I was obsessed with birds at the center and not much else.  I will spare you most of the bird pictures.

Bunny in my yard.  There must not be a lot of pythons here.  We have a lot of bunnies

Studying by the pool before torrential rain hits

Parrot Outreach moved locations and this is our new one.  It's twice the size of the old one!

My first sighting of a parrot in the wild.  It's invasive.  It's a Quaker

This tiny frog scared the crap out of me at 5:45 am

Keiko decided my nose was not clean enough

I watched the sunrise on Fort Myers beach.  Here's a sand castle

Pelicans at Fort Myers beach

Cool little frog on our lanai

Rant: Inspiration

If the following doesn't inspire you, I don't know what will.

Here's more...

Ed Whitlock Runs 3:41 Marathon at Age 82

You don't have to run, be inspired and MOVE.

More inspiration in three minutes, 24 seconds.

August 2013 in pictures

August is a blur.  Here are pictures.  I don't have much to say.

My granddog, Bandit

An unreal sky

Big ass truck, how do you get stuff in the back???

Cavat and Coco, lovebirds, sleeping peacefully.  They were adopted in October!

First off, I don't usually let ANY birds on my shoulder but she was persistent and I let her.  Because I was being "brave" (or stupid), I took a selfie.  Harley loves me and will fly right to me if a man comes in the center.  She says, "Hi" "Ow!" "Sorry" and "Kiss Kiss"  She is one of the few birds who came from neglect or abuse.  She's a doll to me.

Oscar is a 36 year old Orange Wing Amazon who says, "Let go, let go now!" "I'm a bad boy" "I want crack" "Good boy" and "Hello"  I adore his beautiful face.  

They knew I was coming and put up this sign

Fort Desoto beach, unreal in its beauty

Heather setting up the spotting scope to get a life bird on a tower.  

Brown boobie

Just another day in Florida, endangered Gopher Tortoise strolling through the hood

One of the few trails in Charlotte County ended with an alligator sighting

I had a really hard time finding the trail entrance until I found this

Not my scooter but it has my name on it

Some of the cages purchased with Pennies for Parrots!!!!!!!!!!  Thank you everyone.  Much better for the birds and much better for the humans cleaning them!

Rain is new to me, especially torrential rain.  This is a two lane road with a barrow ditch and a sidewalk off to the right.  You can barely see the sidewalk submerged.  This flooding happened in about 30 minutes it was amazingly impressive