Bella Pretends to Frolic

Conch Fisherman

The Queen Conch

It's official: The Belize Department of Fisheries just announced that conch season is closing on April 24th, some two months early. The reason is two-fold: First, the Queen (Pink) Conch in now listed internationally as an endangered species, and, second, this year's quota has already been realized. So if you didn't get your ceviche already, you have nine days to chow down. Sea cucumber season also ended prematurely, but I've never had a sea cucumber and probably won't.

Actual Size

From the "Can-It-Get-Any-Worse" Department: As I have been dutifully reporting, Shelley is steadily improving from her fall three weeks ago with resultant fractures in her left hand and right shoulder. Anyway, Tom was standing by our front yard gate when he spied a tiny, tiny crab walking toward our grass, not the water, in a tiny, tiny borrowed shell. Now Tom, a sucker for all things great and small, thinks how horrible it will be for a tiny, tiny crab to get up in the grass and get all confused and die a horrible death on land rather than thriving in the ocean twenty feet away.

Amused Bystanders

What happens next is classic Buster Keaton. When Tom picks up the tiny crab, the tiny crab, now resembling a spider, crawls out of the shell onto Tom's hand. Tom, who has been freaked out by spiders and cockroaches from infancy, involuntarily jumps backwards, completely misses the three steps that lead from the gate to the beach, and does a complete 360 degree tumble onto the sand. 

Refusing to Frolic

Fearing embarrassment more than crabs or spiders, he leaps up from the sand pretending, to the passersby, that he is merely frolicking with me in the sand. I, of course, am  standing there in amazement without a frolic in sight. The result was just a little achiness the next morning. No bruises or broken bones. Good, because I can't imagine trying to take care of both of them. Good grief! 

Tourism Alert: The Town Council is allowing only three bars/night clubs to stay open on the Island passed midnight: Big Daddy's, Club Latino, and Jaguar's. Why? Who knows. But I better not catch any of my kids in any of those three places! Uh-uh! 


 
Y'all come visit. We'll frolic in the sand and ride on those parachute thingies and go to bed early. You're gonna love Belize!



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