A Wet & Slippery Monday

I didn't blog yesterday because the weather underwhelmed me.  Got up, took care of my kits, grabbed my day bag, and headed for the bus.  It looked like snow.  It smelled like snow.  The fog and clouds were hugging the mountains and foothills half-way down.  Walking from the bus stop to the Thore house, I was covered in very fine, teeny-tiny snow flakes.  They melted as they hit the ground, but covered my hat and jacket.  By the time I was supposed to walk the Rs, it was too slippery for Remy to keep his footing, so that walk was cancelled. I let Dhisana, Lily and Tessa in and out as they wanted, read a new Clive Cussler book, and napped most of the day.  When I returned home I watched Jeopardy! and then went to bed with the Clive Cussler book.  It was excellent!  I finished it last night, but not before Lovey decided to sleep lying across my chin and mouth....  It was interesting there for a while.  The clouds stayed for most of the night and we never climbed above 35 degrees.

  Today, it's partly cloudy and we're supposed to reach 52 in the afternoon - but it's also forecast to be windy - we'll see what happens.  There have been a few reports of a single coyote being seen trotting through the neighborhood, and I was contacted this morning by one of the neighbors about the "howling" at night.  We don't have any wolves here, so I'm assuming that she's hearing a coyote chorus. I need to send out a notice that we have a pack nearby....   The Broncos won on Sunday, but the Vikings, Saints and Packers lost.  

  I was very happy to watch the Gators defeat the Seminoles in Doak Campbell Stadium on Saturday; but having recently read a new biography of Osceola, I had to blow a raspberry at the FSU mascot, Chief Osceola riding Renegade, the leopard Appaloosa.  My first disconnect was the eagle feathers attached to the Chief's cap, along with the double ow of eagle feathers on the war lance.  True, eagles do live in Florida, but their feathers were not usually used by the Creeks and other tribes that became the Seminole nation.  The second, and largest disconnect came from Renegade.  Renegade is a good-looking leopard Appaloosa - and therein lies the rub: the Appaloosa horse is a color breed that was developed in the 1840s through the 1860s by the Nez Perce tribe along the Palouse River in Idaho.  Seminoles might have used Florida mustangs, or the occasional US Army horse that was captured, but not an Appaloosa.  During the Second Seminole War, the Native Americans were going hungry themselves, as they were squashed into an unlivable domain - a horse would have been the utmost luxury and would have belonged to a great Chief.  Osceola was a fantastic warrior and strategist, but he did not own a single horse or pony.

  I hope that your week is a happy one.