There's a dead tarantula in the front yard. I'm coming home.

Saturday, September 15th We had a fun day today. Bob took his parents to the airport first thing for their trip back to NC. They had a great time, and are already planning their next trip to Nevis. They have picked out their hotel (Oualie Beach) and think they'll be brave and rent a car. Driving on the wrong side of the road is not as weird as driving on the wrong side of the car. Three out of five approaches I go to the wrong side of the car. Once I got in while talking to the person in the backseat, and turned around to start the car and NO STEERING WHEEL! It's always comical. And that was before Happy Hour. But to complicate things we have two Suzukis right now, and one of them has the steering wheel on the right, as it should for driving on the left, and the other has the steering wheel on the left, but I still have to remember to drive it on the left. It's a really good thing that there's only one road on the island. But I digress--Bill and Jessie felt like they could drive when they come back in January. And if we don't have the extra apartment for them, they've picked out their bungalow on the beach.

So Bob took them to the airport, and after taking some time at the apartment to meet with one of his patients, came back to get ready for Kid's Club. Every Saturday kids come over to "help" with the animals. (Last weekend we helped them make and paint a puppet theater out of a huge packing crate that contained Ava's desk and chairs. It came out really nice. I have a picture of two kids and a dog putting on a puppet show.) Today two little boys came for the first time--English, kids of one of the professors at the school--and one of them is Ava's age. He and his brother took one look at the chickens in the pasture and started chasing them. It has never occurred to Ava to chase the chickens, but she joined right in the fun. Finally the chickens all flew up into the trees, and we drew the line at the kids using sticks and rocks to bring them down, the little savages. Later, Bob and I decided to have a "no chasing the chickens" rule. This is, after all, the Humane Society. Plus, we are in the process of building a chicken coop so that we can have eggs and I don't want the chickens to run away from home. One of the big kids spotted a dead tarantula in the grass, right next to the porch entrance. One of the moms remarked casually, "Oh, look how close it got to the house." Like it was trying to get to the front door when it got run over by a goat. This was the first time I had seen one, and I was APPALLED. It was a real, huge, hairy tarantula, caught in the act of trying to get in the house and suck the blood right out of my neck. I was not amused. I left it there as a warning to its kind. One of the kids said, oh, it's a tiny one. And in case I didn't mention, it was HUGE. Ugh.

One of the kids is autistic, also child of professors, and she just sat on the porch and played with Ava's ponies the whole time. And she took it upon herself to spraypaint the two baby goats that were on the porch. OK! And here I told Ava she couldn't have a pink goat. After the kids fed the pig and the goats, I let them make drop cookies (the no-bake kind) which they LOVED and then they went home. So Ava and I headed out to the beach in the middle of the day to see the beach clean-up action. We ended up having a really nice swim (I usually don't go in the middle of the day) and attended the barbecue afterwards, which was loaded with kids for Ava to run amok with. When we got home I was exhausted and Ava let me take a nap before we played ponies. Bob went to play cricket with his students, and then came home and walked the goats with Ava while I caught up on some emails. Bob cooked dinner, Ava and I had Round Two of ponies, and then I called it a day. So Ava and Bob are sacked out asleep, it's pouring rain, the frogs are peeping, and I am imagining spiders sneaking in under the door, but otherwise feeling pretty good!

Speaking of frogs, yesterday we had a little scare when Ava came running in the house screaming that a frog had stung her fingers. She had seen a large toad floating in the goat's watering pond, and decided he wanted out, so she grabs this thing and puts it in the grass, then her thumb starts hurting her. Bob called his friend who knows about these things, and he informs us that it sounds like the kind of toad that exudes a natural hallucinogen, similar to LSD, and he got right in his car and came over. I thought that was nice. Bob's mom stood out in the yard and kept an eye on the toad while we waited for him, and I kept an eye on Ava, waiting for her to start rambling about pink elephants or whatever. The frog man said, yes, it's that kind of toad but the toxin doesn't sting. So he looked at Ava's fingers and saw she had some tiny sharp splinters in them, and apparently they hadn't bothered her until she grabbed the frog. No pink elephants. A pair of tweezers and she was back in action. She borrowed a slotted spoon from the kitchen in case she sees any more toads, and I figured that was a good deal.

Anyway, hope you all are well and enjoying the last days of a very hot summer. October is just round the bend.

Stay cool!
Rachel