Damn Deer

This is the first year that I have grown such amazing petunias. I was very proud of them, since my thumb usually looks like this:My Thumb. This morning I came out to find the tops of the flowers gently removed by a deer mouth.

Above: Before. Below: After.

Little Miss Sleepy Dog

Little Miss Gyps...sleeps the days away now.

Scaredy Dog

And here he is, trying to hide form the thunder.

Mopey

Could he possibly look any more depressed?

Varadero town

We hopped on the bus that takes you to town one day, we wanted to check out the town of Varadero. Luckily, it was May Day, the first of May, which is a national holiday, similar to our Labour day. The whole town was dressed in red and ready to party! These pictures were taken before lunch time, and you can see the empty beer cans scattered everywhere already.

There were BBQ's and musical bands, outdoor beer gardens and all manner of festivities. It was a lot of fun to wander around and join in. School was out, and most businesses were closed, other than restaurants, cigar stores and souvenir places. We found a small sandwich place in the shade, had a bite to eat and a beer and did a bit of people watching.

The coconut Story

I still haven't finished the Cuba blog. I need to tell the coconut story.
The grounds of the resort were covered with gorgeous palm trees, Royal Palms (the tall ones) and "regular" palms (the smaller ones) The regular ones were loaded with coconuts, and one night there was quite a rainstorm, lots of wind and blowing of things. The next AM we arose early and went for a walk before it got too hot. There were a lot of fronds on the ground, as well as coconuts everywhere.

Did you know that more people are killed by falling coconuts each year than die in shark attacks? Approximately 150 die from coconuts falling on their heads and approx 15 die from sharks. Go figure...you are more likely to die while sitting on the beach waiting for your buddy to return from a shark hunt than he is. Coconuts are much more dangerous than I had ever realized.

But to continue, we were walking the grounds and a maintenance man asked us if we wanted a coconut.

I was thinking that it's a pretty cumbersome souvenir, and said "No thanks". He mimed cutting it open and letting us have a drink, well, I thought, in that case, sure, I'll drink from a freshly harvested coconut.

He proceeded to hack it open with a rusty machete, and we carefully took it and headed off to our room.

Fact: Steven was wearing sandals.

Fact: There is a tiny ledge at the opening to our room, perhaps a 1/4 inch high.

Fact: Steven was looking at the coconut, trying to not spill the juice as we walked into the room.

Scenario: As he walks into the room, he does not lift his foot over the ledge, he instead stubs his toe. Hard. The ledge is tile and slices his toe.

Disclaimer: Harsh Language is used. Reader advisory is in effect.

Steven falls forward and realizes his toe is cut and painful. As he starts to trip, he flings his hands out to stop himself from falling. The coconut flies out of his hands and into the room. Too much is happening at once. Blood is flowing from his foot, the coconut is swirling into the room, in what seems to be slow motion, coconut water spurting out like coconut blood...like a decapitated head. I watch in horror as it flies towards...the maid! She is standing there, eyes wide open, mouth like an "O" as this juggernaut proceeds towards her. My hands fly to my mouth, I'm not sure what to do, while in the background I hear Steven's voice: "Fuuuuuuuuuuuuuucckkkkkkkkkk!"

The maid dodged to the side, and the coconut bounced on the floor and rolled to the wall where is lay on it's side, slowly leaking the last of it's innards onto the floor. Steven was leaping around, leaving a trail of blood behind him. I grabbed a towel from the maid (white of course) and proceeded to frantically mop up blood.

The maid looked behind us, at the door, trying to plan her escape and held up 5 fingers. "I come back? In 5 minutes?" I nodded yes, and she took off like a shot and we never saw her again.

Luckily the toe wasn't too bad, and once we looked at it and decided it didn't need stitches, I started, once again, to laugh. Steven didn't join in right away, it wasn't as funny to him as the Sundeck Leap.