Hunting Lizards

We went over to a neighbor’s house to play yesterday evening. This family has 3 children, and was watching another 3 for the afternoon. A little girl from across the street had come over to play, and then Ry and Jx made for a total of 9... and Ry was the oldest. All of the children were either riding about on toy motorized motorcycles (except for Ry and Jx, who generally find them terrifying) or hunting geckos. Ry was very upset that everyone had a gecko but her, and enlisted my support in trying to capture one. This house had vinyl siding around the sides and the back, which is apparently like a condo if you’re a gecko. Watch carefully for a couple of minutes and you can see any number of geckos peaking out from underneath. Then you have to pounce, and hope to knock the targeted gecko out from under the siding before he ducks back in. Then a chaotic chase ensues with children (and me) scampering about after the gecko until someone catches it. Once caught, they must be held tightly about the ribs upside down. Something about this position puts them into a trance-like state, and makes them slower. (although they’re still pretty fast, and able to survive remarkably long jumps/tosses onto the ground). The first one was pretty tiny, and Ry was mostly afraid to hold it for fear of squishing it, unlike the neighbor boy, who has mastered riding a bicycle, swinging from a tree and running about with a gecko in one hand. So, after our final attempt to induce a trance and then pass the gecko off to Ry (the gecko sought out greener pastures) I went off in search of a bigger gecko, at Ry’s request.
Success! I found a doozie of a gecko. Unfortunately, the neighbor boy happened to point out to Ry that the big ones bite, so she’d better be careful. Well, that did it. Ry was envious of all the other children and their geckos, but drew the line at biting lizards. Hence I was left holding the gecko.
Jx, however, was simply entranced with the big gecko. I would only let him touch it with one finger, thinking that he could gently stroke the gecko’s back. Unfortunately, gentle does not exist in Jx’s realm. Instead of gently stroking, he mostly just not-so-gently poked the gecko in the eye. Eventually, the gecko got fed up with this scenario and bit the finger that was poking him.
This surprised Jx not a little and he shrieked.
Apparently, it surprised me, too, because I tossed the gecko into the garage. And then, feeling bad about infesting the neighbor’s garage with biting reptiles, I fished him back out from under the lawn mower. Jx had moved on, so I placed the gecko in the bug box with all the other inmates (fortunately, the neighbors run a catch and release program, so the internment was short).
On a much less interesting note, this weekend’s runs have been far better. It’s amazing the difference about 20 degrees makes. Not that anyone else is interested, but I’m trying to keep track of my splits, so here they are:
Saturday
1 8:19 
2 8:22 
3 8:35 - not sure what happened here.
4 8:13 
5 8:14 
6 8:10 
7 8:14 
8 8:08 
9 8:08  
10 8:13 
10  1:22:38  8:16

Sunday
1 9:31 - break to tie shoe
2 8:39
3 8:34
4 8:35
5 8:28
6 8:46 - state park water break
7 8:22
8 8:32
9 8:11 - John Simms Bridge
10 8:20 - start of Edgewater hills
11 8:31
12 9:31 - potty break 
13 8:22
14 8:26 - Ruckel
15 8:39 - Ruckel
16 8:22
17 8:23
18 8:00
19 8:17
20 8:20
0.36  8:23 pace
2:53:47   20.36  8:32