Maybe I Should Make a Roadkill List?

My morning walk was pleasantly cool, about 75 degrees F with scattered cloud cover. I found another squashed non-native, a house gecko. I can understand snakes and other reptiles becoming roadkill in the continental US when they come out to sun themselves on the pavement because it was cold; but I don't think they do that here because it doesn't really get cold enough at any time to slow them down. So far I think I have found 8 species flattened on the road during my walks: brown anole, cane toad, common house gecko, German cockroach, giant African snail, gold dust day gecko, Jackson's chameleon, & spotted dove. (The centipede was dead but not roadkilled; not sure what it died from but it wasn't flattened by a vehicle.)

Common House Gecko (Hemidactylus frenatus).

I passed the Cuban oregano bush on Sierra Drive and took a small cutting of the portion that was in the right-of-way; I hope to get it to grow again at the house. Mom had some growing when I left for graduate school; when I returned I found it had died. I have only seen it one other time a few years ago at one of the mushroom club's spring plant sale fund raisers; it doesn't grow as well in Washington as it does here. There is also a cotton plant near the Cuban oregano bush but it's not the native cotton; I would like to get some native cotton seeds.

Foreground Cuban oregano (Plectranthus amboinicus), background cotton (Gossypium hirsutum).

While I was doing my cool down stretches I could see a rainstorm offshore behind Leahi. It might have been the rain cloud that had been causing the early morning rain that cleared up shortly before I started my walk.


During my mid-morning walk the weather was nicely overcast. I found a squashed African snail on this walk and saw that the squashed gecko from this morning was still there. The 2 Kolea at the park looked like no one had been around them for a little while; they were fairly relaxed about me walking around the field.

Great walking weather.

Giant African snail (Lissachatina fulica).

For lunch I ate some of the Side Street Inn leftovers from dinner last night. I was very good about taking only one portion of protein for lunch. I spent the rest of my time balancing checkbooks and doing other financial stuff as well as folding the laundry that I didn't get around to doing on Thursday evening. I also spent some time hand feeding Shiro; he hasn't been eating as much lately. It seems he likes the canned cat foods containing red meat (beef, lamb, rabbit) and fish (tuna, salmon); he doesn't seem to care for poultry (chicken, turkey) except for duck. Chibi will eat everything except the turkey; I think she's less picky since she grew up as a stray.

My afternoon walk started out really nicely with a light, cooling drizzle; but it only lasted for a couple of blocks. Then it became very humid and oppressive; I was glad it was my shortest walk of the day. At the park a Kolea flew off as I got to the parking lot; it landed on the park building. I spotted another Kolea near the tennis court end of the field.

After my afternoon walk I relieved Curtis of Dad duty. Since Lori is going out to see a play tonight with her sister, he needed to be home to take care of his inlaws, so we switched shifts for today. There was nothing new for Dad today, though he did stay in his wheelchair for the music event this morning. He slept uneventfully for most of the afternoon and early evening; though he did complain about being cold in our 83 degree F weather this evening! The CNAs checked his temperature, it was normal so we put another blanket over him and offered him coffee (which is sitting on his table while he sleeps again). Dad ate 1/2 of his half egg salad sandwich and half of his brownie for 37&1/2% which will be recorded as 25%.

I started listening to the Harry Dresden audio book Ghost Story today while folding laundry. A couple weeks ago I was on the novel Changes, which I finished about a week ago. Then I listened to the short story Aftermath and didn't start another of the audio books until today.


Happy Birthday to Mark, Brandton, & Yaneli!