The Lizard

The other day walking along in the temple grounds we saw a lizard crawling up over the curb by a palm tree. Sherrie thought it was pretty cute and wanted to get up closer to see it. It scampered away and we walked on feeling peaceful and content as we felt the warm sultry Caribbean air moving through the leaves of the Flamboyan trees. It was a delightful evening. 

Last night we had a Family Home Evening with 30 or so other missionary couples. Since Thanksgiving is not a Dominican holiday, we celebrated last night with a full scale Thanksgiving dinner. Lots of turkey, mashed potatoes, yams, stuffing, jello salad, black olives, and plenty of desserts. I'm afraid we ate rather too much, but it sure tasted great.

After we got home and settled somewhat after the big banquet we retired to the second bedroom, which is our computer, music, movie room. To watch movies properly with our little projector, we need to adjust the curtains so they're not blocking the wall. 

There are two windows, the other one is just out of the picture on the left. You can see the curtain rod extends beyond the width of the window, for whatever reason. The projector nicely fills the wall between the windows under the air conditioner, which is the white thing mounted on the wall between the windows. At some point during the day Sherrie likes to pull those curtains all the way closed. Hence, to watch a movie we need to pull them back to the edge of the window, widening the available "movie wall".

As I pulled the curtains back, I was eye to eye with a cute 6 inch long lizard, who, I can only assume was waiting to watch the movie with us. Or something like that. 

Sherrie rather liked the lizard at the temple, but didn't seem quite as partial to this one. As lizards go, he was actually rather comely. Also, everyone knows lizards eat bugs. One would think he would have been quite welcome. 

As it happens, I was taken a bit by surprise and dropped the curtain, which quickly swung back over the little visitor, covering him from view. Sherrie was surprisingly insistent that he was NOT welcome and furthermore that it was quite clearly MY responsibility to get rid of him. 

A matter of some private shame to me is that, where bugs and reptiles are concerned, I am not quite the he-man that people might believe me to be. Nevertheless, to buoy up the rapidly sinking spirits of my little bride, I put on my bravest front and, armed with a plastic bag in a waste basket and a piece of cardboard, I pulled back the curtain again. I imagine the plan was somehow to use the cardboard to scoop him into the garbage bag and then escort him outside. To my secret pleasure, the little guy was gone, having apparently escaped out through the gap between the two halves of the sliding window, which I have since discovered is much larger than we had previously thought. I had suspected bugs might gain entrance that way, but who would have thought it was big enough for a lizard to crawl through?

So this Thanksgiving week, while we are not especially grateful to have had a lizard in the house, nevertheless we are grateful that the little lizard showed us where we might strengthen our defenses against future unwelcome visitors.

Happy Thanksgiving!