Road kill and other pleasantries

I have great admiration for the person who planted this sunflower. Notice how proudly it stands--as if to defy the curmudgeons in their ongoing efforts to force the rest of us to toe their line. It won't be long before there'll be a new sign prohibiting sunflowers. There's plenty of space for it on the post beneath the other two.

And don't you think one simple sign would be much more effective against illegal parkers and trespassers? Beware of Snakes.

Moving right along to another squeamish subject. Road kill. I only bring this up for educational purposes. There are differences between east and west coast varieties.

It's highly unusual to drive anywhere in Connecticut without observing something dead in the road.....squirrels, raccoons and possums mostly....and the occasional deer. Oh, and sometimes a Canadian goose--the sight of which makes golfers all over the state rejoice.

Here in SoCal, there's a different kind of creature, and it's very unique. Just today I noticed this one on the sidewalk. It probably met its untimely end when the maintenance man's golf cart ran over it.

Sometimes people just kick these poor things over to the gutter, or toss them off into the shrubs with no thought of giving them a proper burial. Mr. Gadget did observe a charitable lady who, out of the goodness of her heart, was in the process of recovering many of these sadly departed souls and tossing them up on the lawn out of more harm's way.

So by now maybe you've figured out the identity of these critters--the ones that cause me to recoil in horror on my daily walks. It's the vicious palm tree barkrat. It drops out of the sky unannounced and wreaks havoc on all who stroll the sidewalks. There oughta be a law. Or at least a few signs. Beware of snakes and barkrats. I'll speak to the curmudgeons.