Melva, I hope yours are ok. Pete, it looks like Florida is one of the few states that have not been badly hit. Our 6-9 inches of ice, sleet, and snow turned into a little drizzle with temps no lower than 30. The streets are clearing, and I can even walk outside. I love a vacation from school, but a summer or spring one. Now they say that all days must be made up, and I hope they do not intend to touch our spring break. I also don't want to touch the June days we are out. I do feel for those in California who have lost so much. I usually don't fear losing power because for much of a day our temps are often over 30. We have gas into our fireplace, and could just gather in the living room with the dogs. But some people about 40 minutes from here have been out of power for a week, and have had temps that are very low. Even if there are shelters, I doubt if they take animals, and it could be a problem for us to leave our dogs alone in the cold. Sammy

Out on a walkabout today, testing out my new camera. Found some neat new critters.

The Fuji Finepix S5200 for $231 delivered from Beach Camera. It's a 5.1 MP 10X optical zoom. I love it so far, just trying to figure out all the settings.

I was itching to get out in the field today. When I arrived at the location, a person flagged me down. He obviously knew what I was doing. That person introduced himself as Bill Rudden. We ended up herping together, which was great because I hate herping alone. We didn't have a spectacular day, but it was fun. Bill is a great guy and we had lots of fun. Here are the totals: 1 - Smooth Earth Snake 1 - Prairie Ring-necked Snake 1 - Eastern Yellow-bellied Racer 1 - Speckled Kingsnake (Juvenile) 1 - DOA Lined Snake TMTC - Ground Skinks TMTC - Five-lined Skinks 1 - Six-lined Racerunner TMTC - Western Slimy Salamanders 1 - Cave Salamander We also saw a large wasp dragging around a small tarantula. Ryan