Friday, July 25, 2008

It's been something of a critter-ful day.

In addition to the usual pesky mosquito or two (of which there are two less than there were this morning), we had a high-volume birds' committee meeting convened just outside the window, a quick Google to make sure that this:


is not, in fact, a coral snake (it's not), and a consequent discussion regarding preferred methods of scorpion disposal, complete with visual aids.

Then on the way home I saw a guy I've seen before. There's this stretch of road between a traffic circle and a busy intersection where people hang out and sell stuff to the idling drivers.

There's the newspaper lady (mornings only), the sunglasses ladies (any time), the coconut water man (once in a while), the cell phone charger guys, and the random-stuff-of-the-week man (currently wooden alligators, cartoon window decals and somewhat ratty peacock feathers).

And then there's the grass grasshopper guy. I've seen him before, but never really paid much attention. But when I saw him walking from the greenery in the center of the traffic circle back down the road with a double handful of palm fronds tucked under his arm, I recognized him.

And it just so happened that he was all the way up to the traffic light by the time I got there a few minutes later. And, being second in line for the light, I stopped right in front of him. So I asked how much he sold them for.

Got a big smile, a nice compliment and the answer, "whatever you'd care to give me."

So I gave him 500 colones (about a dollar) in exchange for my very own grass grasshopper.




Art. For the sake of it. Awesome.

6 comments:

splord July 25, 2008 4:45 PM  

Ars gratis ars, indeed.

And most awesome.

Anonymous July 25, 2008 6:20 PM  

Coral snake has a red nose. That is a king snake

Anonymous July 25, 2008 6:38 PM  

That grasshopper is very cool.

But what about the catnip?

The Cunning Runt July 27, 2008 2:26 PM  

Awesomely cool (don't stop me, I got a theme going here!)

A. Nonny Mouse July 28, 2008 12:12 PM  

That is a very cool grass grasshopper.

Also, for the record, Emily has taken to sleeping with the blanket you made for her. She started snuggling under it last week when she was sick and when nap time rolled around, it went to bed with her. It hasn't left yet. I thought that might tickle you.

PortlyDyke August 04, 2008 12:28 AM  

Soooo very late to the party -- but I thought I'd give you this handy-dandy Coral Snake wisdom:

Red on Yellow, Kill a Fellow
Red on Black, Friend of Jack

There are Corals who are more "white/red/black" than "yellow/red/black", but the rhyme still holds. If you see a snake with white or yellow stripes adjacent to red stripes, run away! run away!

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