Alabama Mama

I've been away all week, you may have noticed, and now I have to decide if I want to recount the past week's events, or do I want to read everyone's journals? After I responded to a few emails and journals, I decided it was my turn to make an entry.

A partial entry.

It's been sixteen months since my last visit with my mother (that was last Easter week). She is still living in Alabama, but at least her new apartment is three times the size of the little storage-sized building she had back then. 

I'm glad to report that my mother is happy. She doesn't have to tell me in words, though she did. I can see it written all over her expressive face, in her animated gestures as she talks, in the way she carries herself with direction and intent, and in her voice when she sings a medley of tunes that keeps the listener guessing where they came from! Like one of her co-workers explained to me, when she sings, he plays a mental game of "Name that Tune."  My mom sings medleys throughout the day.

I want to write about my visit with her, but it is late, so I will try to do it this week. We spent the night in Montgomery, AL... I want to write about that too. There's a video I made that I will try to post here... a real treat, a great surprise. Something we had not expected to see or do while in Montgomery.

                              

Mom likes to wear hats... this is one of her favorites. Here she is carrying on with my husband. They get along really well, and I am so thankful for that. I've heard too many horrible MIL stories... mine is not one of them. Neither is his. 

While in Foley, we spent some time at Gulf Shores, we drove to Mobile, and then on to Biloxi, MS... my husband was stationed at Biloxi 30-something years ago, so we drove by the front gate of the base there.

                            

Mom said there used to be a large ship at this site, the Treasure Bay Casino. I remember seeing it on the news the night before Katrina swept it all away. Above is what the place looks like today. Below is how it looked just after Katrina hit.

             

           Photo courtesy of yerffej9 . I found the picture at Flickr.

Mom said she didn't recognize the beach at Biloxi... all of it was gone... from Katrina. Miles of casinos and condos and restaurants are gone. I took pictures, but it was mostly open beaches there... and since I had never been there before, I didn't stare in disbelief like mom did. She'd been there a few times with my dad, years ago. I can only imagine what New Orleans must look like if Biloxi was this devastated. 

                                    

 I didn't want to go home before showing my mother how to use the computer. I took her to the public library and there we created her an account, so now she can send emails to her kids and grand kids, as well as get pictures of all of them. And what good would all those pictures be if she didn't have a flash drive to download the photos we send her? I bought her one so she can print them out at the nearby drugstore. Yep, she's pretty excited about that, too.

The best part about this trip was teaching my mom to use the computer... she is such a quick learner. To demonstrate the searching tool on Google, I asked what she would be interested in learning about. She said "Armadillos."

                             

I asked her what did she want to know about Armadillos. She answered "Well, I want to know why they have suddenly showed up around here ... saw one last week, dead on the road. Why did they come to my neighborhood?"

Turns out that was a very valid question, mom.

So we did a search, and lo and behold, we found our answer.

 Armadillos like the climate of the south, soft soil (for digging for invertebrates), plenty of food sources, they'll eat practically anything, even carrion. After reading that important fact, I offered my thoughts. "You know, you said you found a dead armadillo in the middle of the road... maybe it was looking for carrion. Then it became carrion itself." Yes, I had solved the mystery of the dead armadillo near my mother's home.

"Nah," she replied, "I think it was just trying to get to the other side." My mom, ever the humorist!

 We wondered if perhaps Hurricane Katrina might have displaced the Louisiana armadillos. They don't live west of the Rockies (probably due to the Colorado River impeding their journey... they are lousy swimmers) but would likely move east and south (they don't like the cold... they have no fat to keep them warm). I've seen them in Florida, so why wouldn't they be plentiful in southern Alabama as well,I reasoned. They've probably been there all along, but she just had never seen one til last week.

My question is "Why hasn't my mom seen an armadillo before last week if they are so common in the southeast?"

Because they are nocturnal, and her eyes aren't as sharp in the dark. That's why. There's a lot of little critters lurking around her house at night that she cannot see.

Our search also revealed that only one species of armadillo, the nine-banded armadillo, exists in the U.S. It has a long snout. My mom swears the one she saw had a short snout. So now I'm thinking maybe she saw one of the Cabassous tatouay from South America.

I didn't get a close enough look as we walked by her dead armadillo the day before... wished I had. What if she had found evidence of a Brazilian armadillo, proving that the invasion of the short snouted armadillo from south of the border is upon us?

More likely, someone found a cute short snouted armadillo while on vacation down south, smuggled it back into U.S. somehow. Then, tired of its disturbing night time habits, released it into the woods. And if she were a pregnant armadillo, it wouldn't take long for the population to increase. Just brainstorming here.

Mom is a fun student. I expect she will love using the internet searching tools. And email.

You're just never too old to learn a few new tricks!

My story of Montgomery will have to wait until I can tell you everything I want to tell you. But I leave you with the Capitol building of Alabama:

                                   

                     and the former home of Martin Luther King, Jr. .....:

                                     

Finally, there was a beautiful rainbow on our way home as we drove through Georgia. The lighting wasn't great for the shot, but I color enhanced it to bring it out.

                                   

Tags: armadillos, learning how to search on a computer, Biloxi after Katrina