Aloha Lizards!

Love and hugs to my parents who are a few time zones closer to us now in there new home in Kona, Hawaii! I hope a future job will take me somewhere warm with a seaside view for six months someday. While I am needing to bundle up in a blanket these past few days, my mother was complaining of the heat and humidity that greeted her in their new home. But, what also greeted her was a few geckos crawling around. To hear my regularly squeamish mom talking so calmly about "getting used to them" was a shock. Welcome to my world! I am constantly wiping up gecko poo, and occasionally smacking a cockroach or centipede that has peeked its nasty head into my vicinity. I normally think geckos are pretty cute, when their webbed feet are pressed against the windows. But only when they are OUTSIDE the window. If I find one inside and can't manage to sweep it out the door or window, I imagine them crawling across my face in the middle of the night and get spooked! Like lizards, geckos also have that magical ability to lose their tail and go on with their bug-eating business as usual. I have proof. I accidentally slid our screen door over a gecko's tail this summer, only to have it revisit me almost every evening on the window above my kitchen sink while I washed dishes. Seeing its stubbed tail, which makes its crawl look more like a wobble, I couldn't help but feel bad for the poor thing. The cool weather has sent them into hybernation or whatever they do during the cold...so I wonder if I will see it again next year. What might the life span of geckos be anyway? I hope I can go and visit the Hawaiian geckos, apparently a cuter green species compared to our dusty gray ones here!