
"Watch out for mosquitoes!" my means-well neighbor yells across the narrow street that separates our lawns.
The grass is green & satisfied after a week of rain.

"There are 17 cases of West Nile in Jacksonville already," he volunteers with such excitement I think I must have misunderstood.

More than a few feet separate our lifestyles, my neighbor and me.
He is from Up North Somewhere and feels comfortable asking me the price of everything I buy as if it is his right to do so.
"How much did you pay for that _____?"' he will ask about everything he sees me carrying into my house.
"Bum-bemleyg..." I will mumble, moving on.

I am a Southern Girl and Southern Girls would rather throw up in public than ask you questions about money.

If someone is handing out Free Money, a Southern Girl might talk a gentleman into getting her share of the Free Money for her...

"Say, honey, will you go get me some of that Free Money they are handing out over there? I am busy here making some garlic mashed potatoes," a Southern Girl might drawl.
Then the kind, polite gentleman would go get the Free Money, dreaming all the while of garlic mashed potatoes.
"Here, take mine, too!" he might add if there was some dark gravy seriously involved with the garlic mashed potaotes.

Anyway, at least that is what I would do.

My neighbor always yells out the bad news with alarming regularity.
"The Weather Channel says the tropical storm will turn into a hurricane before tomorrow night!" he announces to the world so loudly I turn and look way on down the street to see if someone else is coming around the corner, maybe riding wild horses or something equally as noisy.

Maybe he thinks I am deaf from all the times I have ignored his questions about the price of things.

Inside the back kitchen door my pine table is a Museum to Honor the Current Florida Season. The collection starts out simple enough and then sort of piles on up...
Think young child with many deep pockets...

In truth we only have 2 seasons in Florida: The hot season and the cold season.
We have the hot muggy, rainy, hurricane, wildfire season when the grasshoppers grow large and the golden orb spiders swing wide. When the mosquitoes pool around, kiss each other and then spread West Nile all over the country side.
This season lasts almost from Easter until Christmas.
For about 30 minutes sometime in November or December the weather will suddenly shock one with delight from the unexpected coolness.
Many folks are confused by this turn of events. Many suspect nefariousness.
"What was that?" we have been known to ask after the cool pleasantness has quickly passed on by.
Then northeast Florida will have dreary, damp and cold weather until about the end on March.
Seemingly dead poison-ivy will start to green up again and well-rested, hopefully friendly snakes will start to show themselves boldly by the front door.
Then it starts all over again.
I love my Florida!

Today I am saying so long to my little summer-time treats here on Pine Street. My Museum to Summer Time Florida.
Good-by to the whelk egg strand. Bonjour to the hollow conch shell.
Time to clean out the candy jars for some yummy, pure-sugar candy corn. Time to hunt down some long-needle pine-cones and, maybe, buy some harvesty smelling, calorie-free candles. Autumn fragrancey Pumpkin*Pie or Cinnamon*Apple so I can forget the temperature is still a melty 89 degrees outside.
Being wise to the life expectancy of mosquitoes and all, I will be staying indoors for the next few days, then I will go buy vast amounts of sugary yellow and orange candy.
"Hey, there, dear neighbor!" I will shout politely across the road on my return. "Look at all the free candy I got in trade for some of my garlic mashed potatoes!"
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