Yuma's Creatures

The roadrunner. Until I arrived in Arizona I really didn't believe that they were real, just a foil to Wiley E. Coyote. But here's one, and frankly, they're everywhere. Ang has been trying to catch a picture of one, unsuccessfully, on her camera phone for weeks now at the golf course. Today I snapped this picture during our golf outing to celebrate the championship. (The parade and prime time special come early next month!) It's funny because the kids all know she's been stalking roadrunners and totally call her out on it! But this guy was only one of Yuma's creatures that I encountered today while on the course. I also saw several lizards, small guys who move super fast. And then there were the ants.

Red fire ants. I first came into contact with these horrible creatures in Texas when my feet instantly became covered in them last summer. It happened again today. There I was, standing by the green and boom! My feet were on fire. Now I know, why was I wearing sandals on the golf course? Well I tried not to, in fact I had my socks and golf shoes on before I even got to the course. But this weekend I bought new shoes, fancy, expensive sandals to save my feet the wear and tear my Payless shoes inflict on them. And guess what? They rubbed my feet raw on the tops of my big toes within an hour of putting them on. And I had to continue walking with them for the next eight hours.

So anyway, I managed to find not one, not two, but three hills of fire ants today while on the course, just my lucky day I guess! Thank goodness these were the only wild creatures I saw today.

But it was a good day, as Ang's blog attests. We had a great outing. Nine boys made it and they golfed, we laughed, teased, and had fun. We ate pizza and brownies. Their parents came and sat and talked with us. We gave awards (best effort to get back on the team after getting suspended for failing grades, best team spirit for helping to design the golf shirts, and number one player). And I loved it when one of the new golfers came up to me to return my clubs he'd borrowed to play with and handed me the two balls I'd given him and said, "Ms. Knapp, this ball really worked good for me!" (Yes, I let him keep the ball!)

And then to top it all off like a big bright cherry on a sundae, one of the seventh grade boys who hadn't bought a shirt at the beginning of the season and didn't dress out for the first few weeks (although his identical twin brother bought a shirt right away and wore it to school a lot, go figure!) came running up to me as we were cleaning up. He was clutching a twenty dollar bill and he asked if he could buy the shirt he had been wearing today in the pictures. I got one of those big stupid grins on my face you can't fake and you surely can't stop. This is what it's all about.