New neighbors, and questionable water

Last week was truly a week of firsts since we've been in Polk County.

Last Tuesday while the wife and I were out for a stroll after dinner,  just walking down the street.  My wife called my attention to a funny looking little red dog that trotted out from a side street.  He had turned and was heading away from us when my wife said, "Look at that!"

He turned sideways to us, and craned his little head to look around at us, and we saw that he wasn't an ordinary dog, he was a little red fox.  He looked at us for a moment or two, then resumed his appointed rounds, trotting into the forest.  Pretty cool.

A few days later we were doing a little fishing from the dock, not too seriously.  I was halfway dozing in my chair when the wife said, "Look at that eagle; he just got him a snack from the lake."  I looked up into the sky, saw Mr. Eagle, and said to myself, "That eagle looks like a Bald Eagle.  THAT'S A BALD EAGLE!"  He was holding a pretty good sized fish in his talon and was slowly flying away, over the trees.

That's something that I never thought I'd see.  I knew that we had bald eagles in Texas, but I always thought they'd be found far out in West Texas, in the Big Bend.  Nope, you can see them here in Polk County, right on the edge of the Big Thicket.  That was very cool.

Then Sunday, while on the way to Livingston to see how much we could spend at Lowe's, we were on the bridge over Big Sandy Creek when my wife hollered out, "There's a 'gator!"  I looked quickly over the side but didn't see anything other than a few logs.

"Turn around!  Turn around!"

I turned around, drove back over the bridge, and sure enough, there was Mr. Gator, lying on the bank with his head under water.  It looked like there was around six feet of visible gator just sunning himself on the bank.

"Told you!"  She said.

In other news...

Overheard at the Dairy Queen Saturday in Woodville, Texas:
     Grandad (to Granddaughter):  Did you hear that Donald Duck was in a car accident?
     Granddaughter shakes head...
     Grandad:  He quacked up.
<groaning...>  I know...

Also in big news, we got a letter this week from our friends at Lake Livingston Water.  They politely informed us that, "our water system has exceeded the Maximum Containment Levels for Radium 226 and Radium 228."

 The letter goes on to say that, "This is not an emergency.  However, some people who drink water containing radium 226 and/or 228...over many years have an increased risk of getting cancer."
The letter doesn't say who, or what introduced such vile levels of these radioactive gunk, though, only that, "we are working to correct the problem."

Lord God; they're radiating us!