Bald Beans and Refried Eagles

This is officially the week I learn or see something new every day. I'm now over two and a half decades old and there are certain things that I have believed my whole life that I am JUST NOW learning are simply, well, crap.

Two ways to look at this: I could either be really p*ssed that I've been BS'd or naive all these years, or be really thrilled because I can wake up every day knowing that there's more to learn.

I choose the latter.

I consider myself a city girl who has been "trapped" in the country. This week has been the biggest Country Girl 101 course thus far. Yesterday, my bloggies, I saw my very first...

BALD EAGLE.

I kid you not. Bald Eagle. 100 yards from MY house. Sitting right in the middle of an open field! Little did I know that he wasn't just sitting there enjoying the northerly breeze. I realized after he spread his 8 foot wingspan and took flight that he was also carrying a large Jackrabbit in his huge talons. This was amazing to see first-hand!!!!

Yet, even though I was watching a Bald Eagle with my own eyes, I still doubted this was really an Eagle. "We don't have Bald Eagles in Texas!" This is what I had always assumed.

You know what they always say about people who assume? Makes an ass of of "u" and "me".

Uh huh...I'm an ass. It's a Bald Eagle folks. Google it yourself.

So later that night, I am eating Mexican food, which, unfortunately, always seems to involve refried beans. I decided to share my so-called knowledge about how refried beans were uber unhealthy. Then I was informed that refried beans were, in fact, very healthy if cooked the proper way. What????

HOW COME NO ONE TOLD ME THIS? This is strike two for the day.

Here I am walking around like an idiot, "Bald Eagles don't exist..." and "Refried beans are the devil..." and I'm wrong. Drat!!!

So back to my country girl/nature experience. Today on my run, I see a huge green caterpillar. I'd say about 4 inches long and about the width of someone's finger. Just crossing the road like it's no big thing. So I said hi to him, naturally, and took a few awful pictures with my iPhone. (Oh yeah...Steve Jobs, we seriously need ZOOM on the iPhone. Please get right on that, Apple peeps.)

And sometime today after my run, I get home and spot a very chaotic web in my garage (chaotic = total Black Widow territory) (I am an obsessive Googler). I debate for some time, and then decide I have to take care of it. I hate to kill anything, but when it's between my animals and family and a spider such as this, I have to do what's best for my loved ones. And I was scared the whole time that somehow it would build enough strength/anger to jump 9 feet and bite me and then my internal killing debate would be a moot point. Ugh..

[Sorry folks, no pictures of this guy. My hands were full. And by full I mean bug spray, fly swatter, and metal shield.]

And finally, this evening on my aptly named "nature" walk, I see a massive hawk (hide all tiny chihuahuas!)

And on the way home, I'm fairly certain that I jumped 16 feet in the air when I saw Mr. Tarantula crossing the road. So casually, just like Mr. Caterpillar. I'll bet they're friends.

I think maybe I've had enough Biology for one week. HA! Who am I kidding? I love Biology!

But seriously, let's keep the spiders at a safe distance, shall we?