Lizards!

Hot and muggy are the two adjectives most often used to describe Houston weather. While these words have a negative connotation and Houston is not exactly a summer vacation destination, I love Houston summer. I love, love, love Houston summer! It is hot, hot, hot all day long only to cool off around eight pm, all the way down to the low 80's. That's the perfect time to take a walk around the neighborhood, drink a cold beer in the backyard or visit your local icehouse. Most days gully washers, the dramatic thunderstorms that take out trees and momentary knock out the lights, come through around 4pm, leaving a nice heavy mist in the air.

Some people call this condition ninety percent humidity, but I call it the setting for a magical realism story. The style originated in Latin America, but Houston shares the tropical weather pattern of One Hundred Years of Solitude, so why not!
For me, one of the most magical things about Houston is the lizards. Once the rain (or the sprinkler) stops, the sidewalks become alive. When we lived in Westbury, I only saw one type of lizard: it was a cool little chameleon, and there were lots of them. But now I see so many different lizards. It is just blowing my mind. My whole life people have been telling me about lizards that lose their tails when they are scared or attacked, but I never saw one. This summer I have seen all kinds of lizards in the multiple stages of tail regrowing.
There are the unharmed, very, very long tails. And while I don't have a photo of a completely tailess lizard, I have seen them. It turns out it is quite difficult to photograph a lizard. Especially those that have recently had a bad experience with a predator. Who is that predictor you ask. My mother's cat, Driver. He's a killer. But I guess every epic story needs at least one killer.