Smiles Miles Away

I am miles and miles away from home. This makes me homesick for familiar surrondings even if I am here with family. It is surprising how much time Frankie occupies in my day.

I see him in first thing in the morning. During this colder season, my morning visit is much more than a visit. Since he is inside I would go downstairs, remove the cover from the door (which wakes him up), and turn on his overhead heater. Not too long after that and I lead Frankie into the backyard for sun, grazing and walking.

During the day hours I regularily visits with Frankie. A lot of visits. I go out just to spend time with him, walk the fence, feed him a carrot, check to see where he is and to walk around with him. Most of those activities I do several times a day with the exception of the carrot which he is only allowed one daily.

In the late afternoon its time to walk Frankie inside. Most of the time he is ready and willing. He also wants to take a few extra minutes to graze the really good grass ouside the fence. He nearly always makes it known that he would take The Big Walk if I would let him. We complete our trek into the garage and gecko room where 80% of the time he goes directly into his night enclosure to sleep. 20% of the time he checks to see if the gecko room needs any re-arranging and if the lady box turtles would like to be disturbed. Regular stuff.

And it is not unusual for me to head downstairs later after the gecko lights are all out and check on Frankie one or two or even four or five times to see if he is sleeping soundly. It is not unusual to get a dirty look from Frankie, "Yea, already, I am asleep....or was until you woke me up, ma."

So you see, Frankie can nearly dominate my day not because he requires a lot of maintenance but because all these little and big things are a pleasure in my life. Frankie never fails to make me smile even if it may require heavy lifting or smelly clean ups.

So many miles away I miss getting to rub his shell and brighten my day with a little Frankie time. But I also have a super-technically-savy husband who can help me with my seperation sadness (and I am sure if the hubby wonders if I am sad being seperated from him too, I am!). He installed a backyard Frankie monitor. Greg calls it a Weather Webcam but it's really a Frankie Cam. I don't care what anyone says.

So miles and miles away, Greg at home taking care of all, I get to see Frankie get out in the yard first thing in the morning. I watch as he basks in the sun, and walks the yard and trims the grass. I can watch Frankie nearly as often as I would visit him if I was right there at the house.

So, what is Frankie doing right now????? Ten minutes ago he was sitting right in front of the camera streatched out and basking. Right now at this very moment he is sitting with his front end in his pool getting a drink of water.

And I am smiling.