Return of the Tumbleweed

I could no longer deny that something was going on in that tree. It is one of three palm trees that stands on our front lawn next to the driveway. Now, to clarify, when I say palm tree, this is not one of those poolside-at-the-Ritz-in-Palm-Beach kind of royal palms. No, this is something called a washingtonia palm, which looks more like it should be in the backdrop of a prehistoric movie with a tall dinosaur eating the top of it. It has a bushy, spiky pom-pom of fronds perched atop a long, scraggly stick-like trunk.

This particular tree is significant to me because just a couple of months ago I had a traumatic experience with it. After a mild hurricane passed through, I went outside to find what looked like a tumbleweed nestled against the car parked next to the tree. While mulling over the fact that we do not have tumbleweeds in Florida, I grabbed at the orangey ball of debris WITH MY BARE HAND (finding it to be rather heavy and well-adhered), turned it over and found DEAD BABY RODENTS! After doing an extensive "EW EW EW!" jig and vigorously flapping the cootie hand as if I wanted it to fall off, I put all the incredibly icky facts together. And then I tried to forget all about it!

That's why when I started noticing over the last few days that there were bits of tree in the front yard and on the driveway, I decided: "It must have been windy today." Ha! Yeah, that's it! It was windy, so little bits of this tree dropped down to the ground. Nothing suspicious about that at all.

Except that there was no debris under the other two trees that are exactly the same. And then yesterday, there was only a little bit of tree guts on the ground when I went in the house, but when I came out 20 minutes later, there were lots and lots of tree guts on the ground. And there had been no wind. The final undeniable evidence occurred today. When I got home from school, there was a mound, nay, a ball, nay, a TUMBLEWEED on the lawn.

I nudged it with my toe. It was lighter than the original. It was also lighter in color, more straw-like. I pushed it over...and, it was empty. I heard a rustling above me and looked up to see a grey, fluffy tail disappear into the bowels of the pom-pom. And so, a new rivalry begins.