Creation Sometimes has Teeth

One of my favorite past times is playing disc golf. If you have never tried it you are really missing out. I have gotten to do some interesting things with disc golf including talk with this guy who was recently on Conan O’ Brien (Conan actually does pretty well in this video) who is a former disc golf world champion. However, here in Florida there are a few things that you have to be careful of.

The first thing I figured out you have to be careful of are bees. I had a run in with some bees last summer and I think they won. I had an allergic reaction that was just a little bit scary especially when my face started to swell up and my entire body broke out in hives. Here is a lovely picture of my face about two hours after that attack that should probably go on my profile.

Today I learned another valuable lesson. Not only do you stay away from bees here in Florida but you should also probably avoid the gators too. I was playing the lovely hole pictured here this morning. Notice the sign that warns you not to swim and has the little red gator pictured on it. Well, as you can see you throw over the water and hope to land on the shore about 350 feet away. My friend and I both landed in the water. We walked over and stood on the edge of the water looking down for his disc. About five feet out an alligator surfaced and gave me a look. Thirty seconds difference and there may have been a different result. He wasn’t huge but a 5 foot gator can still hurt you pretty badly. I have blogged before about the beauty of creation. Today I want to add to that a note to self – creation is beautiful but it also has teeth sometimes. Here is a slightly smaller sized gator I snapped a picture of on campus at the University of Florida.

Maybe I should take an early retirement from disc golf before it kills me.