fish, rain, and penicillin

Did I ever tell you any of my fishy stories? I happened to hear something on the tv in the background about a fish taxidermist and that reminded me of my own experience with stuffing a fish.

I used to be a tropical fish aficionado (had 6 tanks at a time, the grand-daddy was a 90 gal tank). I loved my fishies and they loved me – really. Anyway, Dude was a big old 8 inch Oscar who had his own tank to himself.

Sooo, one morning my daughter called me at work and whispered into the phone, “Dad wants to tell you something,” and quickly put hubby on the phone. Now, that was freakin’ me out to begin with ‘cos they never called me at work.

“Honey? I have some bad news.”
“Oh no, now what?!” (still freakin’ out)
“Dude died.”
“What???”
“Dude is dead. When we got up this morning and went into the living room, he was on the floor over by the window. Dead.”
“oh”
“I put him in the freezer in case you want to get him stuffed.”
“oh. OH, ok. Well, that was sweet of you… I’ll have to check that out, I have no idea what something like that would cost…”
“OK honey. I’m sorry. I know he meant a lot to you. He must have just jumped out of the tank…”
“Ya, jumped to his death… hey, gotta go. Love you.”
“Love you too. See you tonite. Bye”
“Bye.”

I did look into having him stuffed, but it was some ridiculous price, and of course I never did… but wasn’t that sweet of hubby to think of me like that? awww.

I also got stung by my Lion Fish, Lenny. Lenny was also king of his own salt-water tank, and really was a gorgeous fishy (these photos are old n’ moldy). Lion Fish have venomous spiny fins, and I knew enough to steer clear of them, but once when I was cleaning the inside of the tank, I ran into one of those spines, and he had no choice but to sting me (he didn’t do it on purpose, it was my fault).

OUCH. It was really quite painful, but I did recall something about running the puncture wound under hot, hot water to dissipate the effects of the venom. I also called the ER to see if I should do anything different, and they advised me to come in.

Well, I probably was their comic relief that nite, because everyone that came in to see me kept asking, “You got stung by a what? A lion?”  Ultimately, they decided that I would live, gave me some benadryl, told me to keep a hot compress on it, and sent me home.

So those are a couple of my fish tales. There’s lots more, but I won’t keep you. Mumsy and I even went to a fish convention, imagine that! AND, my license plate proclaimed my love for Cichlids (the kind of fish we kept). Groovy.

I was going to tell you a rain and penicillin story, but I must go. I’ll tell ya later, k?

OH, btw, the spammers have found my comments, so I’ll be approving the comments from now on – so if you don’t see your comment, I haven’t checked’em yet. Sorry about that, I know it’s a pain in the butt.
Damn spammers.