RIBIT

Georgette has passed up by. In her wake she left lots of water, tons of mud, some broken palm branches, a very rough road to drive on and frogs.

Frogs?? How can tropical storm LEAVE frogs?? That was MY question.

Monday night we heard them. The sound was such that I had no idea what I was hearing. Sometimes the noise sounded like a sheep “baaaaaaing”. Sometimes I thought it was the wind whistling through the trees. Sometimes it just sounded like a scratchy whine. I heard it throughout the night, along with the rain, but did not wake Maurice. In the morning he asked if I heard the frogs. I exclaimed, “FROGS!” How could there be frogs here. He said he did not know but last year, when he experienced tropical storms there were huge frogs leaping around. Hmmm....

Last night as soon as the dark day turned into a darker dusk they began again. This time there were 100’s of them. The noise was deafening. The sound seemed to come from everywhere. I still would not have thought of frogs, but Maurice was of course correct. They scream, they whine, the sound is a mix between high winds blowing through a pipe and sheep “baaaaaing.” They kept us awake most of the night. I kept saying to Maurice, “WHERE DO THEY COME FROM??” I mean Georgette did not “rain” them here. We live in the desert. Now the pools of water are filled with huge frogs signing to each other like they are in a crazy amount of heat!

Today we searched on line and found that yes, they are frogs. There are three, although probably many more, types of desert frogs. They vary in the manner in which they retain moisture in their bodies, but they all have one thing in common. They bury themselves in the earth and come out when it rains. If you have ever been in the desert you know the earth hardens and then cracks like concrete. Try to dig a hole in this soil and it is very difficult as the earth is too solid. How do frogs bury themselves in this stuff and then come out when it rains??!! It may rain here a couple times a year...or it may rain here once very couple of years, yet we have frogs. Loud, barking, baaaing, whining frogs.

Since we still have lots of water on the ground I am assuming tonight there will be even more of them joining in song. Thank heavens tonight is pizza night. A few margaritas and maybe I will be able to sleep for a couple of hours!

Ribit!....by the way...frogs do not really say “ribit”...at least these crazy-cement-boring-creatures don’t!