Thursday, January 25, 2007

Don't step on that

While we were in Orlando, friend-commenter Tony (who's Mr. T's coworker) unexpectedly came upon a morning off, so he and I took off for Cocoa Beach with Trailhead Kid in tow. The beach was littered with blue jellyfish, which we constantly had to keep Trailhead Kid from wanting to examine and touch. I steer clear of jellyfish of any kind, because you just never know which one's gonna be nasty and which one won't. (Of course, once TK saw Tony pop a dead one with his foot, the task of keeping him away was even more difficult.)

Mr. T and I encountered them again in the Keys while kayaking, and we had to be really careful not to scoop them up into the kayak with our paddles. "Hey," he observed, "isn't that a Portuguese Man of War?" "Dunno," I replied.

Yep. That's the kind that stings.

Update: Tony sends a pic:


From wikipedia:

The sting from the tentacles is potentially dangerous to most humans; these stings have been responsible for several deaths, but usually only cause excruciating pain.
Well, that's a relief.