Top Ten

Actually, this is two "top fives"....  I'll start with the negative and end on a positive.  These are not an all-time top five, so much as the highlights of the last couple of days.

 

Top 5 to Make Me Cringe:

5.  I finally saw the doe with all the growths on her neck and face.  It's one of the things that makes you wince, and you want to look back and see it again.  Your brain just can't process quickly enough that in fact it is a beautiful and normally shaped deer with a multitude of hideous growths hanging off her neck and face.  Daniel kept talking about it, and now I have seen it and cringed.

 

4.  The flowering bindweed.  'Nough said, right?  

 

3.  A week-long forecast void of clouds or rain with plenty of wind.  The Raton Fire is still burning largely out of control, and I cringe to think how quickly a fire would spread through Miami with the dry, dry, dry conditions.

 

2.  The bird.  I don't understand how it is not annoyed by the car alarm chirping or that a larger bird hasn't tried to sit on it.  I now feel a bit more sympathy for my brother for having annoyed him with my singing when we were growing up.  If this is payback, I had not idea I was that bad.

 

1.  Tourists driving like every vista and cactus needs to be filmed!  Seriously got stuck behind a car on my way to work this morning that stopped on a blind curve just past a pull off in the middle of the lane.   Really?!?!  Some people are not on holiday and just need to get somewhere.

 

 

Top 5 to Make Me Smile:

5.  Watching Jeopardy with Thomas.  It's a fun little half hour of trivia and vegging out together.  I especially appreciate that he's messed with the antenna to get good reception for it.  I didn't miss it the first nine months we were here, and I won't miss it if we are too busy to catch it.  It is simply a little pleasure that makes me smile when the opportunity arises.

 

4.  That magical moment when the breeze starts to cool and every moment after it until bed time.  The afternoon sun is intense, but once it starts to cool, I don't want to come back in from working outside.

 

3.  Counting down the days, and now hours, until my dad arrives!

 

2.  Seeing my first baby antelope ~ oh how precious!  It was the size of a chihuahua with longer legs (not a "big boned" chihuahua like Charlie).  It is way too cute and maybe more dangerous to me as a driver than the tourists stopped in the middle of the road, but it made me smile.

 

1.  Moonshadows!  I wish I had a picture.  Monday night the moon was nearly full and oh so bright!  I had walked to my neighbors to buy some eggs and was invited to have a glass of wine and chat.  Sounded good after all the work in the garden.  I didn't walk home until almost 10 pm.  No need for a ride or a flashlight.  The moon was so bright that I had a shadow walking home.  And yes, I whistled, hummed, and sang Cat Stevens' "Moonshadow".