Burrowing Owls

Since I am not allowed to be with my husband while he has his dialysis, and he has it at 5 am three days a week, what I do is toss the sleeping bag in the back seat and have a nice nap in the car while he dialysizes. Usually I wake up when it gets light, about 7 or 8 am. I roll up the sleeping bag, back out of the car, have a good stretch, and usually take a walk. From the back of the strip mall like complex of medical services buildings I could see a wide open space with a nice gully and brush – but I only figured out how to GET to it today.

I enjoyed following some game trails. From the looks of it, there are pronghorn antelope, rabbits, coyotes, and doves as well as other birds living in this little wild patch in the middle of the city. I climbed a ridge to figure out how I could get back around to the complex and noticed a meadowlark sized bird flying in low circles. He was quite stocky with blunt rounded wings and almost no tail at all, and there was something odd about his head. When at last he landed no more than 100 feet from me on a rock I was able to see that he was a small owl – with the typically large, rounded head. He was, in fact, a burrowing owl doing what they do – standing sentinel over the burrow they have claimed.

I stood very still and was rewarded by being able to observe him as he stood on his rock for several minutes, turning his head, raising and lowering it, trying to get a really good look at me and decide if I were friend or foe.

As I walked back to the car I also got to see a young Roadrunner, dashing around the parking lot.  I hope he learns about cars and people soon.  They can get quite friendly and casual about humans, though.

So – now that I know how to get down there, I am thinking that the next dialysis day I may drive the little car right down into the brushy area and park right after I drop hubby off. Never know what I might get to see in the very early morning hours as the sun rises.

The Census has not fired me – but they haven’t called me to work in a couple of weeks either. But, since I am “working full time” when we were finally awarded the General Assistance from the State this month, I was totally left out and we received about half what we had hoped for. To tell the truth, I am not going to worry about it – at least we now have food and enough $ for gas to get to dialysis (almost).  I’m sure the people in charge of making the decisions would find it very easy to live on less than $600 a month for two people, since they expect us to do it – and get him to dialysis and Dr.s appointments and surgeries 100 miles away and work full time, too.   It would be nice if I could keep the car insured, too – but, well, we just do what we can. I have one more check coming from the Census and will spend some of it on ink for the printers so I can make up some flyers offering cleaning, poop scooping, and I think perhaps shirt ironing. That is so much more worthwhile in the world than art and writing never mind taking care of and supporting my husband. *shrug*

My dream is that my websites, like Color-Your-Own.com and my Squidoo lenses will someday take off and earn enough for me to truly stay home and care for the ranch, the house, and my husbands needs. Better yet – my newer novels go to a real publisher and I actually receive the royalties I am due – in a great enough amount to live on. Hey – it could happen. I’d really love to win the lottery – which is probably more likely

Seriously – I’ve been winning a buck here and there for weeks. I’m due a big win!

The photo of the owls is not mine, but is from a fantastic public domain resource The National Digital Library which consists of photos taken by government employees (mostly Fish and Wildlife Service) so they are therefore in the public domain. It’s a fun site to just browse if you love photos of birds and wildlife.

There is a perky little Cassein’s Kingbird that has flown up and landed right in front of me at the window several times. I think she would like to be mentioned in the blog, too. So there, she is mentioned. I checked but there isn’t a photo of her on the website I just mentioned. It is dusk outside, so our camera is unlikely to get a good photo – even though she has posed most cooperatively several times now.

I finally lucked into a lovely jasmine plant the other day. Actually, she seems a bit worse for wear and was the one and only jasmine when I found her. I couldn’t leave her there in the store all alone like that, looking bedraggled – and I wanted one anyway – so she is sitting on the porch waiting for me to find the time to get her planted. I’m going to put her on the back porch railing right outside the window where I can enjoy her in the evenings and nights when I’m sitting here at the computer. Hubby tells me our one little thai pepper plant is setting buds. The barn kitties are up on their little feets, out of the box, and exploring the barn.

Life is good.  Once again the Universe has provided enough to keep body and soul together

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