Etcetera

Just walking through my now life, coming up close to a Common Kestrel or Ferruginous Hawk or Red-shouldered Hawk (it was too busy fending off the attack of a Blue Jay 1/10 of its size to tell me), sitting on the edge of a roof. Me just walking along a dead-end street and up in the blue cloudless sky, four Swallow-tailed Kites circling (no, I am not food; neither is my dog). Just me stopping to watch the two geese who inhabit a clear and protected (by a tall chain-link fence) pond; it's apparent that they have adopted a pair of Mallard ducks, who now live in the pond enclosure with them. Me filling in a rather deep hole under my wood gate, dug by a mystery animal in the night. Raccoon? Opossum? Whoever it is visits and then departs before I get up. Just me burying squirrels killed by cars on a busy road with speed humps; guess they don't slow the vehicles down enough for squirrel crossing. Me picking up garbage and trash thrown from passing cars or pedestrians; you would think by 2012 people would know not to litter -- apparently not.

Just walking with my dog down a dead-end service road surrounded by forests, stopping at a creek with tiny fish who scurry away in terror at my huge self leaning over their world. Me watching a couple of slow-to-come-back-to-life trees bloom with huge green leaves that will die and scatter in the wind in the cooler months. Me alone reading heavy-duty textbooks and writing reports and taking quizzes when all I want to do is play.