A Surprise Encounter

It was not quite as cold yesterday, though that’s not to say we were under a heatwave. After an overnight low of 25 degrees it climbed up to 57 by the afternoon, with winds in the 10 miles per hour range. And wonder of wonders, the sky was blue and there was no rain! We are supposed to have a couple more days like this, and hopefully it will help things dry out a bit. Of course, then we have more rain and thunderstorms predicted for Tuesday and Wednesday. ☹

After loading my Dragon NaturallySpeaking Premium dictation and PhotoShop Elements software into my new Lenovo ThinkPad laptop computer, I spent some time going over my notes for my next Tinder Street book. The characters are starting to talk to me in my head and I can see the last few years of America’s Great Depression and the lead up to our involvement in World War II coming together for the story. I am really looking forward to this one!

Terry was working hard unpacking more boxes and putting things away and I took the empty boxes out to the garage. The stack in there was beginning to take over so I broke them all down as much as possible to consolidate the pile, then loaded them into the back of the cargo trailer.

The road out to our barn had dried out, so I drove back there to check things out. It was still dry inside, so apparently the roof doesn’t leak, which is a good thing. Eventually we plan to replace some of the siding, which is in poor condition.

While I was out there I had a surprise encounter with one of our wild neighbors. There is an open-sided hay shed near the barn and I walked over to it. There is still some old hay on the ground, and about ten feet in front of me, an emaciated coyote stood up. It had been lying in the hay and blended in so well that I never saw it!

I have seen a lot of coyotes in my time. They were a common sight in Arizona, and they usually run away when they see humans. But something was obviously wrong with this animal. It stood there looking at me, kind of wavering on its feet, then it turned and took a couple of steps and fell down. It got back up, took another step and fell again. Its back end seemed to not be working right and it was kind of dragging its hind legs. I’m not sure if it was hit by a car or had been injured some other way, but there was no question that it was in bad shape.

I hate to see an animal suffer, so I went back to the house to get a gun to put it down, knowing it was the most humane thing I could do for the poor animal. But by the time I got back out there it had managed to get into the trees and I could not get a clear shot at it. Not expecting a situation like that, the clothes I was wearing were not suitable to go beating the brush after it. I will go back today and see if I can find it and do what has to be done.

I am expecting a delivery of a new piece of equipment today, and between now and then I will try to get some work done on the new book. I also have some other irons in the fire that should make for a busy day. And friends from our days as fulltime RVers are also staying at the Elks lodge in Tuscaloosa, and we hope to be able to get to town and meet with them if at all possible.

And finally, here’s a chuckle to start your day from the collection of funny signs we see in our travels and that our readers share with us. Thanks to my friend Jim Harper for this one.

Thought For The Day – “Those who never make mistakes lose a great many chances to learn something.” – Mary Pickford