Life in the Desert with Flies, Fires, and Lizards…

Wednesday evening as I was driving out I-8 to Jacumba, CA, I saw off in the distance huge, red billowing clouds east of Pine Valley, CA. I couldn’t see any flames from the freeway, but it was a bit scary. My husband, who was about 15 minutes behind me said he did see flames from the freeway.

Fortunately, it was contained by the next day and didn’t get close to us. I learned from the Pine Valley News online that it burned 1750 acres of Cleveland National Forest. Wow!

It’s a tad bit cooler here now, 85 degrees, rather than 105 degrees, but the flies are still in full force. Both our Fly Zappers died from overuse. Fun as they were, they were too flimsy to withstand the constant use we put them to.

Yes, we now have two pets—Stars and Stripes, two small lizards that hang around to catch the flies. First there was Stripes, a tiny lizard that kept showing up and could fly on and off the first step. Then, this weekend, he/she was joined by a slightly larger brother/sister. We decided to name him/her Stars since we already had Stripes.

I killed a fly on a flat surface and it flew off and Stripes caught it mid-air. It was so funny to watch him that we are now trying to kill flies for lizard food. It seems they like to catch them while they are flying, or at least moving. Once they are dead on the ground, they leave them for the ants to dismember and carry home. Ah, nature.

Jack and I jokingly say, “What did you do this week?” Answer: “Watched the lizards and killed flies.” My, what a life.

We drove around last night in our little golf cart we named “Hot Stuff” since it’s red and white. Just as we made a turn, a deer came dashing not 20 ft. from us. He was running in the same direction as we were going. Needless to say, he was going a lot faster than we were and took off into the safety of the hills. Every day and night some surprise comes up. Not big ones, fortunately. It’s the little ones that touch us.