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.

My How Time Flies When We're Having Fun...

Almost a whole month has passed since I last wrote about lizards and flies. We have since named the tiny little lizard who shows up a lot, Stripes. He can fly down from the first step, which is about 3 inches. And fly up, too. Pretty cute, he is. Of course, he doesn't do it on demand, like a dog might do, but he is pretty cute flying up or down. I guess he eats flies.

I think that because there sure are a lot of flies out here in the desert in July/August. Apparently, he doesn't eat enough of them because he is pretty darn small and there are a lot of flies! They are lessening thank heaven!

We are still loving it out here, in spite of a couple of mishaps, large numbers of flies, one electrical black-out, and hot, hot, hot weather. My husband put up a metal-tubing carport with the cover made of canvas. Guess what canvas becomes in the desert--a sail!! It blew over within a week. Luckily, he was here and caught it--believe it or not. He then cut the canvas off and dismantled the mental pipes. He wanted someone to drive by and ask him what happened to his carport. He was dying to tell them he was working on a metal sculpture. Anyway, it's now all dismantled, so I couldn't take a picture of it in it's sculptural form.

Luckily, it didn't fly into the neighbor's shed, house, our gazebo, etc.

I'll try to write again sooner; this has been fun.

Previously delayed post...

I thought I had the problem of not writing daily to my blog solved. I was writing to my email address, thinking I could then upload it to my blog later. However, as you can see, that didn't work out exactly the way I planned it.

However, we are now on plan B. My husband, Problem SolverMan, figured out a way to be able to get on the Internet more consistently when we are out here in the desert. He added a 2.4 GHz Wireless Range Extending Antenna, so now if I don't get a new blog up on Thursdays and Fridays, I have no excuse.

Melissa wrote me a very gracious comment to my blog in which she said, "There are times to write and times to live. It looks like this is your time to sit, back, relax... and enjoy!" That was lovely of her, I thought. It made me stop and relax about pushing myself to write, instead, just stop and enjoy life. I AM!

One of the things I enjoy out here in the desert is that I get a fresh perspective on tiny things and large things. Ah, maybe that's a subject to save for another blog...

Oh, and BTW, I have been much more conscious about how I respond to people on the hotline, now mind you, I wasn't a meany before, or rude, but sometimes, it does get difficult to be kind to someone who is yelling at me for not reason. But I am getting better by being more conscious. Those pearls...