;)
Before I came upon the place where the moose crossed the road, Caleb pulled up to the window of Metro Cafe so that I could buy a coffee to go with my oatmeal. The reason I was in Caleb's car and not my own is because I had just taken it into the shop at Kendall Ford to get the solenoid camshaft replaced. I had originally made the appointment for 1:00 PM, but then I got an email from Kendall to remind me that the appointment was at 8:00 AM.
This did not make me happy, but, what the hell. I drove the car over. "We have you down for 1:00 o'clock," Mark told me after I drove into the garage, "but we'll get right on it."
Caleb then picked me up and that is why is driving.
It was Caleb's first time at Metro.
"Oh, you're cute!" Carmen teased him. "Do you have anybody?"
"No, not right now," Caleb answered.
"I'll look and see if I can find someone for you."
The folks at Kendall Ford had told me the repair job would take two-and-a-half to three hours.
;)
This is the direction that the moose had come from, before it crossed the road. I had huge workday ahead of me, but I couldn't do anything until I took a walk.
So I walked by the pond that the kids had named, "Little Lake," when they were small.
I think it was Caleb who gave it that name. Even in dry years when the water was low, there was a lot more water in Little Lake then.
;)
These are the tracks that the moose left as it crossed the road. I figure the moose must have walked right through Little Lake.
;)
These are the tracks it made as it went down the other side of the road.
;)
These are the same three ducks from the opposite side of the pond. It goes without saying that I could have gotten a much better photo of them if I had been carrying a high-resolution dslr and a big lens, but I was only carrying my pocket camera.
It's okay, though. The world is full of great pictures of ducks taken with bigger cameras and big telephoto lenses. So it's alright that I didn't add one more.
;)
A seagull then came flying by, looking for something to eat. I had nothing to give it.
;)
After I photographed the ducks, I set out walking towards home through the marsh. Dodd Shay, the property owner, doesn't like me to call it a marsh - or a swamp. He calls it a meadow. Although he was initially wrong, I fear that he has become correct.
When the kids were growing up, I would have been at least ankle deep in water here, maybe knee deep, even thigh deep - seeing as how our snow has just melted and you don't have to go far to get to places where it is still melting.
But the marsh is pretty dry now and has been for several years now.
No cranes hang out here anymore.
Ducks and geese still stop to visit the pond, but the nests and eggs which once abounded in this meadow through which I walk have been moved elsewhere.
;)
As I walked, a raven flew over me, beneath the disintegrating trails of three jets that had obviously passed over a while back.
;)
I had not gone far before I heard the distant, high, rising-in-crecendo shriek of jets coming. If you look to the place where you hear the high flying jets, you will never see them because by the time you hear them, they have long left that place behind.
So I studied the sky ahead of the sound.
Then I spotted these two military jets, flying together.
;)
Three, actually. Perhaps these are the same three that left the trails that the raven flew beneath. Perhaps the pilots wanted to get another look at that raven, so they came back to see if they could spot it.
;)
Next, I heard the pleasant drone of an airplane - it up there, me down here.
;)
For lunch, I ate a bowl of Campbell's split-pea and ham soup. As he has been doing lately, Jimmy came out with me and wandered around while I ate. It wasn't warm on the porch like it had been, though. It was chilly.
Chicago and Royce came to the window to observe. Chicago is strickly a house cat, but Royce has always been an indoor/outdoor kind of guy. So far this spring, when I have taken Jimmy out, Royce has stopped at the threshold and has then remained inside. He has studied me from there.
;)
At 4:00 PM, I pedaled my bike to Metro. The air had turned too cool now to enjoy a sit on the patio, so I took my coffee inside.
As I drank and listened to All Things Considered through my iPhone ear-set, this lady pulled up to the window. It was just about closing time. She and Carmen visited for maybe ten minutes. Then it was time for me to go, so I shot:
Through the Metro Window in Reverse, Study # 47: Carmen and Ann.
Carmen says Ann comes every day. "Just like you," she adds, "but even more, because you travel."
Due to the series of injuries suffered by myself and Margie, I have done much less traveling these past two years than normal.
I think this may be about to change.
Eight hours had now passed since I had dropped the car off to get repaired. After ten hours passed, I was informed that it had turned into a much more complicated job than had originally been anticipated. They would need to keep the car overnight.
;)
A cold, light, rain fell upon me as I pedaled my bike home, but stopped just before I reached the place where the moose had earlier crossed the road. Now, there was a rainbow. A faint rainbow, but a rainbow none-the-less - the first rainbow I have seen this year.
I then buckled down and worked very hard at my computer until 2:00 AM.
I thoroughly enjoyed it, too, because I listened to Creedence Clearwater Revival and Hank Williams on iTunes.