Return to a missing day: bunny rabbit, cowboy and grandson, dogs, bear, horse hair and more
Saturday, September 17, 2011 at 12:03PM 
During my hiatus, I continued to take pictures as usual -- far too many to go back and blog it all, but I will blog a little bit of it. There are a couple of photographic encounters that stand out in my mind, and I will still blog those for sure. I thought about blogging one of them today, but my readership always falls on Saturdays, so instead, I closed my eyes, ran my cursor up and down over the list of missing days, stopped, opened my eyes, and found the cursor had stopped on Thursday, September 1.
So here we go on that day:
I decided to have breakfast at Abby's Home Cooking and to go by bicycle. When I stepped out of the house, I saw this bunny rabbit dashing through the yard.
Poor bunny rabbits.
They seemed to appear out of nowhere early this summer... two or three, maybe. Their numbers quickly grew. Soon, bunny rabbits were everywhere. One evening, I came driving down Sarah's way and there was a bunny rabbit standing at the end of every driveway, like little sentries. I passed maybe ten houses protected by these little sentries.
Then, a few weeks ago, their numbers began to decline. Dogs? Maybe someone had a feast of bunny rabbit stew, somewhere, with bunny rabbits packed into the freezer for later? Humanely trapped and gone to the pound? Perished on chilly nights?
There are still a few bunny rabbits out there, but, a month from now, there won't be.
Winter is coming. These bunny rabbits are not winter rabbits.
Around here, winter is the domain of the snowshoe hare, dinner to the lynx, fox, and eagle.
Snowshoe hares are Arctic tough. These bunny rabbits are not.
At Abby's Home Cooking, I found Tim Mahoney, drinking coffee and feeding a fresh cinamon roll to his grandson, five-year old Wesley.
Wesley already helps out on the ranch.
Tim and Wesley, headed out the door.
Tim and Wesley, getting into the truck.
I was pedalling home when suddenly this dog shot past me, striking from behind, grazing my left ankle as it passed. It gave me a start, but then I recognized it. I know this dog. He likes to stage quick ambush charges, which can really startle you, because he seems to suddenly materialize out of nowhere and for a moment you do not know what is happening.
He is not a mean dog, though. He just likes to give you a start. Once he has done so, he is harmless, even without the muzzle.
I wonder if he has had any bunny rabbits to eat?
As usual when I am home, the remainder of September 1 was pretty much spent at my computer - although I did take my usual 4:00 PM coffee break at Metro Cafe. As I was driving and sipping on Sunset, this dog came charging after my car.
The dog falls back, as seen in my rearview mirror.
Continuing on, I saw that a conversation was taking place ahead, at the side of the road.
I have no idea what they were conversing about. Could have been anything... dogs, horses, women, politics, the high cost of gas, all the heat and fire in Texas and how they're sure glad they are here and not there... I don't know.
Anything.
Peanut butter, perhaps. Does it go better with honey or jelly?
Honey, I say - but jelly can be pretty good, too.
Especially when you are cold and you have been cold for a long time, but now someone has given you a hot thermos of coffee and some Sailor Boy pilot bread cookies and there is peanut butter and you slather it on, spread jelly on top of that and you feel the heat of the coffee as it chases the peanut butter jelly down your gullet and then you have to say, this peanut butter and jelly is pretty damn good, so you lather up another.
I continued and soon saw a little black bear crossing the road ahead of me. I hoped to catch up to it before it disappeared into the trees, but it disappeared quick.
Lately, I have heard reports of some big grizzlys in this same area - of paw prints over a foot long.
On Shrock I had to pull to the side of the road to let this screaming ambulance pass by.
Somewhere nearby, someone's day had gone terribly wrong.
I hope not too terrible, but who knows?
Perhaps for someone it was the day that ended all days; perhaps someone just had bad gas and thought it was a heart attack, or maybe they shattered their shoulder like I did.
I don't know.
Come evening, I took my bike ride. These two passed me on Church Road and as they did, the kid in back waved at me. I did not have my camera ready and I missed the picture.
I felt bad about that, but there was a downhill stretch ahead of me, so maybe I could get another chance. I pedaled as hard and fast as I could and caught them and passed them about a quarter mile on. As I passed, they both waved.
I stopped at the Mahoney Ranch and took a few photos of the oats, standing in teepee-like bundles. I am not going to post those pictures, because on other days I got some, complete with Mahoneys, that I like better.
As I was taking pictures, I heard someone shout, "Hey, Bill!" I looked up and saw a Mahoney horse, in the distance, too far away for me to photograph. "I notice your hair is getting thin," the horse shouted with the full force of his massive lungs. "I left some of mine on the fence for you. Put it on your head. You'll look lots better then."
Now, back to just yesterday:
Okay... just to keep this timely, I return almost to the present, to yesterday: Kalib, pushing an empty stroller through the back yard. His mom experienced many contractions yesterday, but did not go into full labor.
We are definitely on baby watch, now.
Study of the Young Writer, Shoshana, at Metro Cafe #7,829: Shoshana with Jay Cross, pilot and aircraft mechanic. Jay was thinking that maybe my airplane could be put back into the air for less than I think. Someday,he wants to come by take a look at it.
Unless I get rich, I think that airplane is done for. As I have stated before, if I could come up with the money to put it back into the air, I would just buy another one, so that I could get there, quick. But if I get rich, I will buy another and get my wreck rebuilt and then keep both. That airplane and I had many good experiences together. I love that airplane, and that's why I keep it around, even though its no good anymore.
My next door neighbor hates my plane. He built a fence between us, just so he wouldn't have to look at it.
He doesn't like cats, either. In fact, he hates cats.
Otherwise, he seems to be a pretty decent fellow, but I doubt that we will ever be the best of friends. He keeps pretty much to himself and so do we.
I wonder how he feels about bunny rabbits? Hopping through his yard?
Reader Comments (3)
Greetings! This is what happens when one doesn't turn on the computer each day, you're already back 3 days and I'm already playing catch up! Welcome back! As always love the local views, thanks for sharing.
Hope this last weekend of production work is glitch free. Looking forward to hearing about the projects; and the stories behind them. By the way, seems rather apt, new blog session and new baby starting out together. :-D
Happy Fall
The whole idea of working on a production sounds so very creative and exciting. I am a woman who is not creative and so she has to make a big production out of nothing.
oh my. Kalib has grown so much this summer.