Lizard Encounters

Before this afternoon, I’d seen lizards clinging to the walls of our backyard and occasionally doing four-legged “push-ups.” I wondered why they did that, and while I still don’t have an answer, today I got a clue. I watched a lizard run from the ground upward. When he was about halfway up, another lizard came out of a crack in the wall and the first lizard stopped in his tracks. Both lizards then began doing their push-ups. Eventually they stopped, and the first lizard continued on his way up while the second lizard went down. This leads me to think that the four-legged push-ups are some type of display, but I don’t know if they’re meant to attract the opposite sex or dissuade rivals.

Speaking of lizards, Lena once again tried to go after a lizard today. She was too late and watched from the ground as the lizard made it to the top of the wall. For a while after that, she sat next to the wall, looking up and probably hoping for another chance. She eventually lost interest and came back inside with me when I was done weeding.

In unrelated news, on Monday I started a temp assignment that is working out well so far. We’ll see how it goes in the long-run, but for the time being, I’m just happy to have some income (especially considering the condition of my car). The office is a few blocks north of Trader Joe’s, which means that going to TJ’s is no longer a whole outing. Today, in fact, I went there during my lunch break to get some things. When I need to get things that need refrigeration I can just go at the end of the day on my way home. I can’t imagine ever again living in a city without Trader Joe’s. That was one of the hardest things about living in OKC!

Burrowing Sheep & Other News

A couple of days ago Tim and I were driving down Arizona Avenue and I mentioned a herd of sheep I’d been seeing near the post office. That herd had a sheep dog that was the same color as the sheep and anytime I saw it, my first thought always was, “What an odd-looking sheep,” until a second later I realized it was actually the dog I was looking at. Driving with Tim that day I didn’t see the sheep at all and wondered where they had gone. Tim suggested that they might be burrowing to escape the strong afternoon sun. He said that if we saw a bunch of 3-foot-wide holes in the field, we’d know that’s where they were. We had a good laugh at the idea of sheep digging burrows.

This strange suggestion reminded me of another explanation that couldn’t possibly be true but was also very amusing. A few years back I went to the home of FDR in upstate New York with my friend Mike. We were taking a tour of the house and our guide showed us FDR’s elevator. She asked how we thought the elevator worked and Mike immediately suggested, “Dynamite!” And I’d been thinking of pulleys—silly me.

The other news is that my poor car is pretty much a goner. We finally took it in to a body shop and to our dismay, we were told that the cost of repairing the car fully would be about 73% of the car’s value. This means that repairing it doesn’t make sense. So we left it there overnight to consider our options and brought it back home yesterday. It is now sitting in our garage, where Tim will work on it to get it functional again and we’ll try to make it last as long as possible while we save money for a replacement. While Tim works on it, we’ll share the other car, which means that on the days we both work, I’ll take Tim to work, come back home for about another hour, and then take off toward my place of work. In the afternoon, I’ll pick Tim up and we’ll head home together. It’s far from an ideal arrangement but it will work for the time being.

Of course this brings up the other bit of news, which is that on Monday I’m starting a new job. I found the job through a temp agency, which means that I’ll start out as an employee of the agency and if things go well, I could go on as a permanent employee of the company. I’ll see how the job works out: whether I like the company, whether they like me, etc. If it doesn’t work out, it sounds like there are plenty of other temp opportunities out there so I wouldn’t be out of work for long. And if that is the case, I can always continue looking for something permanent on my own as well. The good thing is that I’ll start having some income, and considering the car situation, it will be especially helpful. I still can’t believe that such a dumb, low-speed crash has basically killed my little car!!

Apparently Phoenix Is Good For Me

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Your personality type is SCOAI

You are moderately social, calm, organized, moderately accommodating, and intellectual, and may prefer a city which matches those traits.

The largest representation of your personality type can be found in the these U.S. cities: Salt Lake City, Oklahoma City, Nashville, Tucson, Phoenix, Memphis, W. Palm Beach, Portland/Salem, Louisville, Cincinnati, San Diego, Los Angeles and these international countries/regions Slovenia, Luxembourg, India, Croatia, Romania, Taiwan, Middle East, China, Caribbean, Iceland, South Africa, Czech Republic, South Korea, Hong Kong

What Places In The World Match Your Personality?
City Reviews at CityCulture.org

Lena the Huntress

It was only yesterday that Lena seemed to discover the little lizards that run up and down the walls that surround our backyard. Until then she seemed oblivious to them, even though I kept trying to point them out to her (of course she always looked at me instead of at the lizard I was pointing to). Well, yesterday she finally noticed them and today she tried to go after one. She ran after it, pounced, and made it about halfway up the wall but the lizard got away. On her way down she landed on a dry plant. She seemed a little disappointed, but then again I’m not sure she’d know what to do with a lizard if she caught one. A grasshopper then flew onto one of our little trees and Lena ran up to the tree but then didn’t do anything about it. And a while after that she tried to go after a hummingbird and that’s when I decided she and I should go back inside for a while. While I would feel bad if she caught a lizard, I would feel even worse if she got a little hummingbird. Imagine if it had babies to feed!

I’ve been back from my trip to Buenos Aires and Montevideo and Tampa for a week now. It’s amazing how fast time flew while I was there, and while I could have posted to this blog during that time I had plenty of other things to do. I will post some of the pictures, however.