Good tidings, me beauties ...
I have returned from the desert. It was a pleasant journey. The girlfriend met the parents and all seems to be well there. My parents live in Arizona, in the Superstition Mountains, which are chock full of many a legend.
We spent a day in Mexico, saw some ancient cliff dwellings and a Spanish mission. We swam under the stars beneath a sizable flight of bats. Every now and again a bat would fly close to the water and take a drink. That truly was a beautiful night. Chicago natives such as I do not often so quite so many stars. Home now, I gazed starward out my west-facing bedroom window. I count three. Three stars. No bats.
I ate these interesting things during my trip:
An omlette with cheddar cheese and ant eggs
Pickled watermelon rind
Cactus
Prickly pear ice cream
Candied kumquats
quail eggs
I burned myself while cooking and have a sexy 2nd degree burn on my arm, with a tiny bit of dangling charred flesh. I am so medium rare. Fuck that. I am Large Rare. The swelling has gone down some. It looks like a cigarette burn, but it is not.
One afternoon my daughters and I went walking in the wash. Only for about 20 minutes or so, because it was 118 degrees that day. The wash is a space near the houses designed to catch the rain water during the monsoon season and prevent flooding.
We saw some jackrabbits in the wash, and a javelina ... sort of a warthog. Moving along, I saw something move in a tree about 20 feet away. I shushed the girls and moved a little closer. The creature came down out of the tree. I stopped walking, told the girls it was time to go home and to start walking ... don't run, just take your time and walk.
I didn't tell them until we got home that it was a mountain lion.
Luckily, the beast just walked in the other direction. I had been comtemplating what to do had it attacked. I happened to be carrying a femur I had found earlier on the same walk. I somewhat hastily contrived a plan that involved hitting the mountain lion with the bone and repeating if necessary. If that failed, I would punch it in the face.
Luckily it didn't come to that.
VIEW 6 of 6 COMMENTS
you were faced with a real live mountain lion?
OMG. i was to the point of tears over a dead mouse my sister's cat brought me. it was DEAD and i was afraid of it. but a mountain lion?!?!
much congratulations for keeping your cool and getting you and the girls to safety!!!
mountain lions, bats, femurs, burns, eatiing cactus...your account of your vacation reads like an Indian Jones movie.
i long some day to escape the city glows and see blankets of stars. it sounds magnificant.
sorry to hear about the burn
can't way to hear of the next adventures...but hopefully without the injury and wild carnivores next time
Dar Williams