Scenes From Living the High Life, Part One

My first two-day weekend (Monday and Tuesday) in a bit, and on the first day it poured rain the entire day! This in the land of "we never get rain!" Arrgh! The good news is it forced me to stay inside which led me, finally, to unpacking and organizing my kitchen. Now I just have the living room and den to unpack.

Tuesday was gorgeous, which led to this rash (ouch!) of photo-taking:

These horses hang out in the mornings in the paddock at the end of our street, where small town gives way to ranchland and the wild. The trail Wiley and I take on an almost daily basis runs right past them. On the first day, one of them was laying on its side and Wiley started barking at it. The horse rolled to its feet, towering over Sir Smalls, who wisely shut up and hasn't made a peep at them since.

These birds are all over the place here, along with both ravens and crows. After I described them to him, my brother said they were just run of the mill magpies, but I think they're quite beautiful, and much more well-mannered than the magpies of Moscow... well, everything is better-mannered outside 'scow.

This rodeo is a half-mile walk up a dirt road from my apartment... yes, you may recall, when I was living in the submarine-like studio apartment, that I lived next door to a rodeo. I did. This is a different rodeo, with, quite frankly, a better sign. I really mean to make it to one before the end of the season, but they're on Saturday nights which tend to be my busiest (and latest) at work.

I've been meaning to take a photo of this sign for a while because it cracks me up. I live in a place where official anti-avalanche dudes regularly fire Howitzers at mountains. How awesome is that? The sign also happens to mark the trailhead for a spot Jerry, my fave line cook at work, clued me into.