Tag Archives: Sand Creek

Quarantined

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Ground Squirrel – Sand Creek – Colorado

Everybody’s had it tough with this Covid-19 stuff. The Quarantine, the mask, which I’ve taken off for this shot at home, the social distancing that doesn’t seem to extend to red-tailed hawks by the way, they don’t have any problem just blowing right in and trying to snatch my butt off this rock. No 6′ distancing then. Where are the social distancing rangers when you need them, not here that’s for sure.

Let’s just talk about this quarantine, lock-down, self imposed isolation, whatever you want to call it. I know it affects everybody and nobody likes to be forced to do something they don’t want to even if it is for the greater good. But people have got houses, huge freaking houses, or apartments, or big fat wall tents to get locked down in for their isolation. What have I got, this big stupid rock that’s what. I said big stupid rock but I didn’t mean the rock was big, like in huge. No, it’s a small tiny little rock in the scheme of things. A phone booth of a house and that’s making it seem bigger than it is. I’m supposed to wash my paws, I don’t even have running water. I got to wait until it rains.

You can’t see it from where you are but across the way there, over a bit to the left, there’s a regular condo of burrows in a hillside and little caves and places to sit out in the sun and have grass tea and talk to each other that’s just filled with ground squirrels who had the good fortune to get locked down together. There’s even a ground squirrel cheerleading academy over there. Can I get there from here? Nooooo. Not for a couple of more weeks and that’s only if we don’t get a second wave because some yoyo won’t wear his mask, and if that red-tail quits building its nest over on the tree line.

So yeah, I’m getting fed up with this whole thing. I saw on the net that there is this heavy duty metal sort of a hazmat suit with a built in mask made just for ground squirrels that you can order. So just as soon as my stimulus check comes in I’m ordering one. Then I’m heading across the meadow to ground squirrel heaven. Don’t try and stop me, I’m serious. I’m going. I’ve had it with this rock. Stay tuned for further details.

Hold On Just A Minute Here

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ReconsiderFall0855

I’ve been thinking. Maybe we’ve been pushing this Fall stuff a little too hard. I mean talking about it and all, looking around to see if the trees are turning yet, thinking about making a big pot of chili. I mean things happen fast enough as it is, which is okay for some things, some things you want to happen fast, like right now fast. But for things like Fall that have a drastic effect on your quality of life I think you need to slow it the hell down a notch. I mean you do know what happens after Fall, don’t you? I mean like immediately after Fall. Yes, that’s right, the ‘W’ word which brings up the ‘S’ word which stands for snow and that rhymes with NO!, right here in River City.

Maybe its just me but didn’t it take longer to switch from summer to fall a while ago. I seem to remember noticing, like, one tree that had a couple of different colored leaves on it around the middle of September. And it would still be hot as Dutch love during the day but at night when you were going to the game down at the high school, or the CYO dance on Friday night, it would be cool but not freezing. You’d  walk a girl home with your jacket unzipped to show her how the weather barely affected you, which made you really cool. Or at least you thought it did. And when the leaves finally did turn and start to fall it took like three weekends to rake them all up. But it was neat walking downtown to the movies because the sidewalks would all be covered with every single color leaves turned, and they’d make that kind of swishing-crunchy noise against your shoes as you walked through them. That seemed like a normal fall to me.

 Now if you even say the word out loud, “Fall”, or even say something like “Man, it was cold this morning I think summer’s over ” Bam! it’s fall and there’s no leaves left on the trees because they turned in like twenty minutes, then the wind blew them off the trees and it was snowing. I hate that.

Case in point. The image above was taken back in 2008 up at Sand Creek, Colorado, near the Wyoming border. I had friends up there that liked Fall but they were cool about it so it didn’t get in the way. But that didn’t change the fact that Sand Creek is a place notorious for Fall. First its farther north than here, and it’s higher in elevation than here and it’s kind of isolated, in short  a perfect place to have a short quick, brutal Fall. But check out those leaves. Do you notice the amount of green still left in them? See how the leaves are gradually turning to yellow. They’re in no rush. They’re taking their time. That’s only 6 years ago. You still had time to get adjusted to the idea that it was going to be cold and stuff. You were better prepared mentally.

Now it is totally different. Now some careless door-knob will walk outside and just blurt out “Hey it’s cold out. Must be getting Fall” and there you go. Before you can say “Where’s my down coat” or “I hope the car starts.” you are ankle-deep in snow and wondering where the hell summer went. It was here a minute ago.

So I’m going to stop talking about it so much. In fact I’m going to look at every leaf that’s turning color for at least ten minutes each just to make Fall last longer. I’m going to walk around with my jacket unzipped. Hell, I might even go to a CYO dance, if I can find one. This year I’m going to have the longest fall I can. If you were smart and I think you are, you might do the same thing too. And if you locate a CYO dance give me a call.