Settling In

                 This is yesterday's sunset. It gets real pretty if there some clouds to catch the setting sun.

I had thought we might be working on the bus by now but that has yet to commence. Instead, I’m trying to get my body to acclimate to the time and the climate.

The weather has been pretty comfortable so far but it’s going to get warmer. It’s been in the low 90’s but by Tuesday it’s supposed to go to 100. I get up each day between 5:30 and 6 local time. My watch is one of those atomic watch things that’s supposed to reset itself each day from a low frequency time signal in Colorado but so far it has refused to do so. So each time I look at my watch I see Eastern Time. I just subtract the 3 hours and don’t fret about it.

                                                This is the view off the porch in the morning.

The coffee pot is on a timer and the coffee is ready to go when I get up. I get a cup and go out to the entry porch that’s in the shade and sit in a chair and watch and listen to the day opening up. There’s a rooster down the valley that greets the dawn and I can hear the quail in the bush calling out their territory. Sometimes there’s a cottontail or two getting a last bite before heading back into the shade of a bush for the day.

We have three cats out here and they don’t want to be petted. They’re “barn cats”. But they always come around in the morning and they’ll follow us around the yard as we go to feed the horses.

There’s usually not any breeze in the morning and it seems so still. There are few trees and the hills just sit there covered with rocks and brush. There’s no traffic in sight and almost none in earshot so it is very quiet and peaceful.

                                                     This the view I watch in the evening.

We all go to bed at night at 9:00 and by then I’m good and ready. So basically, we follow the sun. We have Dish, but I’m not a TV person so I go out on the back deck at night and watch the shadows overtake the land. The deck looks out over the valley and the tank (pond). I’m staring at perhaps 40 acres of brush and hill with neighbors a quarter mile away or so.

I like watching the wildlife come out at the close of the day. There’re lots of rabbits, both jackrabbits and cottontails. I probably see about a dozen per night. This time I’ve seen quite a few roadrunners. They don’t go Beep-Beep but they do run like the wind. I’ve seen coyotes every night so far. The first night three of them came down the hill through the yard and on to the tank for a drink. There’s only just a puddle left and it will be gone in a couple of days. The other night there were two mule deer does that ventured out very nervously. I think they knew the coyotes were around.

We’re several miles from town and none of the neighbors have those large outside lights right now so it is very dark after the sun goes down. The night sky is brilliant through the dry air. We keep binoculars handy for the wildlife and I can look up and see limitless stars. I ought to see if I can find the schedule for the passing of the space station. I hear about it at home but can never see it there, but here it should be easy.