Spring In My Step

The dark sky contemplated raining last night, and even washed us with a desultory drizzle for around an hour before deciding against it. During my nightly circuit of camp, I came across a female Western Toad squatting by a pair of milk crates on the front walk. I hassled her just long enough to take this photo, and then continued my walk.

There were a couple of kids who were full of tears for their distant homes. One was really insistent about leaving, almost like the boy who kept coming to see me last Monday night. I imagine there's a good chance he'll be gone by the time I get to work tonight.

In the wee hours I watched "Night of the Demon" (1957), which is based on the M. R. James short story, "Casting the Runes". It was quite good. Strangely, at one point a character announced, "it's 3:00 in the morning!" and when I turned to look at the time, I discovered that she was exactly right. Spooooooky.

On Sunday, I attempted to go to Hidden Villa and look for Horned lizards, but found the site closed for a private function. It looked like some sort of charity event. This didn't deter me though, because I knew that just down the street, off of Rhus Ridge Road, there is a trail that hooks up with the Hidden Villa trails I was planning on hiking. Long story short, I didn't find any Horned lizards, but hiked for over 5 miles on a beautiful Spring day. I didn't even have to shake any ticks from my legs. I did, of course, find every other kind of local lizard, and in quantity. The first two Fence lizards I encountered were... uh... intent on making more lizards. This morning at work, my friend Otter told me he had something to show me, pulled out his phone, and sure enough, he had a photo of a Horned lizard. He took in at the Grand Canyon though.

Here are a few photos from the hike: