So, today has been an interesting day. And it’s not even noon yet! Okay, it’s just past noon, but that doesn’t sound as interesting. ^_^ It’ll probably be way past noon by the time I post this, but whatever.

So, earlier this morning, I looked out my window, and saw a return visitor in my yard.  These guys.

Sorry for the crappy pictures, the battery for my real camera — which I just uncovered today and will start to use again because honestly this cell phone is crap for taking pictures — anyway, the battery is charging so these are cell phone pictures taken from far away. As soon as I stepped outside to take the pictures, Poptart went hog wild barking at these bold intruders and they, of course didn’t like that, so they started wobbling away. It didn’t make for good picture taking, especially with a cell phone. Ha! But you know what, dear reader? I never thought when I was younger that I would behold the sight of tom turkeys in full feather, let alone have them as regular visitors in my yard (along with the jennies). Just as I never thought I’d see a real road runner, but when I was in Albuquerque, NM, we saw those on the regular too. It just goes to show that you never know what one will see in their lifetime if they just take a look around.

Road Runner

I also realized today that I have no trash receptacle for my back working space (where I’m typing this blog post at the moment), so I went to the pantry to get a paper bag to use and whew! There was a stench in there!  Goes to show how little I use the pantry. Ha! I wondered (rightly) if we’d caught a mouse in one of the traps, and yep, there was a dead mouse hidden under some paper bags. How the paper bags had gotten over the mouse trap, I’ll never know, but stranger things have happened. And the mouse was getting ripe. It had probably been dead for about a day, I’m guessing. I won’t post a picture of that. You’re welcome.  After disposing of the dead mouse, I went back to working on what I was working on and realized I didn’t have any paperclips. Thus began the saga of looking high and low for paperclips.  I know I have them, I just don’t know where they are hiding. And in the search for paperclips I found a whole bunch of pens, two cameras, tons of sticky note pads, and little memories I’d set aside for “later” and forgotten. Ha! But alas and alack no paperclips.  I still don’t know where they are.  So frustrating…

And then I looked out my window and saw this (told you this was random):

It’s a hard-knock life…

This is why we have this old, rundown couch in our front yard. Because our front yard is not for show, nor is it for the aesthetic pleasure of our neighbors. It is for the dogs. The sun bakes that black area he’s lying on pretty well and it gets warm. Cocoa, the dog in the picture, is getting up in years and his joints probably hurt. Sitting on the couch probably feels damned good for aching joints.  Besides, the ground out there is wet — well damp usually. It’s not like walking in wetlands, but it’s never bone dry. It’s *always* that way. Even in the height of summer, there’s moisture in the ground.  So you know what? I’m okay with that ratty old couch, and I’d put more out there too if I had them. This one was left behind by my previous tenant. And I’m glad I live in an area where my neighbors can’t dictate what goes in my yard (we looked long and hard for a house that wasn’t part of an HOA) because I won’t be having any of that. Screw that noise.

So anyway, those are my random happenings for today. It’s just after 1 PM right now, so the day is just about halfway through.