Yes, Goats!

When I went home to The Sticks, it was partially to celebrate my parents' anniversary, partially to celebrate my mom's birthday, partially to celebrate Mother's Day, and partially to celebrate my own birthday.

On my actual birthday, my mom asked what I wanted to do. . .go to town and go shopping, maybe? Maybe. . . But what I really wanted to do was go see the neighbour's goats. Mom had mentioned this neighbour and her menagerie countless times, knowing the odd affinity I have for all creatures great and small (and smelly). And aside from having goats, she also sounded like a pretty cool lady anyway, so I was excited to meet her. So we put on our grubby clothes and shoes--we'd be traipsing around in a goat pen, after all--and headed across the golf course.

Yes, there is a golf course smack dab in the middle of the neighbourhood where my folks live. And yes, there is a house off the 6th or 7th green with a yard full of goats. I couldn't make this up.

This is Billy. The Billy of the herd. He is one nasty dude. I was warned, but refused to believe in the foul habits of a billy goat. I don't think I got any photographic evidence, and believe me when I say this photo was taken *before* I witnessed it, but yes...billy goats pee on their beards.
It's quite a demonstration of agility and balance, really, but in the end I just wasn't as impressed as he possibly hoped. I guess his little trick works with the lady goats though, because there were dozens of little faces like this staring us down:I got to break out the goat treats and become everyone's best friend for a few minutes, and despite Billy giving me far more attention than the little ones dared, it was a really cool thing to do on my birthday. Yeah, that's me, turning 38 and livin' it up at a petting zoo, with a smelly pee-covered billy goat chasing me around and shoes covered in straw and poo. I am probably the world's cheapest date. And I'm okay with that.

I need my camera.

Because Delilah has just moved her achy bones from her bed to a sunny little patch on the floor behind me. The curtains are pulled back and the window is open, so she's getting a full facefull of direct sun. And she's squinting. It's pretty adorable, but it's a sight only for me today, because my camera is downstairs on the kitchen table. Probably out of juice anyway.

My iPhone is charging about a foot from me, but it was so dead that if I pull it off the charger to take a photo it will just die again. I'm obviously not terribly good with electronics that require proximity or charges.

Anyway. It's Saturday morning, just about a quarter to 9am here in Arizona where we don't change our clocks. I have no idea what time zone we're a part of these days. When people ask, I just say "Arizona Time" and let them figure it out.

We're going to a movie later this morning, but I thought I'd take this quick bit of quiet time to bring everyone up to speed on my doings for the past months. Everyone. Ha. The two people who still even bother to check to see if this thing has been added to. The other two people who read it have long moved on to other things. But I digress.

My last post was towards the end of April, and shortly after that I went home to Missouri to see my folks and my Best Friend in The Entire World, Even England (long story dating back to highschool).

Going back to my folks' house, which is smack dab in the middle of Boonies, MidAmerica, should be a relaxing, idyllic thing. They live close to a ginormous lake, where there are a lot of fish. They are surrounded by miles and miles and miles of woodland trails, and there are birds singing and squirrels chucking nuts down at your every move. But when I go home, it's always Project Time. Here's dad, preparing the lawnmower for me. See all that grass behind him? That's about 20% of what there is to mow. And see my above allusion to the fact that there are a LOT of trees to mow around.

I also got to move some newly cut firewood around. Baby snakes like big piles of wood.So do frogs with bright yellow legs. I didn't get to save any baby mice this time, but I do always enjoy finding critters; especially if I get to pick them up and put them on other critters.Snickers did *not* approve. I'm not sure the frog enjoyed it much either. But it was amusing to us humans, and no one got hurt.

I did get to spend some quality time in the woods, hunting for morels. Sadly, after many many hours, we had to settle for, well, nothing. Fortunately the neighbours had enormously better luck than we did, and they were in a sharing mood. Anyway. It was pretty in them thar woods:Another critter! Can you see him? Look real close!And that, my friends is day one of my trip to Missouri. Well, it could have been days one and three. I've slept since then, and even yesterday was a blur, so I'm not really going to make much of a stab at getting things from 7 months ago in chronological order. Anyway.

Tomorrow, Goats!

I am Thankful. . .

...that my mom and dad never fail to mention the fact that I never write on my blog anymore. Every single time we talk, for the past 7 months since I last wrote, my dad especially asks why I haven't updated my blog. And every time they mention it, I reply that yes, I really need to get back to writing. And then I get sidetracked until the next time they ask about it.

So thanks, folks, for nagging me back into writing. :P We'll see if it sticks this time.

There are a lot of other things I'm thankful for, but that I won't go into here. I think it's enough to just say that I appreciate my life and I realise that things could be much different for me and mine.

We have a lot of catching up to do, but I'm going to also leave that for another time. It's late on Thanksgiving and despite having eaten entirely too much food earlier today, I've got a bit of the midnight munchies. I'm going to go snag a bite of leftovers and hit the hay.

Love,
me