Miserable Story

Some lizards have taken up residence in my backyard. I first noticed them when I was opening the heavy, wrought-iron gate that spans the driveway. As I leaned into the gate to get it rolling, I heard some rustling at my feet. Like a striped bullet, a whiptail lizard shot across the driveway! It was a beautiful creature - about six inches long with iridescent stripes down its back. It turned once to look at me inquisitively, then darted into the grass so quickly that it was as if it just disappeared! A few days later, I had a similar encounter as I walked out onto the patio, except that time there were two of them. I've seen them several times now over the last few weeks. They remind me of my childhood. I was always chasing, capturing, examining, and releasing little creatures as a child, and now that I'm having a kid of my own, it makes me happy to know that he'll have lizards to chase too.

In addition to the resurgence of life around the house, springtime always gives me a wave of energy. As penance for buying a sailboat and a truck, I've given Andrea a spiral notebook to fill with tasks for me. I've been adding tasks for myself too. It feels great to be productive every day! Today's task was to change the oil in my new-to-me Dodge truck. I was also going to be teaching this worthless, messy skill to a friend... Beth and her daughter Milla came over around 9:30 A.M. We went to AutoZone, got oil and filters, grabbed some tools and rags from the garage, and tossed Milla in the trunk of my wife's car so we could start working! Who needs a babysitter when you have a trunk, right? I should clarify - we just put Milla and some of her toys in the back of the hatchback with the hatch up - it was cleaner than the garage floor... After Beth and I finished changing the oil in our vehicles, we went over to entertain Milla and relax for a moment. Apparently, the words "poopy" and "boogers" are hilarious to Milla. You can imagine her blurbles of joy at the combination of the two into the apogee of comedic words, "poopyboogers".

All of this entertainment was interrupted by a sudden burst of squawking near the garage. I walked over to see what was going on, and witnessed a roadrunner in mid-murder. It snatched up one of the lizards, and was thrashing it around. I tried to scare it so that it would drop the lizard, but it just ran over to the fire pit and proceeded to bash the little lizard against the rocks. The other lizard poked its head out of its hiding spot, and watched its mate's grisly fate. And then, suddenly, it was over... The roadrunner was gone... I stared down at the remaining lizard. He looked back at me and didn't run. He was stunned. I can only imagine how his little brain was processing this horrific incident... Andrea called us in to eat lunch. I went back out after eating to check on the lizard. He was still looking listless and depressed.

My heart is broken for this poor little lizard.

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