Down the Road with Smooch ~ June 2011

"Down the Road with Smooch" is a post that chronicles for posterity the who-what-where-when of our daily walk, on or about the first of every month. Somebody forgot to turn the page on her calendar this month and has been living in a time warp.

Date: June 6, 2011
Route: East and west on Rock Hill Road.
Distance: 2 miles
Time: 7ish to 8ish pm
Temperature: 85 degrees
Humidity: 21 percent
Wind: Enough of a breeze so that it didn't feel too hot.
On the iPod: Matterhorn by Karl Marlantes, a novel about the Vietnam war. Superbly written and narrated and critically acclaimed, but I'm having a tough time getting through it.
Attire: Shorts, tank top, socks, sneakers, sunglasses, baseball cap.
Observations: The smoke in the air from the Arizona wildfire was affecting the light in all sorts of crazy ways. One minute it was harsh and contrasty, then it would turn soft and dreamy. This time of day seems to be the worst for flies, and a big obnoxious one stalked me most of the way. Between swatting at it, snapping pictures, listening to vivid combat scenes, and hanging on to Smooch's leash, it was a busier than usual walk. We were both glad to get home.

There were some storm clouds to the northeast but nothing ever became of them. The weatherman is predicting our monsoon season 

might start on June 15 and might be monsoonier than normal. We are so hoping he's right.

Smooch is getting very good about her sit and stays.

Me: Smooch, look behind you! The masked avengers are coming our way.

For the last week, I've been putting fly masks on the boys and Lucy at dinner time, then confining them to the close-to-the-house pasture until it gets dark and the flies go to sleep, then removing the masks before I let them out in the big pasture overnight. I figure if any of the masks are pulled off by a certain burro (I'm talking about you, Alan), I'll have a better chance of finding it this way.

Lucy would be devastated if she lost her fly mask. She loves wearing it. Seriously. (Thanks, Estella, for sending it as part of her trousseau.)
I truly believe Lucy understands the cause-and-effect relationship between wearing a fly mask and not being harassed by flies.

I'm not sure how long this smoky-air scenario will last; it will depend on how long the fire in Arizona keeps burning and how soon the hoped-for rains might wash it out of the sky. We'll deal with it while it's here and be grateful that it's smoke turning our skies orange and not flames.