In anyone else's shoes

Picture of that damned Cardinal again

"I'm not afraid of Death.  I just don't want to be there when it happens."

                                                                     Woody Allen

Were outta here tomorrow.  So instead of being upbeat and cheerful, I am Sitting here at 2:30 AM with the door closed and locked.  A bit jumpy you say? Well when I woke up my Wife said that the guys from one of the companies said that they had spotted a mountain lion just up the road.  A big one she added. They said you should be careful walking around tonight. Oh I'm careful all right.  Oh, I go outside  right after I have shone a flashlight all around the perimeter looking for the tell tale sign of eyes reflecting the light. Doing this for maybe longer than I might consider manly.  I look for the reassuring presence of my tire iron, and then I complete whatever business is at hand trying to ignore the eerie itchy feeling in the center of my back and the mental visions of the bite at the base of the neck artfully used by the cougar to dispatch it's prey. At first I thought that maybe they were fooling with her, but these guys kind of look after us.  More than once dropping off a breakfast sandwich or doughnuts (the organic kind of course) These are the kind of straight shooter type  of guys that are happy to chat awhile coming and going.  One of them even made a point of returning a tool I had left at another site.  No, all things balanced, I'll have to consider the info reliable and act accordingly.  So naturally I googled mountain lion attacks in the hopes of finding some kind of reassurance.  And, well that was a waste of time.  In reality, I am probably no closer to the wildlife now than I have been and that includes nights I walked several hundred yards up and down the road trying to get a little exercise.  But tonight, well it's just a little more real if you know what I mean.

So  fresh with the knowledge that a big cat might be at this moment circling our small trailer looking for an easy way to access your's truly for a midnight snack, I won't proffer any arrogant or condescending remarks about the absence of a catastrophe on 911.  Which was kind of my original plan. And with the exception of the truly negative folks out there, (think Glen Beck. I really can't stand that guy) I may actually try to see somebody else's point of view once in awhile.  That is if I am still alive in the morning  k, that's the deal. I still have to be alive.  And well.  Yeah, thats right, and well too.  But I am also trying to understand fears that I consider unrealistic. An altruistic first step. And maybe vice versa, say a rancher who has come across many a big cat and thinks "shoot whaddya scared of?"  But who has friends and acquaintances who live at or near the Mexican border and new and hysterical information might get him stirred up thinking "what's next? " Obviously having a different perspective than I.  Or anyway that's the conclusion I came to after reading the article I provided a link to below..  These seizures apparently occurred roughly near the location we were at last year while I suspect we were there.  I don't think we were so naive as to believe this wasn't possible, but we were also strongly reassured that activities such as these were occurring nowhere around us. And we surely didn't hear anything about it.  Blissfully ignorant.  Now I'll shake the sand out of my ears and maybe be a little more thankful than smug that the anniversary of 911 came and went peacefully.  Now gotta go. Have to head  outside again. (trepidation waits)


http://blog.chron.com/narcoconfidential/2012/07/south-texas-shale-boom-opens-private-highways-for-drug-traffickers/ Mike n' Lisa's quest blog UA-20271220-1 ga(‘set’, ‘&uid’, {{USER_ID}}); // Set the user ID using signed-in user_id.