Frogs...

I have lived in my house for 19 years. Each year, I look forward to many annual events. One of these is the Frog Arrival. Unlike the much loathed June Bug Arrival, the Frog Arrival is warmly (that is a pun that will become apparent momentarily) anticipated.

Shortly after the June Bugs begin their suicidal flights into my front porch windows and front door lights, the frogs begin to emerge from the...somewhere. The June Bugs and Frogs begin to arrive when the temperature goes up (up is a relative term here in Fresno when referring to heat, much like calling molten rock merely hot), ergo the aformentioned pun about a warm arrival (I am truly sorry for that). Mostly small to middlin', with the rare occasional whopper for a momentary fright as I walk along the poorly lit sidewalk, these frogs are quite enjoyable.

One thing I cannot fathom though is their total distaste for water from the hose as I water the various (and still unknown to me) species of foliage forced into the soil by my wife; whereas they seem to literally spring from the grass itself when the sprinklers come on?

Ah..frog husbandry is so fulfilling. Nothing better than a good horse beneath you, a cold beer and my trusty six-shooter as I watch my herd of rough-hided non-amphibian frogs mosey across my 0.00436 square acres of lush bermuda, on a slow trail drive towards the rhodedendrum patch. Turns out that June Bugs make good barbecue...

ILLUMINATION

It often happens just when I least expect it, or as someone wrote " things that have never happened before happen all the time ". It is usually early in the morning, moments before the sun rises, when I notice that the light outside carries what seems to be its' own energy.

I used to say that it was the last smell of cut lawns, the impending chill in the air, and a change in the light that let me know it was time to play football. I couldn't understand what it was, by I sensed that this favorite time of my childhood was upon me. In later years, I would realize that it was the change in the light intensity as the sun began to shrink away from the unyielding heat of summer, and tilt her head so that autumn could find its way home. Physics class would teach me about light intensity, luminosity, Planck's constant, quantum theory, quarks and other such things.

I still like to stand outside and watch the light change, and I realize that the light didn't change, I did.

M