Keep An Eye Out For Scammers

With every event in the world, the scammers seem to come out in droves.  Watch out you don't get taken for a ride.  I'm not talking about the $300 toilet paper rolls, but the rash of emails I'm getting now that say my order #354879835 has been filled from the CoronaVirus19 Pharmacy.  Just fill in your health insurance information.  Needless to say, I didn't order ANYTHING.  Ignore them ... they are just phishing for your social security number or your bank account information.

Don't be fooled by the sales of you'll-never-see-this-again hand sanitizer either.  Soap and water actually work much better according to doctors.  I have to admit, some of these shyster messages look pretty convincing.  Don't get taken in.

My little walk yesterday resulted in much more than I expected.  During the day, not many critters are out.  I heard this little guy WAY before I finally saw him.  As I followed the tweeting, he always seemed to be just out of reach.  At last .... got you little guy!!!

I was about 40 feet away when he flew to this ocotillo branch (looking directly into the sun of course) before heading back to his original perch.  This is apparently his territory and he's been singing for his soon-to-be girlfriend.

Here's a look back up the hill at my rig with the house just to the right.  I did find quite a few flowers to show you, along with their actual names I found on the internet.  I would post them now, except I've been sneezing so much from apparent allergies, I never did get them uploaded.  It scares everyone when you sneeze!!

I'm actually standing here when I took the above picture.  My house is very close to the railroad tracks as they head around a big S curve.  That means they are going very slow with an occasional crash and bang as they hit the brakes.  See all those concrete ties?  All of the old wooden railroad ties we are familiar with have been removed and replaced with concrete.  

Still, I saw nothing of critters.  I wonder where all the rabbits hang out during the day?  There are a few holes in the ground, but I doubt they are big enough.  That's when I spotted a large piece of iron left over from the switcheroo of ties.  I started to pick it up when I saw these stripes.  YIKES!!  I dropped it like a hot potato thinking SNAKE!!! as this gecko (?) crawled out into the shade of a rock. 

He wasn't happy someone had moved his house.  I could tell he wanted to go back under his hiding spot, so I waited.  Warily, he scooted in slow motion back underneath the metal.  He appears to be a Texas Banded gecko who sadly has lost part of his tail.  Don't quote me on that because I never did see a picture exactly like him.  What a cool find!!

On the way back to the house, this cactus was blooming happily.  There are many of these across the property.

At long last in the afternoon, I received an official email about IRS extending the FILING date for taxes.  It is now July 15, meaning I can stay a couple more weeks before my post office box is overflowing and they charge me $200 to clean it out.  Don't you just love the Post Office?  

Upon the recommendation of police officers and friends, I'm staying in Arizona a little longer.  California has gone bananas, and with two cases of the virus in the town close to mine, they have closed absolutely everything except grocery stores, which at this point don't have any food anyway.  

If everyone who is hoarding stuff would just quit buying for one week and let the grocery stores restock, everything would be fine.  So far it looks like that won't be happening.

In case you had not heard, they are now using malaria vaccine (or something similar) which seems to be working on the coronavirus.  Hopefully this will be behind us soon.  

My last surprise of the day came about 4:00 in the afternoon.  I'll tell you all about it tomorrow!!  In the meantime, I really am trying to enjoy isolation going into week three.  Not really.