Watch Your Step

 Everything is coming up roses.  Okay, not exactly, because two of my four rose bushes have bit the dust.  One is growing gorgeously, but only because it is under cover of the shade tree and gets lots of water from the sprinkler.  I even set the sprinkler to water all of them, but the Arizona sun is just too hot.

On the other hand, the Mexican bird of paradise is blooming beautifully.  It seems to like the hot sun.

Apparently so do the lizards, who have been out and about looking for that perfect taco-like snack.

It appears sunning is a dangerous pastime, because the tip of his tail has regrown, meaning someone tried to make HIM the taco.  I like these guys.  They eat all the creepy crawlies you find under everything that has laid on the ground for an hour or two.

After two cups of coffee, I finally donned my glamorous shorts with cowboy boots outfit and drug the lawnmower from the garage.  If I don't get it done, the not so very strong electric mower won't be able to get through the 4" tall grass.  

Since I was considerably sweaty, even though it was only 90 degrees, I hit the treadmill for a mile of uphill.  Why you ask?  Because the Pumpkin Patch is coming up and we have school buses full of kids this year, along with some new attractions.  I better start now or I will fade on the vine when it comes to those 7 mile walking days.

After a lovely cold shower, I looked out the window at my handiwork.  Mr. Horny Toad made a quick run through the grass.  No worries, I made doubly sure I wasn't mowing over him.  Their defense is to freeze, making them disappear into the sand.  It doesn't work so well in the green grass.

He finally skittered off into the bushes.  Back in the day, we would find one or two on the ranch, along with thousands of tarantulas.  Nowadays they are all gone, having been completely wiped out.  

There's nothing like driving a cattle truck down from the mountains and parking it in the yard, then pulling up a chair and watching all those spiders fall to the ground after hitching a ride.  I've no idea WHY that happened, but every year we could count on it providing some afternoon entertainment.  Yes I was completely creeped out.

I didn't make it to Empire Ranch.  Instead Patty Chance and I wandered on down to Green Valley to try and find some clothing.  I have a closet full of shirts, but almost every single one has holes in the front.  The only thing I can figure out is something on those little over-the-shoulder purses was snagging the material.  It seems the holes are in the exact location where the purse lands.  Not that I care, but it is rather embarrassing when a perfect stranger points out the holes to you at the grocery store.

Once home, I sat on the patio for awhile and admired the clouds.  In no time they turned black and threatening, so I went about trying to spread a 20'x30' tarp over the worst of the washouts.  Another storm came through, but passed us by for the most part.  Thunderstorm warnings have been issued for every single day this week, with a gully washer expected on Saturday.

In the meantime, I've gotten a couple of scam emails recently that sounded so legit I actually did a test to see if they were real.  There is a little down arrow next to their name on the email.  Click on it like I did here and it will give you the exact email address it came from.  The REAL one, not the one they have typed that says Chase Bank, or whatever.  It happens this is an email I sent, so it has my email address.

It said it came from Amazon.  It was regarding my recent order which was charged to my account for $358 and just shipped.  CLICK HERE.  Those words are a dead giveaway.  When I clicked on the down arrow, the address it actually came from was somewhere in the UK.  Obviously that's not Amazon.

The next one said my package had been delivered.  How many times have I had things sent to my house?  Hundreds.  Except this time I had not ordered anything.  CLICK HERE if you did not receive the package.  Nope ..... only place I'm clicking on is their name to find the real address it came from.  This time it wasn't very inventive .... Amazon-Jolie@hotmail.com.  Well that's a dead giveaway.

One more was a notice that my account payment had gone through via PayPal.  CLICK HERE to verify.  The jokes on them since I don't use PayPal for anything.  

So be vigilant, watch your step and don't get scammed.  It seems they are out in force much more than in the past.

Also watch your step when you wander outside barefoot to let the puppy out.  This big guy was on my patio. Eeewwwwww I don't like spiders.  Sorry Patsy, but these guys are FAST!!!  By the time I ran back to the steps, he was gone.  Gotta love those nighttime critters!!