Things I’ve Seen While Doing the Dishes

Our contractor Bob George (also our bandmate in the Alice in Wonder Band—good clarinetist, guitar player & mandolin picker) also designed our house. Among the many wonderful features Bob figured into the design I’d have to include the pair of windows looking out to the east (or east-southeast, more likely) right behind our kitchen sink. In the pic you can see all the cool stuff Eberle has on the windowsill—which I also see—potted cacti, a green glass chicken candy holder, a St. Martin De Porres candle, an elephant teapot, etc. Out the window, I’ve seen the following:

• The sky & clouds (all sorts)
• Rainstorms, hailstorms, snowstorms, electrical storms
• A plume of smoke from a wildfire
• Rainbows rising from back of the eastern ridge
• Helicopters & planes (see “a plume of smoke”)
• A willow with three bird feeders (two tube thistle feeders & a seasonal hummingbird feeder)
• Various birds, including: goldfinches, cassin’s finches, purple finches, chickadees, juncos, red-winged blackbirds, yellow-headed blackbirds, pine siskins, cowbirds, spotted towhees, black-headed grosbeaks, lazuli buntings, mallard ducks, Canadian geese, egrets, great-blue herons, robins, magpies, several species of sparrows, hummingbirds, an American kestrel, our Amazon parrot Pablo (in his cage)
• Several dogs
• Our cats Weenie & Manxine
• Our cat Bob, r.i.p.
• Feral cats
• Foxes, raccoons, skunks
• An old gray horse
• Our neighbors’ bull
• Our neighbors’ cows & their calves in February & March
• Our neighbors, & our neighbors doing various rancherly things, such as harvesting hay, hauling hay, driving cattle, driving their red pick-up, feeding cattle from an atv
• A brown & cream two-tone horse trailer
• An old orange tractor
• A new red barn & an old red barn
• Big cattle drives with atv’s, horses, cow dogs & cowboys
• Various pick-ups in addition to our neighbors, including Bob George’s with a blue & yellow fiberglass ladder in the truck bed
• The cars & pick-ups of various piano & guitar students
• Various piano & guitar students with various spouses, parents & dogs
• Backhoes
• Dump Trucks
• Road graders
• A catalpa tree
• A pussywillow
• Poppies
• A potted geranium
• A round thermometer
• Wasps & hornets
• A dark blue Subaru Legacy, then later an off-white Subaru Outback
• The hedge Eberle planted to line the driveway, including poplars & hawthorns
• Other trees, including a poplar, a cottonwood, our neighbors’ stunted pines, & a stand of aspens in the distance
• An apple tree where North Grays Creek Rd & Whiteman Lane intersect
• The shop
• Eberle shoveling snow (which she claims to enjoy)
• Eberle mowing the lawn (which she also claims to enjoy)
• Our Mesa hill neighbor Craig Sova mowing & weedwhacking the lawn
• A neighbor from down the road riding his moped to the mailbox
• A neighbor from further down the road riding his atv to the mailbox
• The neighbor girls from up the road riding their horses (with dogs)
• Indian Mountain, both snowy in winter & dark gray in summer
• Sage Hill, a weird tumescence sprouting to the east
• Our neighbors’ pond, & our neighbors’ pond reflecting the clouds
• The horizon past even more distant mountains