I survived the 4th and all I got was this lousy post.
How was your holiday? Mine was fine. It was stinkin' hot out and despite 2 gallons of sunscreen smeared on my arms and face, I still burned.
G and The Posse went to see Transformers. I went to the 4th of July Parade in Monument with my sisters and their kids. I hate parades. Then I went to my mom's for lunch. We ate and played poker. Then everyone was back together for the evening and we saw the fireworks in Palmer Lake. It was a lovely, though hot and busy, day.
So, what does that have to do with a bovinian skull, you ask? I'm glad you did.
This skull was in the back field behind my parents' house. I was out there with my niece and nephew; we were looking for snakes. Little nephew was getting burrs in his socks so I had picked him up and was de-seeding him when Little B came running back yelling, "Auntie Shrew! Auntie Shrew!" I didn't look up from my task, but just said, "What?" She shrieked, "IthinkIjustsawadedka!"
"What? What did you see?"
"I think I just saw a dead cow!"
That's not what you usually hear outside of ranches and slaughterhouses, so I did finally look up and over. There was nothing where she had been - no legs in the air, no swarms of flies, no vultures circling. I figured she'd found a toy cow in the grassy field and was using her newly-found tweenage humor.
She waited patiently for me to finish with her brother. I hitched him up on my hip and we all walked over together to see...a dead cow. Well, the head, at least. It was chained to a tree and left on the ant hill to be cleaned.
Where the hell was I? Tombstone, circa 1897??? Hello! Little Nephew was fascinated. He's 4. These things are cool. Ok, who am I kidding, we were all fascinated. Little B was poking the skull with the end of a long piece of grass. I told Little Nephew not to touch it. Interestingly, the "owners" had tied backyard-swingset chains around the horns using hose clamps and had secured the rest of the chain around some scrub oak nearby. At first I thought it had been rigged to keep neighbors from finding and tossing the thing, but then I realized it was to keep it there when coyotes tried to drag it off. It's pretty clean, as you can see,
but the eye socket is not done yet and there is still a bit of moisty in the nasal area. So pretty. We had the great satisfaction of running back to my parents' house and asking them why there was a dead bull head in their backyard. They flipped out and I'm sure they're knocking on neighbors' doors today demanding to know the meaning behind this. I can't figure out where the head came from. It's got a bullet hole right twixt the eyeholes, as you can see. Maybe a local farm or ranch? Still...who does that? "Eeeyup, Rancher John, my good friend, can I have that cow head when yer dun with it? Ah'ma gonna cleen it raht up with sum ants and put it in mah frunt yard...in the green grass. Next to the tumbleweed and brokin pickup truck."
I mean, really.
And that's my interesting 4th of July story. Well, one of them. There are more, but it's all white trash family stuff and will bore you.
Ok, it won't,actually, but I'm out of typing time, so we'll save my white trash family tales for another day.
I hope you were all safe and didn't blow off any fingers...or cow heads.