It's funny, how different days can be, even as close together as the day before, and the day after. Yesterday I came home from work and wrote a post about how all I saw was darkness. Today was little different, physically. It was hotter, but the sky was still that cloudless blue, the sun that bright gold. The breeze was less, so it got a bit warmer than I liked it, but tolerable.

But that was work, and work is never particularly pleasant. That was the same as the previous day. What I mean by different, was the drive home. Tired as usual, but comfortable now that I was in my car with the AC cranked up and the radio playing, the only differences were that I had celtic music on this time, and the... hmmm. Tone? of the drive. And that was all the difference there needed to be, because I saw a peregrine on the mountain.

Following another car up the twisting road that's Hecker Pass, just at the foot of the mountain, really, the sun shone through the oak trees, and onto the form of a falcon flying from one stand of oaks to the other on my right. It passed right over the car before me, and glided without sound or effort through the light and into the shade, beyond my view. It was perhaps six to eight feet in front of me, as many above the ground. There was no mistaking those markings, that striped face, that speckled pattern. A peregrine. That eye was brilliant, for all its darkness. It was beautiful. And for a breath, a heartbeat, it hung in the air, passing slowly before me, without a care about those below it.

Oh, how my day shone after that.

My thoughts afterwards were of flight, and dreams, and how nice the day was, even with the heat, and how I was going to enjoy telling my friends about seeing the falcon. For all my years of living in an area they're supposed to inhabit in healthy numbers, I'd only ever seen one other before, and nowhere near that close.

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Aug. 27

I didn't manage to finish this before - or at least it didn't feel finished, and just as well, really. I suppose I should clear some things up about the one previous. This blog is much like a journal, I suppose, and the things said on it very much musings of the moment, with the statements made seeming rash or overly emotional in the cooling off of time and distance. The things said here... are said mostly because they're what you'd turn to a good friend and say at that point in time, talk over, discuss, and have a conversation evolve from it. I simply don't have that handy friend riding in the car with me, and my mind wanders accordingly, hither and thither and yon, and all you poor bastards are deluged with the results of solitary musings when I get home. This kind of thing can be dangerous, giving the impression that I ponder over such things of heavy subject a great deal, when, in actuality, it took up an hour of my day, and the time to write it out, and those black mood days... or at least the ones where death and all that are pondered... are infrequent at best.

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Aug. 28th

Didn't finish again. It's late evening now, and I'm very tired. But I did want to write down what I saw on today's drive home, because it made me smile.

Red-tailed hawks are common as the buzzards that fly around, though you tend to see the buzzards a lot more. They're big, big birds, after all, with an impressive wingspan. I often see them wheeling above the hills in their effortless glides. Red-tails, though, I most often see them around my parents' house, distinctive with their rusty plumes trailing behind them. I've always liked Red-tailed hawks. They mean home, somehow.

It was hotter today than yesterday even, and my body reacted accordingly. For those who haven't had the pleasure, I get nosebleeds when I get overheated. Most often when the weather is hot, than any exertion I might do on a relatively temperate day. And mine are always gushers. *grimaces* Ah well. That's something that's happened since I was little though, so I'm never surprised by it, just irked. Still, it happened yesterday too, and today's was bad. Probably the worst I've ever had. I'll spare you all the icky details, but suffice to say, it probably lasted about 15 minutes, and I was unable to tip my head back like most people tell you to, because so -much- was flowing that I couldn't breathe when it started running down my throat. A bit frightening, really. Which was why, on the drive home, AC blasting on full, when I passed the horse farms and glanced over at this one pasture that has some nice bulls, I was surprised and delighted to see a red-tail, sitting on one of the fence posts, watching the world go by, unconcerned and big as life, that wonderful shade of brassy brown and absolutely - I am convinced - smiling in fierce contentment. He definitely looked pleased with himself over something.

His mood was contagious.