Hmmm. I don’t seem to be able to work fast enough to keep the sun from going down. But at least it came out today. Yesterday, not so much. Today was actually a lovely spring day, here on the first day of winter. The reverse, obverse and converse of yesterday.

Just at dusk, what to my wondering eyes should appear out my back window but a galloping zebra. I swear (and I don’t swear lightly), that was precisely my first thought when I saw the loping black and white motion off in the darkening distance. Once I regained a bit of composure, I realized how unlikely it was that a zebra would be romping in the far field, so I took myself off to the sliding glass door to investigate.

Since it was dusk, I couldn’t make the zebra out clearly. Well, part of the reason I couldn’t make it out was that there wasn’t a real zebra at all. What I could see was a flock of white birds circling and swooping in and out of one of the neighboring oak trees. White against dark, that equals zebra, apparently, in some corner of my mind.

I stared at them for a while, but I couldn’t tell what kind of birds they were. White, that’s all I know for sure.

They probably weren’t snow geese, because I’ve never seen geese do anything but fly over. These birds were definitely landing in the trees, then taking off again. Then landing again. Snowy white they were, though. I’ll probably never know for sure, because it’s a phenomenon I haven’t witnessed in my four years out here in the wilderness. It was cool to see, whether it was a zebra or not. (It wasn’t.)

My check supply came at last today, and I was working away when the zebra galloped by. By the time I had satisfied myself that I wasn’t going to see clearly enough to know what I was looking at, I could also no longer see clearly enough to write more checks, not without turning on the lights. I wasn’t ready to turn on the lights yet, so that became my first break of the day. About time, too.