2004aug04. Desert Update. Today is a nice mild day. Lots of cloud cover. The ground temperature is moderate, which means it’s a fine time to drive over ground squirrels. Not that you want to. They want their little adrenaline rush, you want to avoid them, they triple backtrack as you’re trying to swerve around them, you roll your vehicle, they chuckle while returning to their burrow. After swerving away from a stationary squirrel, I saw a road runner bolt across the highway. I pulled over, right on the other side of the road. The road runner thought about this for awhile. It took a running start and flew up into the air in a burst of craziness and flipped its underside toward me while spreading its wings – thus appearing as huge as possible in attempt to scare me – then landed on the ground. I shut off my engine. The bird made a quick little “buubuuluubuu"-type noise. I repeated in kind. We went another round. The bird then crossed the street again, over to my side. I got out of the car to consider it while not sitting behind the wheel, and it took this time to run around a bush, momentarily confusing me while it made its escape.
