Sweet and slow. Like truffle honey.

The woods behind our house was home sweet home to deer, otter, mink, bobcat, fox, coyote, turkey and all sorts of waterfowl. We'd wake to the sounds of the alluvial stream like a dusty postcard in some forgotten gas station off the beaten path I-40. Now and then I'd seen migrating osprey, great egret, and even bald eagles. But, between you and me, I'd always preferred the Surf Avenue seagulls and their shameless white bread panhandling.

It must've been 90 degrees, a perfect beach day, when she looked at me and said, "Sierra Nevada is Spanish for 'snowy mountain range'.. "

I almost choked on the lime in my Negra Modelo I was laughing so hard, "...well, I guess thats why we call it Sierra Nevada."

She smiled and went back to her cat nap. Cats like to feel warm and secure before they take a nap. I think they use the sunlight to help make up the slight drop in body temperature that happens once they fall asleep. Some cats will change their position to follow the movement of the sun. Yes, cats are, for all intents and purposes, furry little phototropic bitches. And warm. A cats normal body temperature is about 102. Compared to our lowly 98.6.

Most mistook Heckle and Jeckle for black crows when in fact they were a pair of identical magpies. One magpie spoke with an English accent, while the other spoke with a Brooklyn accent.

There always seemed to be a great deal of uncertainty as to which was which. But in one cartoon they clearly refer to each other by name, with the Brooklyn accent belonging to Heckle and the English accent belonging to Jeckle.

"Just as I thought", she said.

"Heckle is slightly more cynical than Jeckle", I said, "...just like us."