My home inspection yesterday was across the street from a huge cemetery. Cemeteries are rare here in San Diego, certainly much rarer than in my home state of Texas where I think there were just as many cemeteries as there were churches.
Although we used to play in the cemeteries in Kingsville, Texas, when I was growing up, and they have tours of cemeteries in New Orleans, I had not been in a cemetery in 20 or 25 years.
I took 357 pictures in the cemetery in a little over two hours. Here are fourteen of my favorites:
Black Phoebe (Sayornis nigricans)
Black Phoebe (Sayornis nigricans)
How long you gonna watch me?
I wonder if he has friends. Better check over here....
....and over here....
....and behind me.
Now that nobody's looking
Let it all hang out
See ya later!
The cemetery was actually quite relaxing, and I wasn’t the only one who thought that:
Mallards, a snow goose, and turtles
Squirrels were frolicking everywhere but were wary of me:
Where'd you come from?
Squirrel on a eucalyptus tree
I saved the best for last. I don’t know if the gal in this picture is a coyote or fox. I’m thinking it’s too big and too light to be a fox. Anyone?
Coyote or fox?
I was at Mt. Hope Cemetery, a municipal cemetery for the City of San Diego. Two other cemeteries are nearby: Holy Cross Cemetery, a Catholic cemetery; and Greenwood Memorial Park, an endowed care cemetery, which means you have to pay big bucks to be buried there.
Me?
Cremate me, scatter my ashes one-third at Blacks Beach in San Diego; one-third under the Century Oak at Texas A&M University in College Station, Texas; and one-third on the railroad tracks at the Union Pacific Railroad yard in Omaha, Nebraska. Then forget about me and get back to enjoying life.
Oh, by the way. Ask me how many living people I saw in the cemetery in two hours.
YOU: Russel, how many living people did you see in the cemetery while you were there?
ME: Three. A San Diego Gas & Electric employee was hiding out in his company truck parked under a tree. He was sleeping. Probably wore himself out at the Padres game the day before when we beat the dastardly Dodgers 8-4. A groundskeeper was mowing the lawns. A lady was pulling weeds from around the headstone at the grave she was visiting, obviously not happy with the job the cemetery was doing.
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