Hot Roast Beef Sandwich / Skink Panther!

It was a day that started out with a hummingbird guardian. I had gotten up this morning, used the bathroom, came back and opened the curtains in the bedroom, and crawled back into bed to snuggle under the covers for a while. You can do that when you're retired! This is one of the simple pleasures of retired life: going back to bed for a bit if you want to, on any given morning of the week.

I looked up to see a tiny hummingbird sitting on a branch outside my window, taking a small bath and watching over me. My own angel of the morning! So cute! (Of course, you know I take my camera pretty much everywhere, but I don't take it to bed, so I don't have any photos of this!)

We had a little bit of a drizzle in the morning, and a little bit more in the afternoon. But it did not in any way, shape, or form intrude with our plans. We wanted to go swimming at Whipple Dam and we were hoping to enjoy a nice, hot lunch at Couch's. Which order it would all happen in was the only question of the day.

We ended up at Couch's for a late lunch, and I was feeling very hungry, so I went for the hot roast beef dinner, which you may see in the photo above. My meal consisted of a sandwich with meat in, gravy on top, golden crispy curly fries, gravy on the side to dip them in, a salad with ranch, and cole slaw. Let me add that Couch's cole slaw and KFC's run neck and neck for world's best. I am a lover of cole slaw. So this I know. You must take my word on it.

My husband had hoped to have the fish dinner, but they did not have any fish on this day, so he ordered an American hoagie, which is what I've been ordering, mostly, of late. My appetite in summer has been poor for much of the past few summers, but it has been way better this year. It was back in full force on this day. 

I had no trouble polishing off all those wonderful fries (my husband stole a few) and most of the sandwich. About a quarter of the sandwich went along with me, for a late-evening snack. The salad and cole slaw I also took home. I like to maximize my enjoyment by eating some of my restaurant or takeout food later.

I nabbed just one lovely book from the book swap by the checkout register. ("Take a book, leave a book.") And then we were off to Whipple Dam for a mid-afternoon swim. The water was muddier than before and not quite as cool as last week. But it was much more deserted without the summer camp kids on the beach, and so that was nice.

We swam a while and I saw some birds overhead. "Wouldn't it be nice to have a visit from the osprey?" I asked, wistfully. And then I looked up to see the huge bird overhead. There was my osprey! It circled the lake, and came lower and lower. I waited for it to fish in front of us but it did not; it disappeared back among the trees, but it was lovely indeed to see. "I guess all I had to do was ASK!" I remarked.

It was drizzly off and on but we sat our chairs by an old rotting building under its eaves, and so it didn't matter if it poured, which it didn't; nothing (not even the camera) could get wet. 

The sun came out for a while, and I looked behind me to discover a tiny flash of motion on the building. A skink! I'd seen one there on Friday: a really GOOD sighting, actually. That one had a blue tail, which typically applies only to juveniles. 

This one (in the extras) had some blue in the middle but the end of its tail was brown to match its body. I understand from looking it up online that this is what happens when a skink sheds its tail and then regrows it: the tail that grows back is not electric blue, but a muddy brown.

The skink was sort of creeping around on me, disappearing here and reappearing there, and it made me laugh. It reminded me of the Pink Panther, and I pictured it doing all of this to the Pink Panther music theme: Ba-dump, ba-dump, ba-dump ba-dump, ba-dump, ba-dump, ba-daaaaaaa. So I am now calling this one the SKINK Panther!!!  :-)

I have two soundtrack songs. The first is not for this marvelous sandwich and meal, which was absolutely delicious, but for the lady hummingbird who kept watch over me in my bed: Juice Newton, with Angel of the Morning. 

The second song, for my skink in the extras, is the Pink Panther Theme, by Henry Mancini. I'm tossing in a bonus video clip of the "Pavlova of the Parallels" scene from The Return of the Pink Panther, which might just be my own favorite of all the Pink Panther movies. The parallel bar part starts at about 3 minutes in. Enjoy!