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Stan and Rose Mary are in Taos for a concert.  The sun has set.  It's dark on the terrace.  I mostly hear crickets and the occasional dog off in the distance.  I had dinner alone, left over chicken and rice and a fried egg.  The eggshell had straw stuck to it.  Most of them do.  They're fresh.  The chickens lay a lot of them.  I should probably go down to the chicken pen now and close them into their coop for the night.  There used to be a rooster, but he was an asshole, would attack Stan and Rose Mary when they would enter the pen.  They gave him away.  Someone made him into dinner.  I'm gonna go down to the pen now and close the ladies in.   

That was easy enough.  There's a little hen door cut into the human door.  The human door was closed.  I closed the hen door.  I didn't know there was a light on the coop.  It's fashioned to the side of the coop.  It's just an ordinary CFL bulb, but it's got a plastic bag over it, probably to prevent moisture from corroding the socket.  Water and electricity don't mix.  The light was on a timer.  I didn't mess with it.  I went back inside to wash my dishes.  I should probably have gone into the coop to collect any eggs.  It didn't occur to me to do that at the time. 

 
Here come Stan and Rose Mary now.  It's so quiet and dark around here.  You'd have to be dead to not notice a car pulling up the dirt drive.  After dinner I decided to dead head the zinnias.  I cut the ones that were already past their prime.  Customers wouldn't buy them  in this condition.  Dead heading spurs the plants to make more blooms.  But the nights are getting colder.  Zinnias are hardy and they can tolerate some frost, but eventually they die.  I decided to turn the blooms I dead headed into garlands.  I hung them in the shed to dry.  My heavy-duty thread was not strong enough to hold one garland.  I found the flowers in a heap on the ground.  The blooms are really heavy until they dry out. 

I didn't know I would make garlands until after dinner.  I took the customary walk down the lane and back.  Then I took my coffee into the yard and had a few sips.  I looked at the row of zinnias.  I remembered the garlands I made at home.  I packed my needles and thread in my case.  Value added goods can fetch a prettier penny at market.  The garlic Rose Mary fashions into bunches is worth more than garlic that is not bunched.  The zinnias could be made more valuable, too.  The sun was setting.  I was feeling a little lonely.