Hail to the Ram

We found a new friend while my sisters and Tara were in town. It was an unexpected meeting, but our lives were forever changed. It happened when we were walking back from Magnolia Cafe, where we enjoyed delicious late-night food after our St. Patty's Day extravaganza. Seriously though, what's not delicious after midnight? We took a shortcut from the restaurant to my apartment and as we turned a corner, we quickly did a double take as we passed by a fenced-in yard. And by yard, I mean 10 square feet of grass, a cement table, a bale of hay, and a.... ("Is that a....?", "What the heck is....?", "Did we have too many green bud lights....?") ... ram. I thought it was a goat. I need to go back to the first grade apparently. Chilling out in the yard, just one block from a main street in the city of Austin, was our new friend "the ram". It was love at first sight. Especially for Deirdre. We made several trips to see the ram while they were visiting, and part of us always wondered if he might have magically disappeared each time. The yard is connected to a house that has seen better days... windows are boarded up, the paint is thinning, and there's a ram living in the front yard. But the strangest thing of all is that there are reaaaally nice houses that seem to be connected to this dump AND the driveway has a lexus parked in it. Ah, the mystery of the ram....

I've promised to keep up my weekly visits to the ram. I had my first one last Sunday, and it was one of the more risky experiences of my life. It's one thing to visit the ram with a group of girls and take pictures of our new pal, but to do it by yourself is a whole 'nother ball game. I felt like a total creep. And beyond that, I imagined the owner of the house pointing a shotgun out his boarded-up window, assasinating me, and feeding me to the ram. Luckily, there were no signs of human life when I visisted last Sunday. I'll keep you posted on my future visits.

This picture is proof that the ram enjoys visitors. We found him like this on our second or third visit.... "the ram" was born to entertain....