My morning~the end of an era for the red ranch house

This morning was a mixture of joy and sadness. First, I had to drive hubby to work because last night was his birthday party and that of our grandson, Ben. It was Ben's first birthday and our family and Claudia's got together at their house for a huge family dinner of carne asada, posole, guacamole, and other great foods! I should have taken photos, but I was so tired from another hectic day at school, I completely forgot! The food was delicious, the kids were great, and everybody had a good time. At the end of the evening, however, hubby tried to get into his car, and THANK GOODNESS, our children took his keys away and ordered him to ride home with me (we had met there in different cars). First of all, he has neglected to pay the car registration on his Toyota RAV since September, and finally, he had WAY too many beers! (the birthday boy!) So, I drove him home, which meant that I had to drive him to work this morning. Then, I headed over to the car detail place to have them look at the ding in my windshield. As I turned on my wipers, however, the "ding" seemed to disappear and by the time I got to the detail place, I couldn't even find it!!! Hmmm...I know I got hit by a rock yesterday morning on my way to school, from a truck on the freeway, but WHERE was the crack? Turns out, it was just a little pit on the windshield, so that was good news! After that, I drove down to our daughter's house for a little coffee and a visit. Along the way, I spotted a gorgeous rainbow, but couldn't pull over to find a decent spot to take photos, so it got away. Then, on my way home, I pulled off on the exit previous to our regular one and looked for the red house and barn to the north of the freeway. To my horror, they were GONE! I mean, poof! Gone. No more. Adios! Of course, I had to pull off and investigate. Yup. Gone! A little bulldozer sat in the front yard. The red farm house was gone. The red garage was gone. The red barn was gone. I just sat and cried. I know it was empty and deserted and a possible liability for anyone who strayed on the property, and deep in my heart, I knew it was only a matter of time before it was bulldozed, but...GOSH DARN! It happened so quickly that I guess I wasn't prepared. I mean, I know that progress means tearing down eyesores, it's just that I really LOVED that old red ranch, with its curved driveway and red barn and garage. I'm going to upload my final pics of it tonight and look for the previous ones I took of the ranch. Here's the post on my southwest barns blog showing the deserted ranch. Deserted, but still regal, in my humble opinion. http://southwestbarns.blogspot.com/2009/04/red-ranch-palm-desert-ca.html I posted two photos of the ranch that I took in December of 2009, when it sat deserted. The desert was having a storm that day and the sun burst through the clouds as I was there, allowing me to take some very unusual photos of it, while it was still standing. I'm really going to miss that ranch!