No such thing as an ordinary moment

So I stepped out of my front door yesterday afternoon to run a quick errand, and came face to face with this:

The new Arlington River?

My first thought was, "Who busted the water main?!" but it turns out that League City was apparently testing a nearby hydrant.  Testing, or flushing, or whatever it is that they do.  Sure enough, when I Googled it, I did find reference to a civic alert issued a few months ago.  They must still be continuing with these tests.

So then about fifteen minutes later as I was driving back into the neighborhood via Centerpointe Drive, I saw what I have long suspected was occurring: a hawk was actively dive-bombing my back yard.

This fellow or someone of similar size and species.  This pic is reproduced from a previous post describing why these guys are very common inside Centerpointe. 

 So I exit my suburban dream home, and within fifteen minutes, a hawk is trying to take over the place.  That kind of puts things in perspective. 

If I'd had a chihuahua out there, it would have been hawk-toast.  But I don't have a chihuahua.  I suspect this hawk is intent on eating the mourning dove who is nesting in one of my hanging plants.  I posted about hanging-plant-nesters last year, but last year's dove either abandoned her nest or was killed before her eggs hatched.  So far, this year's dove is sticking to task:

If you look at the tip of the arrow, you can see a blurry black eyeball peering out as she is hunkered down in the plant basket.  I can't get a better pic than this because it would scare her off the nest.

 I took this pic this morning, so she survived yesterday's kill attempt, obviously. 

These things, in the space of fifteen minutes, on the routine quick drive to pick up a child from school.  There's always something interesting to see, even in narrow intervals of time, even in "ordinary" suburbia.