Night of the Bats

Living just outside Phoenix in the Valley of the Sun has a lot of advantages. But it has one big and distinct disadvantage. Very hot summers. I am talking like living on the surface of the sun hot. At this time of year, with the kids out of school, it is difficult to find things for them to do during the day since they really can't go out side to play. So, outside activity has to be done in the evening, or very early in the morning. Although, when I was a kid living in Phoenix, I remember playing outside during the day, despite the heat.

Any hoo, last week, the kids kept bugging me to ride their scooters after dinner. I didn't really feel like going around the block so I compromised and said they could play out front under my watchful eye. They agreed.

That night, after dinner, we all went outside in the "cool" evening air. The sun was having its last stand before being overtaken by the night.

Since my wife was at work, there was space on the driveway for them to run around in. They were also going up and down the sidewalk. After a few minutes, I just happened to see a small bat fly past the kids and on toward the community park area. I was able to point it out to them just in time before it flew out of sight. They first thought it was a bird and that I was just joking with them. When they finally realized that I was telling the truth, they ran back up to where I was standing.

My youngest asked me if they were vampire bats. She was worried that they were going to drink her blood. I guess maybe I should cut back on their TV watching.

After I convinced them that they weren't in danger, they resumed their activities. Pretty soon, I saw another bat fly by and head the same direction as the first. My kids looked towards the direction where it had come and pointed out that there were more bats coming. In all, before it got too dark to see, we had seen at least 20 bats. All of them had come from and went towards the same direction. My kids thought it was the coolest thing. I thought it was pretty cool also.

Upon their insistence, we went back out the next two nights, hoping for a repeat of the night of the bats. But, to theirs and my disappointment, it wasn't to be. We did see two or three, but they must have changed their route because we never saw very many after that. The kids got a kick out of seeing the bats so it was all good.