Wildlife Will Win

I live on the same block as the Wildlife family. We don't really get along. Most of the Wildlife cousins have accosted me in some manner or other, and they usually do so by coming onto my property.


This morning, they were out and about on my way to work. It made me very nervous. Not more than a quarter mile from my house a deer stepped out onto the edge of the road, challenging me. I hit the brakes and my new tires spun in the gravel and a cloud of dust billowed out behind me. I rolled down my windows and said, "Good morning, dear. Where are your friends?"

The deer sent me a hard glare and signaled to someone with her tail. I expected her homies to come out from behind all the vine maples and start butting my car with their velvet antlers. I swivelled my head around, looking up and down the street, staring into the woods. My palms sweated.

"Are you planning something? If I go, will one of your friends toss themselves on the road in front of me and claim I hit them?"

No answer.

I rolled forward, easing out the clutch, holding my breath as I moved past her. Her eyes narrowed and she ground her teeth. I pressed on the gas and made it around the corner and down to the end of the next road. There, her "look out", stood in the shadows of a fir tree, careful not to expose herself fully. I slowed and raked my eyes along the sides of the road and ambled past. They let me go.

When I got home from work, I fully expected my house to have been ransacked. And perhaps they tried, but they would have met up with Hobiecat and Schooner, who can be pretty ferocious feline predators. Maybe the deer gave up and left. Or maybe they were only casing the place for the future.

Pictures

My daughter, Kelly, also took pictures of me to send in to the contest, but the backdrop of grass and the ghastly shirt I was wearing kind of fought with my coloring according to my artist sister. In trying to crop the picture, my face took up the entire picture, much as an eye takes up the entire area when looking through a peephole in a door at an eye on the opposite side. I decided not to use that. Sometimes crop jobs just make things worse.

But, it probably wasn't all that bad to begin with. I want to post it here, for the practice of posting a picture.

Thanks to Kelly for taking the picture and to Dale for trying to crop out all the background and the shirt.

Creating a bio

This morning at Starbucks I met with Carol from my critique group. Not only is she writing a really interesting book, but she is probably the smartest computer person I know in Washington. My sister, Nina and her husband, Laurent, are the smartest ones in Oregon, but they are off paddling some winding river. Thankfully Carol is a generous woman because she did not hesitate when I sent out the cry for help. She helped me write my bio and took some pictures of me to send in to the contest. I chose a picture that kind of looks like a drivers license picture. I always think those are the most flattering of me.

My sister, Dale, is an artist and has to write Bios for her art shows. I had no idea how difficult it is. It is "tooting your own horn", something we are taught not to do as children.

And now I understand Dale's "what should I wear to the opening" anxiety, also. There is a lot of stress involved in such things.

Congratulations to Dale Blodget for her opening this week in Boston. And happy birthday.