Thursday, June 01, 2006

Play a dirge

I'm an animal lover. Not to the point of any kind of activism, but in general I love animals. Even the wildlife around here for the most part. The squirrels, foxes, turkeys, Canada geese, and the deer all friends for the most part. But, it seems that the wildlife and my car just cannot get along this week. I've managed to kill a chipmunk and a squirrel this week. I must say that I didn't feel very troubled about the chipmunk. While I wasn't aiming for him, one less chipmunk around here just means safer crocus bulbs.

I did feel a little bad about the squirrel, though. Mind you, this could not have been the smartest squirrel in the pack, he actually ran into my car. I kid you not, I saw him run right into my right front tire and heard the thump. I've never had that happen before with a squirrel, I don't think I've ever hit one.

I used to have a bird problem. I don't mind them, in fact, I love seeing them in my birdbath (we had to take the birdfeeders down because there's a black bear in the neighborhood and I am not trying to encourage him hanging out with us and the kids). But, there was a period of about three years around the time I was in college when it seemed I hit at least a bird every few months. They were literally flying into my car (a big red VW Golf affectionately called The Big Red Shoe because it resembled Clown footwear). And then one day I was on my way back from Harrisonburg, VA, home of many, many chicken farms. I was behind a chicken truck and I still can't quite figure out how this happened, but a chicken landed on my windshield and bounced off. Really? Yes, really.

For those of you familiar with Little Caesar's pizza, they had a commercial very similar to this and when it happened to me I thought, that had to be where the ad guys came up with it, it must have happened to one of them. Cause you can't make this stuff up. I couldn't eat chicken for weeks. Because when it bounced off my windshield, it landed hard in the emergency lane on I-81. Not like he was on his way to live at a country club, we were in Wampler country, but still. Not the nicest image.

Apparently, my karma has decided to run over the rodentia instead of fowl. Thankfully, the kids haven't noticed either time, but my luck on that front is only bound to last but so long.

1 comment:

Larjmarj said...

I think you'd better get a restraining order I think that the animals have it in for you. You're being stalked!! Thanks for posting on my blog, as for the pic, not Beetlejuice but Large Marge from Pee Wee's big adventure, which was directed by Tim Burton, so you were on the right track.