Geese and deer and turkey, OH MY!
I gave up looking and purchased the paperback version of Stephen Fry’s Moab Is My Washpot on Amazon today. I also found myself frustrated when trying to find a digital copy of Michelle Week’s song Rejoice proved impossible. This begs me to ask then, why is it so hard to find such works in this the digital age? The book and the song share the distinction of being not only popular but timeless as well. The creators of each are still creating new media for our consumption and are in no way “one hit wonders”. One would think there would be a place for these not so older works in the vast digital space we call the internet. It could boil down to nothing more than licensing rights, which would be my guess. No matter the reason it’s a shame.
It was a cool 54F the last two mornings which is perfect running weather. I started my run in Freeport Monday and ran almost 11 miles. As I drove down the steep road to where I would park, I looked out over the deep valley but could only see fog. There is a river where I run surrounded by high, deeply wooded mountains on either side. Driving up the hill on my way back home offered a new view as the sun had burned away the fog and you could see the blanket of steep green hills that engulfed the area. This view always reminds me of the Smokey Mountains, though not as tall.
The area where I run was once a railway that since has been converted into the Butler to Freeport Rails to Trails. I always feel my happiest when I’m running but the trail holds a special place in my heart as I grew up around here. We moved to the neighborhood when I was about four and the trail was an active rail way long after we had left when I was almost twenty. I ran six miles today close to my old home. Things look much different now from what I remember but I have no problem recalling every experience I had on those train tracks. We played war, rode our bikes, hunted for frogs and just spent lazy summer days walking on the tracks. Later, when we were older, it was more of a short cut from one friend’s house to another but I still walked along trying to balance on the rail. This is also the reason the movie Stand By Me has such great meaning for me as it offers a journey back in time for me to my “track days”.
I’ve seen deer the last four or five days that I’ve run so they’re pretty common as we head closer to fall. Wild turkeys however aren’t so common and, like the bob white in the area, usually stay in the woods and fields all year. I saw three turkey today standing on the trail on my return. Two ran off into the woods but one flew, as much as turkeys can fly, onto a low tree branch and just watched me run by. I tell my mom about these encounters and she gives me that worried mom sigh. I’m cautious with the deer as I startled a deer once when I was a teen and it stood it’s ground and snorted at me. Normally they run away from you though. No, the only animal I even remotely fear are the geese. I’ve had horses bite me, bulls charge at me, dogs snarl at me and that one deer snort but none have put the fear of God into me quite like the geese. I’m not exactly sure why but I think it has to do with their complete determination and lack of fear when they give chase. Sometimes there is no logic to why or what they chase but you can guarantee when they do give chase they won’t give up easy.
