Wednesday June 30th, 2010

The exercise:

Welcome to the end of June. Welcome to the end of my time in Vancouver. Your prompt today: oh dear.

Apologies for the late posting, it’s been a very long day.

Mine:


We saw a lot of deer on the way home to Osoyoos tonight. Unfortunately I had to stop keeping count at seven and a half.

I have no idea why deer feel the need to gather at the side of the highway as the day draws to a close. Nor do I understand why they think they can get across to the other side before that car that’s approaching at 110 km/h gets to them.

I’ll have to do some research. Tomorrow. Once my brain is functioning properly again.

4 comments:

Heather said...

"Oh dear!" I gasped as the car flew down the street, missing the old man by the smallest of margins. Puddle water flew in the air, covering us both on that saturated Saturday morning in May. It reminded me of the dust kicked up when a herd of horses trampled the ground back at the ranch.

The man continued moving forward, his pace more rapid, but still painfully slow. "Are you okay?" I called to him. He didn't even look up. Glancing down the street for more hot rod cars, I stepped off the curb and approached him. "Are you okay?" I said again.

He looked up. His body betrayed his age, his face looking so much younger than the rest of them. A school boy's charm peered at me under his heavy eye-lids. "I'm wet," he said in a thick voice while taking me in. "Just like you."

His head dropped and he began the arduous journey across the rest of the road. I followed his footsteps, wondering if I should just leave him alone. At the curb, he turned to me again. "I'm George. If you don't have anyplace else to be, there is a nice little coffee house just up the street. I'll buy you a coffee in return for your kindness."

My mouth parted before I could think of an excuse to decline his offer. "It's nice to meet you George. I'm Ally and I take my coffee with cream and sugar."

Heather said...

Ahhhhh! I published that too quickly.

Marc- Glad the move is almost over. I look forward to inspiration from the orchard! As far as your deer adventures: dawn and dusk their most active time; June, November, and December are highest collision months due to breeding and fawning; and I don't know that they think about mph or kmh, but they do always cross in the same locations so take note where the bodies are and slow down!

Greg said...

Seven and a half? Did you hit a deer? I hope not, I hope you just saw the remains of one. And even that's not such a happy hope.
I've heard that the deer pose a fairly serious traffic hazard up there in Canada; let's hope that you don't have too many deer to worry about.

Oh dear

"Oh dear. Do you have one of these?" Sylvestra held up a faintly glowing piece of green card. On one side there was writing that was slowly burning its way through to the other side. Dr. Septopus looked up from the paperwork on his desk and nodded.
"Yes. It's in the sand bucket until it cools down."
"Have you read it?"
"No, I figured I'd wait till someone else told me what it was about."
"It's an invitation. To Green's wedding."
Papers fountained into the air and hurtled out across his desk as all of Dr. Septopus's arms spasmed simultaneously. He looked at Sylvestra, his mouth hanging slackly open, his eyes wide behind his thick-lensed spectacles.
"To what?" he finally managed to say, his throat working like a goldfish out of water writhing.
"Hah. Exactly. He doesn't say."
"Oh dear."

Marc said...

Heather - I quite like this George fellow. And thanks for the info!

Greg - no, we didn't hit it, we merely witnessed the aftermath. Which was more than enough, thanks very much.

And the deer are much less of a threat than moose, which thankfully are not around here. Moose wreck cars and walk away. Generally, cars win the battle with deer.

The thought of Green marrying (anything or anyone) is deeply amusing :)