Animals

I took T to work this morning, as it is COLD outside....at least early in the morning. He didn't have to be there until 8, which is a nice respite from the usual 4:45. The company he works for is going through the 'annual down', wherein they turn everything (and I mean everything, electricity, everything) off and have a bazillion contractors come in and they fix, clean, repair and do maintenance on every single thing on the property.

This lasts for a week. During that week, everyone works overtime, works 7 days straight or more. And none of them (aside from the operators, which T only is part of the time) do their normal jobs.

Today, for instance, T is a "Hole Sitter".

He gets to sit in a chair (I assume there is a chair involved, I didn't ask, now that I think about it) and stare into a hole for 9 hours, to make sure that the contractors that are inside the hole, fixing whatever, don't fall to their doom. If they do fall, T calls someone on the radio and the anti-doom task force is deployed.

Thrilling. (I want an anti-doom task force!)

Anyway, so I got up earlier than usual today.

After my return home, I called my mom, being that if you want to actually talk to her, getting a hold of her before about 10am is advisable. If you just need a quick exchange of information, you can go as late as 2pm.

My mom recently acquired a new kitten. She has named this cat "Zip", which would seem to be an appropriate name. She beats up the other cats (Sasha and Cleo) and races all over the place, like kittens are wont to do. She also has learned to get out the front door through the screen, which drives my mom to distraction.

She always comes back, Zip, but she brings with her a gang of ne'er do wells. She will be gone for ten minutes and come back with four other kittens, who invite themselves in and help themselves to the food dish and get in the kitchen sink and generally traumatize the older cats and annoy my mom.

Are we bored yet?

Anyway, while I was on the phone with my mom, and she was telling me all about the kitten gang in her sink, I went into the garage to have a cigarette (Yes. I know.) and I opened the garage door, not wanting to fill the place with smoke.

As the garage door opened, I was face to face with two deer. Just standing in my driveway. The clattering of the door didn't seem to bother them, and so we faced each other for a few seconds before I went and sat down.

They wandered around for a little while, ate part of my now flowerless garden, and headed to the backyard for some apples. I finished my cigarette and went to look at my herb garden, which I need to move inside shortly, and the deer came back around the side of the house and stood less than three feet from me.

Now, I have seen the videos where deer attack hunters. I generally leave the nature alone, in hopes that the nature will return the favor. (That's all I need. To be mauled by a doe in my front yard in my pajamas.) So the deer just stood there, looking at me, and I just stood there, waiting for Bambi to make her move.

I'm still talking on the phone, by the way, in a normal tone of voice. Deer are unaffected. They started grazing on my lawn, close enough to me that I could have touched them. I could see their little teeth, the spots where the fur starts on their noses. The individual hairs in their giant ears.

I went in the house. They're now out back, getting rid of the rest of the apples and dandelions and giving the neighbors dogs heart attacks.

I almost ran over a woman last week because she was STANDING IN THE MIDDLE OF AN INTERSECTION so she could take pictures of two deer in someones yard. Really?

I really do have the most interesting life, huh?