Oh, Deer - Part 2

I got my car back last night, clean as a whistle and completely healed. Express Autobody [free plug] did a great job and stayed late to make sure I got the car.
I was keeping the 3-H's (DD-Ko's 3) overnight and promised them another ride around the neighborhood to ooh and aaah at all the Christmas lights. It was a pleasant outing, heads swiveling to catch all the displays, expressions of delight, and Christmas carols playing on the radio.
It was pleasant until we saw the deer.
"Oh, look! Real deer!" Junior was excited. So was I until I pulled the car around to catch the deer in the headlights. One poor creature was limping very badly. S/he didn't appear to have any problem grazing and watching, but had a real problem when trying to move around.
"It must be the deer that Grandma hit!" they all decided. It was a possibility I did not want to consider.
"I didn't hit the deer; the deer hit me," I reminded them.
"Grandma, you need to get out and see if it is alright." Em was very concerned and my feelings of guilt were doubling by the minute.
"If I were to get out, it would try to run away and be worse off than it is now," I told them.
I eased the car around and quietly pulled away. I did not want to see that deer running. The children were busily emptying buckets of guilt on to my head and were not at all consoled by my pointing out that it might not have been the same deer. Even if it were the same deer, s/he must get around all right since it was 2-3 miles from the site of the accident.
Poor deer. I am so sorry.....

"Oh What a Beautiful Morning....."

It is hard to believe Christmas is right around the corner. We will soon be 8 years into the new Millennium. Remember when we were worried the world might come to a screeching halt at midnight on the last day of 1999? Would computers stop? Would all the things dependent on computers just quit? People were stocking food and preparing for an unspecified period of isolation as the world waited to see what the morning of the year 2000 would bring. When I was young, I thought about the advent of the year 2000, but I did not think I would be able to live long enough to see it. I simply could not imagine being THAT old. Of course, it doesn't seem so old now.

The old adage - "If you don't like the weather, just wait a minute and it will change" - is especially true in Central Texas this time of year. Yesterday it was 80*F outside, today, at this writing, it is 37*F . When we walked this morning, there was a heavy fog which almost felt like sleet falling and the wind chill was 31*. Yesterday, the gold, pink, purple, and orange colors of the morning horizon heralded the new day as we finished our walk and headed home. The trees were dark silhouettes, and our resident herd of wild deer grazed in the landscaped gardens. We tolerate the deer, having invaded their home, and they retaliate by munching on our shrubs and having babies in our gardens.

I can look out my front door and see the tree across the street clothed in its Fall finery. We don't always have a autumnal show of color and mine is the only house on the street that does not have a tree in the front yard, so I particularly enjoy this one. It is a glorious yellow right now. With the cooperation of the weather, it might reveal some other colors. Soon, the deciduous trees in the greenbelt behind my house, will lose their leaves. They won't change slowly and with dignity like the one across the street. They will just change from green to brown and drop their leaves in a huff of wind. The bare trees have their own beauty against the morning and night skies and they leave behind a treasure only seen when the leaves are gone. Amongst the dark bark and green cedars of the greenbelt area, the possum haw will reveal its red berries which glisten like jewels with dew or ice in the mornings and provide food for the resident and wintering birds until spring.

“This is the day the LORD has made; let us rejoice and be glad in it.” Psalm 118:24