5 : 13 A.M.
or: "D'oh!"

The other day on the way to Okanogan, the road wound through forested mountain passes. On one of the last, there was a sign posted noting major roadkill statistics. Last year - 78 deer kills. This year so far - 81. Eighty-one! That was only 6 months! How could there possibly be so many deer kills (total damages estimated at around 200K, according to the ever so helpful signage)? I drove on, slowing to nearly the speed limit, drying out my eyeballs in service of avoiding unexpected ungulate hood ornaments. There was a large semi-trailer combo stalled out on the uphill side of a narrower downhill (for me) segment, and I slowed to near school-zone speeds as I passed it, since it filled its entire lane and had cones (the safety kind) extending out my way. "How dangerous," I thought, "I hope these big SUVs approaching from ahead of me don't run into anyone coming down." I accelerated back up to, oh, 70 as I passed them. In the road, bouncing into my lane right behind the SUVs: a deer! Single minded and unavoidable! And then it was just antilock brakes all the way up to within 18 inches of that animal. Close enough to see the little wrinkles around its facial features as it finished trotting out from in front of my nearly statistical vehicle.

So after that, it was an anomalously cautious drive up and down the mountains, watching for whatever the signs said. Tractors crossing in zones with a little tractor icon, peds x-ing around the xings, or cows ruminating in the road in "range animal areas". On the way back there was another deer, but it was just sitting there on the side of the road staring at headlights, which is what all the other deer I've ever seen do. I've never before seen one actually IN the road, let alone approached one head on at 100 feet per second. As it is, I'm just glad I didn't get to be number 82 for the year. Phew, good car luck.

Of course, today I left my car at firestone because yesterday I found two tires with nails in them.