Holy cow! Or rather Holy cat!

EXACTLY!

He’s lining his pockets with their bribes no doubt.

No lie: I climbed out the window and started up the embankment after the deer. An older guy in a beat-up green pickup truck stopped, rolled down his window and asked me what I was doing. Then he gave me a lift to the nearest phone. As one did back in the day.

Sometimes the venison—oops, I mean the deer—just bounces off the car and runs away.

Often, 2 or 3 deer will cross sequentially. Occasionally, one will leap over the hood. I drive more slowly at dusk and at night.

This annoys the halogen behemoths behind me, but to hell with that. Safety first.

No, when I was 20 years old. Home for the summer. It was late summer. I was driving from my parents’ house, near the Elk River, to my job at Aberdeen Proving Ground at 6 o’clock in the morning. Dad and I drove past the spot recently. He remembered the exact location better than I did.

When I was 20, I put the wheel of my Mazda GLC into a ditch rather than hit a button buck standing frozen in the road. The car rolled slowly onto its roof. A state trooper told my enraged father that I did the right thing and pointed to the fresh hoof prints in the red clay on the side of the road.

Oh no, I know it’s not your favorite time of year. ☹️

Deepest sympathy. Such a gorgeous boy.

Every morning when waking up.

Except no opposable thumbs, thank god.

Part 2: the noise freaks the other cats. They run for cover, knock over a wooden barstool. WHAM!

I go downstairs to help mop up & wrangle cats. Hand E a mop, then knock an (empty, thankfully) wrought-iron plate holder onto a (plastic, thankfully) trash can lid. THUD.

Sleep? Nah.

His long-suffering gaze into the distance….

There’s smoked paprika and…not-smoked paprika? Apparently? I’m told only the *smoked* paprika will do for a dish someone is planning for Turkey Day. We shall see.

Minerva is the queen of no effs given.