We woke up this morning to a really quiet house with our boys gone. I lovingly add Greg to the “boys” based on gender and not noise. He is by far the most quiet person around. So it was a pretty relaxed start to the day. I forgot how much more simple things are when there isn’t anyone to argue with or cause a distraction and yes, I am talking about the kids! Needless to say, Kate was done with her morning activities really quickly. Since this was a girlie weekend, we had a big “girls” day planned according to my little one. I missed the girls weekend up to the cabin so I was looking forward to spending some time just for us. So Kate sat down to watch a kids show and I tried to get some work done so we could actually be gone this afternoon after all we had an extra hour to burn.
And burn I did. That luxurious hour I has went in a blink of an eye and the next thing I knew we were supposed to be leaving for school. Any time I have a ton of extra time I am late. It makes me crazy… How on earth do I manage to do that? So, the race began. I realized Kate was in a kid coma from watching TV at 8am. Which by the way, is a really bad parenting strategy that always seems like a good idea at the time. We are rushing around trying to find shoes and get out of the house. As we got in the car I noticed we had 10 minutes before school started and a 15 minute drive. Being late is just terrible for me, especially since we had an extra hour to begin with. Again, how does that happen?
Alright breathe, we are in the car backing out and I realize that I didn’t put the trash down to the street. Greg had pulled it around the house so I wouldn’t forget but I couldn’t even get it the next 20 feet down to the road. Well, I was just going to have to drag it down in 30 minutes when I get back. Or at least that is what I thought. I got about 15 houses down the street and compulsively turned around because the trash pick up might come before I got back. Really? Like it’s that important. Ok, so we might get to school before they close carpool, not the end of the world. After dragging the trash down and getting the recycling to the road as well; I felt like I could actually focus on getting to school. Mind you, this whole time I am fussing at myself and reassuring Kate (who was really quiet in the back seat) that I was the one causing all the problems.
Back on track we are finally on the way to school heading out of our neighborhood. Once you leave the neighborhood there is a short wooded section that opens up to a bridge that crosses over I575, the closest highway. The wooded area is maybe a half mile long. It’s a little weird in that area right now because they are doing construction to open up a new exit at our bridge. We get about half way through the wooded section and WHAM!!!! I had glanced away from the road for a second when we were hit so I never saw it coming… But what was it? I looked up expecting a car and nothing. Looked left out side the driver’s side window, nothing. Last was the rear view mirror and there she was finishing up a doozy of a 360 in the middle of the road before running off into the woods. A quite large deer had T-boned my car! Seriously???
So I scream and pull over. Kate finally says calmly ” mom, what just happened?” I say, “Well honey, I think we just hit a deer.” I get out of the car and couldn’t really believe that we just hit a deer. We have seen them many times over years but not this close but the evidence was pretty clear. There were some scrapes on the door that looked like hoof marks and a dent in the back of the car by the rear door. The deer was gone so I got back in the car and sat for a minute before starting back to the business of getting Kate to school. As I started to pull out I looked out the driver side window to make sure the coast was clear and I noticed a wet spot. I took me a minute before I realized it was a nose print complete with snot just about eye level when I turned my head. Really, snot? Wow. But there was no way that I could have ever seen it coming since it ran right into my car just behind where I was sitting.
Needless to say, Kate and I had quite a conversation about why you look both ways before crossing the road and the importance of paying close attention. She decided that there should have been a fence because deer don’t know they are supposed to look both ways before crossing the street. We are safe and we even made it to school by the end of carpool! I am happy to say the rest of the day ended up going at a much slower place.
Greg and Michelle Foster Blog 