July 3, 2024
Calm Before The Storm
I woke up at four in the morning just as my wife was waking to study. She turned me right back around and tucked me into bed, where I slept for another hour. When I woke up, I noticed my back was feeling better. That was an early win.
We drank a cup of coffee together, laughing at our typically outlandish conversations. After finishing our drinks, my wife resumed her morning studies while I worked in my office until she was ready to leave. When I walked her outside, we saw a blue fox running toward the tree line to hide. I was excited because I had always wanted to photograph a fox and although there were several living on the property; they remained elusive.
After my wife found her morning medical podcast, she waved goodbye. I directed her attention to the pasture where a whitetail deer was crossing along the fence line. We smiled, and she was off and away. I went back to work in my office, finishing up a writing session.
Growls and barks interrupted my train of thought, and when I looked out the window, I saw the doe and young buck outside. I stepped outside and said hello to them, clicking my tongue to identify myself. After the salutations, I went back inside, watching the deer through the window. The doe stood up on her hind legs, looking like some odd bipedal creature. Standing tall, she stretched her neck to reach the wild black berries left at the top of a bramble.
I took my morning walk into the woods, grabbing a bag of bird food to replenish the feeding area. The thunderstorm had washed away whatever food had remained uneaten, so I sprinkled bird seed around the ground, logs, and branches.
A large dead pine, that my wife recently pointed out as a falling hazard, broke during the recent storm. The thirty-foot tree came apart at the base, landing on the east side of the feeding station, breaking into three large sections. I picked them up, rearranged them, taking advantage of the free props. I felt lucky the fallen tree didn’t knock over the perches I had posted in the area.
The temperature in the forest felt good, even cool. In the distance, I heard wood cracking, probably caused by deer moving through the area. I checked the trail camera that faced the feeding area. There were birds, squirrels, and raccoons that visited, but to my surprise, deer were coming regularly to feed at the station, even though the blind was near. I made a mental note that the deer had become accustomed to the blind.
I headed back home, checked for ticks, and then jumped in the shower to get ready for work. Although today was Wednesday, it was my Friday since I would be off work for the rest of the week. The morning started off busy, but the afternoon was so quiet that I sent myself an email two different times to make sure it was working. It was.
During the day, my wife texted me during her work break. I was expecting her to say the day was boring, but she told me she had just gotten out of the operating room and was heading to another one. Because her cardiology preceptor was off work, they sent her to another place that did surgeries. I remembered how much my wife loved her surgical rotation. I noted in my journal that I was betting she would end up doing this for her career.
During my lunch break, I made a sandwich and took it to the blind, where I sat for an hour. On my way to the blind, walking down the hill behind our house, six deer flushed, their white tails standing up as they rushed north through the forest. When I arrived at the feeding area, four squirrels were running around, eating the bird food I laid out. I zipped myself into the blind and waited.
The entire forest seemed overly quiet, when suddenly, I heard a loud buzzing sound to my left. I turned my head and saw a hummingbird hovering, staring at me from a foot away through the small window in the blind. Then, in an instant, it was gone.
About seventy yards northwest of me, I spotted a herd of deer moving through the forest. They stopped behind a line of trees, probably to bed down. Although I could no longer make out their shapes, splotches of red fur flashed in the sunlight through the trees. I waited to see if they would move to my area, but alas, my lunch hour was ending and I had to go back home. Before I did, two squirrels showed up and got in a nasty fight over the food. In the grove near my home, I came up on three more deer that were moving north. I went inside the house, grabbed some water, and got back to work.
My wife arrived home jazzed about her day. She recounted the surgical procedures she experienced, as well as the friendly dispositions of all the workers there. She said they had a job opening and were interested in her applying for the position. A surgical job on a good team with a decent commute; what was not to like? I was excited for her and happy to see she had dared to look beyond her end of curriculum and national certification exams. She was excited at the prospect of working with this team.
I ran a quick errand in Bailey while my wife changed clothes for dinner. On my way back to pick her up, I saw Garbage out hunting, and hoped the cat would stick around for a few minutes. I didn’t mention the sighting to my wife, but when we pulled up on Garbage she was thrilled, feeding the skinny cat two packages of food.
We ate an early dinner at the Cracker Barrel, where we guessed the average age of the clientele was somewhere between seventy and two-hundred and forty years old. When we arrived home, we parked on the tree line, and when we were about to get out of the car, we saw a small herd of deer approaching in the pine grove.
I turned off the engine, and we sat in the car waiting in anticipation. A doe popped out of the grove and stopped on our dirt road, surveying the pasture for danger. After she determined the area was safe, she proceeded towards the fence, with her new fawn Roku trailing behind her. Mom crossed the fence with ease while Roku sped through it, wary of the wires. When the fawn was through, the young buck came out of the grove, crossed the fence and caught up with the other two deer. It was a great way to end the day.
We were officially off work for four days. This was no time to relax, however. My wife was on a mission to use the time to prepare for her exam on Monday, and I was ready to support her. This four-day weekend would be full of hard work, and that was okay with us. This time next month, school would be over.