May 2, 2024

Mosquitos

I never slept well when my wife was gone, but this morning, I woke up feeling rested and ready for the day. Tomorrow, my wife would be back home. This morning, I chatted with her on FaceTime, before making a hot latte. I had trouble making the foam, so I followed my wife’s advice to make it before the milk got hot from the steam wand on our espresso machine. It worked like a charm.

I took my coffee outside and stood by the railing, looking out into the yard. The grass was getting long and needed to be mowed. I would try to do that this evening before my wife came home tomorrow. The weather was definitely warming up, but this morning felt cool. A thick layer of fog had settled over the pasture and in the forest. It made the woods look even more mysterious.

After drinking my coffee and feeding the dogs, I sat down for an hour to write. Before work began, I did a workout and then took a shower. As I got ready for work, I thought about how warped time felt over the past few years. Medical school disrupted our lives, but was also something we both committed to. One moment, time seemed to move so slowly, and the next, it rushed right by. I smiled, knowing that the weekend was just around the corner, logged into my computer, and got busy with work.

Last night, I wasn’t hungry and didn’t really eat dinner. So this afternoon, I made myself a good hearty meal. During my lunch break, I went outside to heat the Traeger grill. While it was getting hot, I cut up some yellow squash and seasoned it. I also put some short-grained rice to cook and then tenderized a ribeye I had waiting for me in the refrigerator. Twenty minutes later, I was sitting down for an enormous meal. Incidentally, the large lunch meant that dinner would probably be light.

The work day was busy but productive. My wife called me during her lunch break and I was happy that she was in good spirits. Tomorrow was Friday, and we were both excited to meet and hang out together for the weekend. The week apart was finally coming to a close.

After finishing work, I cleaned the backyard, picking up any dog poop and stray toys left in the yard. There were also several pieces of firewood that Axel had carried off to use as chew toys. I returned the logs to their rightful place near the fire pit. The light was still good for photographs, so I grabbed my camera and headed into the forest to see if the deer would be near the creek, a location I had spotted a herd for several evenings in a row.

Instead of heading to the creek bed, I opted to cut across to a large rock that overlooked the small ravine. This rock was much smaller than Beaver Tooth Rock, but it was large enough to stand on, although sitting on a folding stool required a properly, and precariously, balanced chair. Falling off the rock’s surface, which stood six feet above the ground, would not be a fun affair.

The wind was in my favor, and I could hear the hum of farm equipment in the distance. Both the wind and noise helped to mask my presence on the rock. After thirty seconds, I spotted a deer feeding in the tall grasses. Its hindquarters were pointing toward me, and with the telephoto lens on my camera, I could see the deer’s ribs poking through its coat. The deer eventually turned around to face my direction, and I fired off a couple of shots.

As I pulled back the field of view on my zoom lens, I spotted a second deer standing closer than the first. This deer had already detected me and was staring strongly in my direction. She was kind of enough to remain motionless, however, and I pulled some great shots of her. While shooting the photos, I was trying to remain as motionless as possible so as not to startle the deer. Mosquitos were buzzing all around me and I felt them biting my face as I peered through the viewfinder to capture the deer’s image. Those were the times you had to be patient. I wanted to shew the mosquitos away, but if I did, the deer would spook and be gone. After a couple of minutes passed, she barked at me and the two deer ran north. It was an intense and gratifying moment.

As the deer jumped through the tall grasses, I could finally wave off about twenty mosquitoes who had swarmed around my face. I climbed down the rock and made my way toward to creek. When I got to the water’s edge, the doe was still barking, hidden behind the thick brush. Even though the deer had moved north, they remained close, albeit hidden in the dense thickets. Perhaps the doe had a fawn bedded nearby. I bowed my head in a display of gratitude, and then I turned east, making my way up the trails until I arrived back home.

When I got back to the house, I thumbed through my photos, studying them through the viewfinder of my camera. The shots were clean. I put away all my gear, grabbed my work gloves, and the key to the lawnmower, and then pulled the riding mower out of the barn and drove it to the house where I mowed the backyard. A freshly cut yard was good for the dogs and was a pleasure to see when I was sitting on the back deck looking out into the forest. 

The spring winds made the tall pines sway, and helped dry the sweat on my brow, while I cooled off with a cold IPA. Tomorrow evening, my wife and I would rendezvous, as promised, on the back deck with hot pizza and cold beers.