Love and not so love

Ok. So out here in the country, there's a thousand things to adore: country roads with optional speed limits, wildlife, cute little shops. What's not to love?

...except, perhaps, country roads with optional speed limits, wildlife, and cute little shops?

I've resigned myself to the fact that at least once a week, I'll either get stuck behind a tractor or a little old granny going 35 down a 55 mph road. I've also recently had my first experience with being hit by a deer. Yes, that is right. A deer ran into my car. Though I laugh at the irony of it now, it was a night of great sadness for me. It is never a laughing matter to compromise life. After three near misses of these beautiful, majestic creatures almost running out in front of my car on my way home one night, I thought I might be in the clear. Nevertheless, I drove slowly. Regardless, I failed to see the doe hanging out on the side of the road, and when I finally saw it, she was already running towards my car. She managed to turn so that her shoulder hit instead of her head, and then she ran off before I could do anything. I take solace that perhaps she survived because she didn't go head-first. Selfishly, I feel fortunate, as she didn't hit my headlight, nor my passenger door. She hit squarely between in a place where only cosmetic damage was caused. Not worth fixing, in my book. I can care less how my car looks.

It was earlier this night that I discovered another wonder only found in small-town life (and England): weird-ass cute shop hours. I headed out on the fabulous 25-mile trek to the nearest coffee shop, eagerly anticipating some much-needed Skype time with Josh. Upon entering, I noted that the shop seemed unusually empty for 6 in the evening. After a brief conversation with the store manager, I was informed that the shop was only open until 8pm on Tuesdays and Fridays, closed on Sunday, and open until 6pm every other day of the week. It was Wednesday. Silly me...should have known to call ahead. So I was directed to the next-nearest coffee shop....10 miles further than what I had just driven. Oh yes...small towns. I still do love thee, but this shall take some getting used to.

Another note on wildlife: we have baby birds hatching left and right in the barn. Flashback to last week:

Disa and I get to the barn, set up the trapeze, and start warming up on the mats. We've become quite good at blocking out the constant chatter of the multitude of birds with whom we share the space. We notice a fluffy blob hopping around off in a corner. We assume it's an injured bird that cannot fly anymore. It starts hopping towards us. As it comes closer, we notice down. It's only a baby. "Aww...cute little thing," I say, "must just be learning how to fly." It takes a few flaps, moves about two feet forward, and lands with a bounce. It continues to cross close in front of our mats. And suddenly, it's no longer a cute fluffy thing. It's now a down-covered monster who's beady little eyes just locked horrifyingly with mine. It lets out an exhilarated SQUWAK and starts erratically bounding towards me. I shriek and run the other direction. Disa dissolves into fits of laughter making no move to save me from impending doom. "It thinks you're it's mother!" she chokes out as she gets up to chase it off.

The next day....

We see our feathered friend up on a rafter. It takes a few jumps, flaps hard, and barely makes it to the next one over. We coo over how it's improved a lot since yesterday. We go about our business setting up our space for the day. We keep a small cardboard box at the barn which holds our various necessities. I wave "hi" to the little one perched nearby as I rummage through the box, pulling out our rigging equipment. And suddenly, I feel it's eyes intently focused on me. It squaks, and I look over my shoulder quickly enough to see it drop from the rafters and dive straight towards me. I shriek and run almost tripping over Disa. It lands in the rigging box...which elicits another long chorus of screams from both me and Disa....Disa screaming less because of the bird, and more because she has a flailing Sora falling all over her trying to get away. It pokes it's tiny head out, wondering what all the commotion is about.

Yay wildlife.