A bike ride
Tuesday, June 10, 2008-- 8:46pm
Posted by Bar


Hi Everybody. I was thinking about you all when I wrote this tonight......

June 10, 2008

It’s really hot here.  Our house’s internal temperature was 89.6 degrees 
this afternoon.  We don’t have air conditioning, so I keep fans going 
and manage pretty nicely, but on days like today, I don’t move around 
much.  I sat at my desk and wrote all day.  I finished the last chapter 
of my book this afternoon (which doesn’t mean that I’m done, it just 
means that I wrote the last chapter.  There’s plenty in the middle 
that’s still not written, but I’m getting there!) 

By 5pm, the ink in my printer was gone and I didn’t have a spare 
cartridge, so I decided to run in to town to buy one.  Then it occurred 
to me that it was a good day to ride my bike, gas prices being what they 
are.  So, I got out a water bottle, put on my helmet and rode my squeaky 
bike 3 miles in to town (a ride that is slightly downhill in the 
outgoing direction).  

I got to the office supply store, bought my ink, said hi to a few 
friends and then continued in a big circle through town that would 
eventually get me home.  On my way, I passed the cemetery where Forrest 
is buried, so I took a detour in there to visit him.  I was delighted to 
find that someone had been there in the last few days and had left him a 
little truck.  It amazes me (and I am really moved and grateful) that 
people still visit him and think to leave him a present.  

I left Forrest after a few minutes and continued on my way.  I was 
riding down the road when a gold Honda passed me and went around the 
curve in front of me.  When I got to that same bend, I could see a bird 
struggling in the road that had just been hit.  It was trying to fly, 
but it had nothing left.  I got off my bike, and told the bird that I 
would help her, and she relaxed.  I put a stick to her feet to see if 
she would grab on so that I could lift her, but her life was quickly 
leaving her, so I picked her up and held her in my hand.  As I did so, a 
car pulled up.  It was the young woman who was driving the Honda.  She 
had turned around to check on the bird.  She knew she had hit it and she 
wanted to rescue it.  I told her that the bird was going to die and not 
to worry – that it happened and there was nothing to be done about it.  
She was very upset.  Meanwhile, the bird went limp in my hand.  I told 
her that the day before a bird had crashed into my studio window and it 
too had died.  I’d buried her in the leaves after Peter identified her 
as a Verio.  I still didn’t know what kind of bird I was holding when I 
left it under a tree by the side of the road.  

On my way home, I cried.  It is such an honor to be with an animal as 
they die.  I was glad to have been there to give her comfort in her last 
moments.  She died peacefully and not terribly painfully.  In another 
mile, I saw a deer to my left about 10 feet off the road.  When I looked 
closer, I could see her fawn beneath her feet.  The baby had just been 
born.  She could hardly stand and couldn’t yet walk.  I stopped to look 
at them both and they stared at me as the mother munched away on my 
neighbor’s garden.  The mother finally ran off, and when I looked at the 
fawn, she had laid herself down flat in the long grass – a natural 
instinct that she followed in the first hour of her life to protect 
herself from danger.  

For the rest of my trip, I couldn’t help but be thankful for the 
contrast of the two things I’d just seen, and the beauty of it all that 
I would have missed if I had been driving myself.  Sometimes I wonder if 
this pace that we all keep is really taking more from us than it gives 
back.  I don’t have an answer, but I know that I was glad to have ridden 
my bike today.  

When I got home, I told Peter about the bird, and my description of it 
didn’t help him to identify her for me, so I used up the gas I’d saved 
by taking Peter to the spot where my bird was lying peacefully.  He 
immediately recognized it as a Brown Thrasher – a bird not often seen 
around here.  She was beautiful with her brown wings, her white 
underbelly dotted with brown specks and her fabulously long tail 
feathers.  

A couple of hours later, a storm is brewing here.  My plants are poised 
for a good shower and I’m headed to bed after a very good day.  

I hope the heat is tolerable where you are. Have a good week.

Love,
Bar