Groundhog Day and Random
A groundhog has moved into the park I walk through every morning. It was sitting in the sidewalk yesterday morning. When it saw me coming, it flumphed off (if groundhogs running had sound effects, it would be flumph) behind a tree. It was SNEAKY! I COULDN'T SEE IT! But when I walked around the tree it freaked out again and ran down into the creekbed.
I think this must be a Very Young Groundhog. Or maybe it is just Special Needs Groundhog. It has built its den in the decorative rocks on one side of the creek, right by the low-level water-line. This is the same creek that fills up almost to the little bridge when it rains a lot.
This morning, Special Needs Groundhog was very sneaky, hiding behind a very tiny cedar tree so I couldn't see him. No, really, I am not ALLOWED because he is HIDING! Oh, Special Needs Groundhog. You so silly!
Also, there is a teeny weeny baby bunny rabbit living behind my office building. (He is the Most Adorable Thing EvAr.) My coworkers look at me funny when I break down in SQUEEEEE!
And I did not get the job, and the other one I applied for hasn't called. I doubt they will at this point. Tomorrow is apartment hunting, and maybe picking up job applications for non-University employers.
Harry Dresden, of Jim Butcher's Dresden Files novels (which are GREAT), was researching a case. Something terrible had happened to a boy at school. He had an idea where he needed to go to find the culprit. Calling up the police station, he asked his young female contact to come with him as he might need backup.
~Snip~
I was walking down the side of the highway. It was near midnight, and everything was dark. Up ahead, the Bass Pro Supercenter lit up the night, but those lights didn't reach here. Suddenly, a very deep voice spoke behind me, threatening me. I turned but couldn't see who it was, left with the feeling of that voice burning into my back.
~Snip~
Dresden came to me. He had to get the evidence to convict the criminal. The evidence was hidden in the spots on four astral pugs. The little dogs were owned by several people, so we travelled around town, digital camera in tow. They had odd markings on their heads, and he photographed them, hoping to decipher them once he got home. When we got to dog #3, I happened to pick it up while he was talking to the owner. Cradling the dog in my arm like a child, I was bewildered to see a huge tattoo across it's stomach. Someone had gotten the night sky and a very specific set of stars inked into the small animal.
"Uh, Dresden... I don't think when they said spots they meant like, actual spots."
"What do you mean?"
"Look at this..."
~Snip~
We walked along the side of the darkened highway, but this time she had a flashlight. When the sound of someone running came to us, the woman walking alongside me shone it up onto the shoulder. Running through the grass was a deer, easily twice the size of any I'd ever seen. Its eyes were huge, and its muscles and antlers looked more like something you would see on a caribou than any whitetail. As it ran, the huge antlers seemed to fall off. This was the source of the voice.
~Snip~
I stood on the edge of an overpass, and the deer coming at me, antlers lowered. It was going to knock me off the edge if it could manage it.
~Snip~
We stood in the early morning light in the woods, and David wavered drunkenly in front of us. He had no shirt on, and at some point had gotten a strange tattoo on the lower-left side of his abdomen. Dresden's partner stood facing him, gun in hand, shaking and pale. He kept walking toward her, reminding her of the times they'd had together. She couldn't shoot him. She should come back with him. It would be just like it used to be...
She shot him, and he staggered, falling on his knees in the leaf litter. The pale dawn filtered through the autumn branches around us...
~Snip~
We stood in the lunchroom where it had happened. Children ate quietly, subdued. Dresden was looking at his photos, and his partner clambered down off a ladder, the flap of skin bearing the tattoo in her hand.
I think this must be a Very Young Groundhog. Or maybe it is just Special Needs Groundhog. It has built its den in the decorative rocks on one side of the creek, right by the low-level water-line. This is the same creek that fills up almost to the little bridge when it rains a lot.
This morning, Special Needs Groundhog was very sneaky, hiding behind a very tiny cedar tree so I couldn't see him. No, really, I am not ALLOWED because he is HIDING! Oh, Special Needs Groundhog. You so silly!
Also, there is a teeny weeny baby bunny rabbit living behind my office building. (He is the Most Adorable Thing EvAr.) My coworkers look at me funny when I break down in SQUEEEEE!
And I did not get the job, and the other one I applied for hasn't called. I doubt they will at this point. Tomorrow is apartment hunting, and maybe picking up job applications for non-University employers.
Harry Dresden, of Jim Butcher's Dresden Files novels (which are GREAT), was researching a case. Something terrible had happened to a boy at school. He had an idea where he needed to go to find the culprit. Calling up the police station, he asked his young female contact to come with him as he might need backup.
~Snip~
I was walking down the side of the highway. It was near midnight, and everything was dark. Up ahead, the Bass Pro Supercenter lit up the night, but those lights didn't reach here. Suddenly, a very deep voice spoke behind me, threatening me. I turned but couldn't see who it was, left with the feeling of that voice burning into my back.
~Snip~
Dresden came to me. He had to get the evidence to convict the criminal. The evidence was hidden in the spots on four astral pugs. The little dogs were owned by several people, so we travelled around town, digital camera in tow. They had odd markings on their heads, and he photographed them, hoping to decipher them once he got home. When we got to dog #3, I happened to pick it up while he was talking to the owner. Cradling the dog in my arm like a child, I was bewildered to see a huge tattoo across it's stomach. Someone had gotten the night sky and a very specific set of stars inked into the small animal.
"Uh, Dresden... I don't think when they said spots they meant like, actual spots."
"What do you mean?"
"Look at this..."
~Snip~
We walked along the side of the darkened highway, but this time she had a flashlight. When the sound of someone running came to us, the woman walking alongside me shone it up onto the shoulder. Running through the grass was a deer, easily twice the size of any I'd ever seen. Its eyes were huge, and its muscles and antlers looked more like something you would see on a caribou than any whitetail. As it ran, the huge antlers seemed to fall off. This was the source of the voice.
~Snip~
I stood on the edge of an overpass, and the deer coming at me, antlers lowered. It was going to knock me off the edge if it could manage it.
~Snip~
We stood in the early morning light in the woods, and David wavered drunkenly in front of us. He had no shirt on, and at some point had gotten a strange tattoo on the lower-left side of his abdomen. Dresden's partner stood facing him, gun in hand, shaking and pale. He kept walking toward her, reminding her of the times they'd had together. She couldn't shoot him. She should come back with him. It would be just like it used to be...
She shot him, and he staggered, falling on his knees in the leaf litter. The pale dawn filtered through the autumn branches around us...
~Snip~
We stood in the lunchroom where it had happened. Children ate quietly, subdued. Dresden was looking at his photos, and his partner clambered down off a ladder, the flap of skin bearing the tattoo in her hand.