3.30.2009

roadkill


From the misty mornings til dark the logging trucks blow by on two-lane Highway 99 outside my front door. They don't seem to downshift through town, despite the 40 mph speed limit.
And along the highway is evidence of their passing: squirrels, skunks, deer, snapping turtles, possums, raccoons and, especially, armadillos. My father says there is a reason for the latter: Armadillo eggs split into four and they give birth to quadruplets, thus upping the armadillo population very quickly. (I found myself surfing the web to find out whether armadillos could climb into my truck after the garbage. Answer: they can climb.)
Perhaps the saddest of the animals sharing roads with log trucks is the box turtle. In a certain month (I forget which now) they start getting frisky and crossing roads—very slowly—in search of some action. Public service advisories on the local radio stations suggest stopping, if it's safe, and placing the turtle on the roadside in the direction it's heading. Unfortunately, on these two-lane roads there usually no shoulders and no place to pull off the road without tipping over. So we slalom, and occasionally damage ourselves or other humans.

7 comments:

  1. Be still my heart. Where is THIS building? I must have it.

    I could turn it into an emergency veterinary hospital. Or maybe a taxidermy shop.

    I could call it "Roadside Resurrections".

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  2. I do not understand this photo... where does the road go ? what is this place?etc etc etc...

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  3. This is the view from my deck--see my TV table/--across the street to the River's Edge cafe. The highway (Rt. 99) runs between us, and the river is to the left. Capiche?

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  4. So, is this building for sale?

    What goes on in it?

    Can we get our hands on it???

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  5. I was wrongfully under the impression that the view from the deck was of red dirt lane, mist rising from it in the early morning, the river in the distance, catfish and cottonmouths in the undercut, kudzu hanging off the loblollies, etc., etc.

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  6. What year do you expect google streetview to be coming through?

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  7. Aren't they called "dinner" 0ut there? And aren't those Logging truckers carrying a sliced roll on the passenger seat for "fast food?"

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