Hit and Run

Being a professional driver, my travels take me all over this city.  Even in my former professions, I found myself traveling the highways and bi-ways of our fair province, so I've had the privilege to see many great things.  I've gotten to see a wild bison.  That was cool.  I had a near-miss collision with a moose.  That was an interesting experience.  I've even gotten to see the midnight sky, lit up by the dancing Aurora Borealis.  Unfortunately, there are some things I wish I hadn't seen.

The first time I ever drove solo as a long distance courier, a small bird flew in front of the van I was driving and sadly, before I had a chance to slow the vehicle, the bird had tried to fly out from in front of me, but I clipped it with the radio antenna and (thankfully) it was killed instantly.  I had to pull over to remove the little bird from the antenna, as it's neck had fractured and was still attached to the van.  I recall crying real tears as I knelt on the side of the road, this little bird lying before me.

Driving transit, I've seen many deceased carcasses on the road.  Birds, dogs, cats, etcetera.  Yesterday, I saw a small fox lying at the side of Lowe Road just before you enter into Evergreen in Saskatoon.  The needless loss of life, broke my heart, but because it was a fox, it reminded me of the time I was leaving Tisdale, heading south on highway 35.  I passed by a scene that would have staggered even the most callous of hearts.  It appeared that a mother fox had been hit by a car, but instead of running for safety, her two kits stayed by her side, ultimately being run over themselves.  It was a horrifying scene and a memory I wish I would lose quickly.

In addition to that wild life, I'm seeing lots of birds about town.  These ones baffle me, but I suspect that they're swooping down to grab the carcasses of the gophers that are strewn about on the streets.  Wherever there's a park or a field, there's sure to be dead gophers about.  I understand the plight of the birds.  I recall once upon a time, driving a former bosses car back from Winnipeg, when I struck an owl that was swooping down to grab a quick meal.  Instead it lost it's life and my boss needed to replace the grille in his VW Golf.

Worst thing I've seen, to date, was this morning.  I was driving by a fresh kill.  So fresh that the lower extremities of this poor little soul, was flattened by whatever motor vehicle happened by, it's limbs still flailing.  It horrified me and shook me to the very core of my being.

Given the size ratio of a gopher to a motor vehicle is gargantuan.  A forty foot transit bus weighing over 42K lbs, is no match for much of anything, especially a little gopher.  On Friday morning I was heading south on Preston, when a little fella ran out in front of me.  I damn near lost control of the bus as I hit the brakes.  I missed it, but felt it wasn't long for this world and yep!  On my next pass by that part of the street, it had, in fact, been hit and the magpies had already descended down for their feast.

One early morning in 2017, I was driving past an acreage outside of Birch Hills.  They had two dogs, one a large shaggy white dog, while the other was a wiry black short-haired dog.  They would often stand at the edge of the property and bark at passing traffic, even pursuing a foot chase on occasion.  On this particular morning, I saw the two dogs, only their attention wasn't aimed at the traffic.  Instead, I saw that the large shaggy white dog was motionless, laying on it's side, while the black dog was laying perpendicular, with it's head resting atop of it's pal.  My heart broke. 💔 It was apparent that during one of their foot chases, the white dog had been hit and was deceased.  My heart goes out to anyone who's lost a pet, especially when it's a hit and run case, like this seemed to be.

A few days later, I was passing that same acreage outside Birch Hills, when I was greeted by the same duo, standing out on the edge of the property, tails wagging and barking at passing vehicles and equipment.  "What the hell?" I thought, to myself.  I don't know the motive behind the dogs putting on that display prior to this day, but I thought they must have some kind of sense of humour.  Silly dogs.

I don't handle death very well.  People are one thing, but animals, man!  I can't deal with that shit.

A Ballistic Projectile Explodes

Every second Tuesday, I try to meet up with friends to go see a movie and tonight was no different.  I followed my usual route, which has become almost routine, always without incident, however, tonight I had me a small fright.

There was a good song on the radio, to which I had the volume turned up and I was singing along with the singer.  Images of what the words meant were scrolling across my imagination, but as vivid as my imagination tends to get, I never take my focus off the road in front of me, nor the streams of traffic around me.

Apparently, the woman in the car next to me, must've been deep in thought, too, only her mind and attention were miles away, as she signaled and turned into my lane, almost striking my front quarter-panel.  I laid on the horn quite heavily, and she slammed hard on the brakes, avoiding an inevitable collision.  At the same time, I noticed a small dog in the back seat, an innocent victim in all this, whose face struck her head rest quite firmly, before his little head disappeared behind the door.

I was upset at this woman's ignorance and failure to shoulder check, but I was more concerned for the little dog.  Happy-go-lucky, one moment, looking out the window at a strange and wondrous world, then hurt, maybe even injured or concussed, the next moment.  I have an affinity for animals, as most do, I'm sure, so my concern was on that dog.

For the remainder of my trek down this street before I had to turn off, took less than twenty seconds, but my thoughts of the pooch lasted long than that, stretching over the hours since, to this very moment.  The image of that dog's face being smooshed into the seat back, keeps replaying in my head, in slow motion.  The poor puppy.

I bet the stupid woman blamed me for her ignorance, which is fine, but worse yet, probably hasn't even acknowledged that her dog became a ballistic projectile, exploding behind her.  I hope he's okay.

Dead Silence

"As it was going down it was getting louder and louder and then all of a sudden it was just quiet." described an eye witness via telephone interview Monday, "When it hit the ground, I didn't see it, but then there was just dead silence."

Saturday morning two planes collided in the skies over the small town of St. Brieux, Saskatchewan, and while such plane crashes, similar to this, crash all over the world, there are usually mitigating circumstances involved.  Normally some evidence that would point investigators in the right direction, in hopes of solving the mystery of why two perfectly good aircraft, with two (presumably) capable pilots, met with such tragedy.  As of the writing of this piece, nothing clear has been released by investigators.

The mystery that plagued me, though, ever since first learning of this tragedy this morning, is how the f*ck is it possible for two planes to collide head-on?  If the air space over St. Brieux was congested with hoards of flying aircraft, one could plausibly concede that such traffic would be a contributing factor to the crash.  However, being that St. Brieux (and area) is practically in the middle of nowhere, chances are that this factor is not a contributor to the accident.

So how the hell do you suppose that the ONLY two airplanes in the sky for virtually hundreds of miles around, managed to plow into one another.  I speculated that one was flying out of the direction of the sun and the other was flying into it, but according to authorities, and given the time of day, this simply was not the case.  So I am baffled.  Not to 'toot my own horn', but I'm pretty good at deciphering a good mystery or puzzle, but this one's got me hooped.

All I know is the odds of something like this occurring, have got to be greater than winning the lottery.  That's like the only two people standing in a desert, firing a gun into the air and winding up shooting one another to death.  Astronomical odds and they managed to do it.  It is senseless.  Senseless that five innocents had to lose their lives, including that of an eleven year old boy, due to a fluke.