A taste of the days to come

Today was lovely. The sun was shining and it was so warm that much of the snow has melted, at least where the sun could reach it most of the day. The piles, especially the very large ones, are still there, but I can see grass. It's matted, dull and in many places completely sodden, but it's there. I just checked and it reached 54 degrees today—a veritable heat wave. Balmy...heavenly.

It's been an unusually cold winter and getting a taste of the spring to come was wonderful. I even went for a walk after coming home from work. I only needed a sweatshirt and I did wear one of those headband thingies to cover my ears because they're unusually sensitive to cold and wind, even if either or both are slight. I brought light gloves, but only wore them briefly. I eventually had to unzip my sweatshirt. It's been too long since I've been able to go for a walk like that and it was so refreshing.

I did have a scare at the end of it, though. I came home the "back" way—a road that is bordered on one side by vacant land and the other by approximately 12 acres of wetlands. I turned the corner and my heart—and feet—stopped. In the middle of the road, about 40 yards away, I saw what I thought was either a tall dog or some sort of wild animal, like a coyote (I don't even know if we have those around here, but that's what it looked like from a distance). The light was waning and it was hard to make out, but I was literally terrified. (I've had dogs run at me, snarling and barking, while on walks, and I'm now petrified of being attacked by one.) It had definitely seen me since we both stared at each other when I rounded the corner.

As I turned to walk away, glancing over my shoulder for sign of a chase, something else caught my eye off the side of the road. Deer. Probably 6 of them. Oh, thank God. The creature in the road was a small deer NOT a vicious beast. They all saw me and turned back into the wetland area. I thought about continuing that way since I figured they were just as afraid of me, but I decided not to chance it.

My heart was racing and my legs were shaking. In a matter of seconds, even fractions of a second, my flight or fight mechanism was working overtime, flooding my system with needed adrenaline. I decided to put it to use and ran the rest of the way home, back the way I came.

Despite the scare, it was still a great walk. The moon was out and almost full, the clouds were a lovely shade of pink and the promise of spring was in the air.